Mariska Bottema is the Blue Food Lead in the Ocean Program. In the Friends of Ocean Action platform, coordinated by WRI and the World Economic Forum, she leads work on sustainable aquatic food systems.

Prior to joining WRI, Mariska worked on sustainable seafood and aquatic resource management from various perspectives. She worked as a market analyst at a start-up specialized in warm-water shrimp, developed and implemented a research project studying aquaculture value chains in Southeast Asia at Wageningen University, and worked as a marine policy and governance advisor at ARCADIS. She started her career at the World Wide Fund for Nature, where she managed six coastal conservation and fisheries projects in the Caribbean, Central and South America.

Mariska was born in Bogor, Indonesia, and holds a Ph.D. in sustainable aquaculture governance from Wageningen University. She enjoys swimming, snorkeling and doing yoga in her spare time.