Fiona MacLean

(formerly Gower) is the Director of her own company, MacLean Marine Identifiers (MMI). With over 30 years of experience working with invertebrates, both in New Zealand and overseas, Fiona provides clients with expert taxa identification and analysis for monitoring environmental conditions. She is a strong communicator and has delivered numerous public talks on aquatic life. Fiona has extensive experience in parataxonomy, voucher collection, microscope photography, and reporting on large ecological datasets.

When did you form MMI and who do you work with?

In early 2023, after 16 years at Cawthron Institute in Nelson, I decided to form my own independent company, MacLean Marine Identifiers. I continue to work with many former clients, Regional and District Councils and other independent ecology businesses. In the last few months, I have been processing samples and identifying fauna at monitoring sites from Nelson Haven, Northland, Taranaki and Napier estuaries.

Other significant project involvements / achievements?

I worked with NIWA and Regional Councils as a Key Provider to the Coastal Special Interest Group ( C-SIG) to create a taxonomic Resource Tool for New Zealand’s soft sediment estuarine and coastal benthic intertidal and shallow subtidal invertebrate identifications. https://specieskey.atlasmd.com/

As part of this project, I provided images for the tool and authored the recommended user guides and identification guidance.

I continue to be part of the C-SIG tool Working Group, to enable updates to the tool and for the site to continue.

I collaborate closely and am supported by mollusc experts based at Te Papa Tongarewa (Bruce Marshall, Kerry Walton), and crustacean and polychaete experts based at NIWA.

I attend and present at International Polychaete conferences (IPC), Malacological conferences and New Zealand Marine Society (NZMS) conferences.

International collaboration with ecologists, taxonomists and marine invertebrate identifiers.

Can you tell us a fun fact about your work?

I recently discovered a new species of gastropod in some areas of New Zealand I am hoping they are not named after me because they are associated with biogenic substrata.

Professional memberships/affiliations

New Zealand Marine Sciences Society
Annelida; global group of colleagues researching Annelids, particularly marine polychaete worms
Malacological Society of Australasia
Coastal Special Interest Group ( C- SIG) species tool working group
Porcupine Marine Natural History Society