Mary-Lynn is the Director, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Program in the Geological Survey of Canada, who along with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Global Affairs Canada, are tasked with defining Canada’s continental shelves beyond 200 nautical miles. On May 23, 2019 Canada filed its Arctic Ocean submission and proposed outer limits of its extended continental shelf with the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, representing the culmination of a decade of research.
Mary-Lynn holds degrees from Dalhousie University (BSc Hons), Memorial University of Newfoundland (MSc) and Oregon State University (PhD). Prior to joining Natural Resources Canada, she held research and management positions at universities in the United States and Canada. She has conducted oceanographic research in the Arctic and Antarctic and in all the oceans in between. She participated in the 2015 Canadian Polar Expedition and was chief scientist of the 2016 Canada-Sweden Polar Expedition, Canada’s final UNCLOS seabed mapping survey in the Arctic Ocean.
