Claire Gonzales

Claire Gonzales was born and raised in Northern California, where she developed her passion for understanding and exploring marine habitats by becoming a PADI Divemaster. In 2015, she graduated with her B.S. in Biology from Duke University before moving on to conduct fieldwork in the United States Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Puerto Rico, and along the California coast. Afterwards, Claire joined the teams at Blue Latitudes and Wood Environment and Infrastructure, focusing on exploring alternate uses for offshore structures and their impact on underwater ecosystems, especially along the California coast. She is also a founding member and Officer on the Board of Directors for the Blue Latitudes Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building innovative approaches to marine conservation.

Claire is dedicated to investigating how humans can interact sustainably with the marine environment. In her work with the Froehlich Lab, Claire is researching the interactions between ocean sectors off the coast of California and management tactics that can make them more compatible, or even synergistic. Specifically, Claire is examining the potential of co-location of aquaculture and renewable energy to act as a tool that reduces ocean space-use conflicts and increases marine resource-use efficiency.