Oriana Smy

Communications and Marine Debris Specialist

Oriana is an experienced communicator and project manager and graduated from the University of Victoria with a BA Honours degree in Anthropology with an interdisciplinary focus in Environmental Studies. Her previous studies in Digital Production fuelled her interest in a variety of media outputs including photography, videography, writing, and graphic design.

Oriana joined the Ocean Decade Collaborative Center (DCC) for the Northeast Pacific in June 2023 and has coordinated communications projects, hosted a “Decade Dialogue” on Marine Debris, launched the “People of the Ocean Decade” series, and dove head first into the UN Ocean Decade Challenge #1: To Understand and Beat Marine Pollution with her current project working on a marine debris knowledge synthesis to highlight projects, policies, and perspectives surrounding marine debris in the Northeast Pacific.

Concurrently to her time with the DCC, Oriana is a graduate student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) completing a Masters degree in Anthropology. Her research on marine debris encourages cross-cutting themes and interdisciplinary studies in the Institute of Oceans and Fisheries (IOF) and the Institute of Resource Environment and Sustainability (IRES). She is also a contributor to the Ocean Pollution Research Unit (OPRU) at IOF and a member of the Center for Climate Justice. Her current graduate research focuses on the impacts of marine plastic pollution, primarily “ghost gear,” on small-scale artisanal fishers and rural coastal communities in the Baja Peninsula of Mexico, and incorporates ocean equity through an interdisciplinary and social science lens.