Staff

Latitude 42’s expertise is based on the skills of its Directors, Katrina Jensz, and Barry Baker. The company engages the skills of various specialist sub-consultants for tasks outside its principal areas of expertise.

Katrina Jensz

(B.Sc. Australian National University 1985) Katrina worked for 15 years with the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Heritage (including its precursor organisations, the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, Australian Nature Conservation Agency and Environment Australia) where she gained extensive experience with interpretation and administration of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). She specialised in the management of threatened species and, in particular, her work focused on development and implementation of recovery plans for threatened species and ecological communities, threat abatement plans for key threatening processes, wildlife management plans to resolve wildlife/human interactions, and providing advice on potential impacts of proposed developments on threatened species. Katrina has extensive experience in compiling and coordinating literature reviews and issues papers addressing population status, distribution and threats to threatened species. She also has worked extensively in interpretation and administration of conservation legislation and is currently working on various environmental issues under contract to Australian and New Zealand government departments. Projects have included development of EPBC Act guidelines for wind farm development proposals; ecological risk assessments of the import of ferrets and hybrid cats; review of recovery plans for threatened Tasmanian birds, fish and plants; development of educational materials for the Grey Nurse Shark recovery program; preparation of issues papers for 10 threatened seabird species; and provision of expert advice in describing the ecological character of four Ramsar wetlands sites.

Barry Baker

(PhD, University of Tasmania)

Barry is a specialist in the management of threatened species of vertebrates, particularly seabirds and mammals. His work over the last 30 years has focused on wildlife management and conservation biology of threatened and non-threatened species, including harvest of native wildlife, management of fisheries bycatch, and risk analysis of the impact on birds and bats from windfarms. His expertise extends to a diverse range of threatened species including albatrosses and petrels, koalas, kangaroos, turtles, dugongs, micro bats, flying foxes and seals.

Within the wind energy space, Barry has had a long-term involvement working with the national regulator (Commonwealth Environment Department, currently the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water – DCCEEW) where he was employed from 1980 to 2006, and with the private sector over the last 20 years. In 2008, Latitude 42 developed Significance Guidelines for Wind Farms, to assist operators in the wind farm industry to decide if proposed actions require referral under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). Since 2020 he has undertaken numerous risk assessments for the Australian regulator, the private sector and non-government organisations to assess risk and determine data requirements to manage, monitor and mitigate the environmental effects of both onshore and offshore wind farms on birds and bats.

Since 1995 Barry has been involved in a range of projects that seek to find solutions to wildlife interactions within the fishing industry. This has included assessment and mitigation of bycatch of seabirds, marine mammals, turtles and sharks in commercial fisheries. With the Australian Government he worked with fishermen and others to progress development of two underwater setting devices and line-weighting regimes to mitigate seabird bycatch across Australia’s pelagic longline fisheries. He subsequently worked on the development and testing of a range of bycatch mitigation measures for longline, trawl and gillnet fisheries, including the Kellian Line Setter, the Smart Tuna Hook, mesh colour in gillnets and excluder devices for turtles and marine mammals in trawl gear. Through his work on bycatch mitigation with the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), he has developed and maintained strong networks globally in the bycatch and mitigation development field. Barry has also attended many tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisation meetings where he was tasked with developing and implementing seabird bycatch conservation measures as a representative of the Australian government, ACAP or CMS.

Barry has an outstanding knowledge of Australian birds, exemplified by his work as a co-editor the Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020, and co-author of all seabird accounts (40 species) included in the Action Plan. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and many reports dealing with various aspects of wildlife management; ecology of birds and bats; management of threatened species, and the conservation biology of Australasian seabirds.

Barry continues to hold several advisory positions with international, regional and specialist fisheries and conservation organisations, including ACAP and CMS. He also holds associate research positions at the University of Tasmania and Charles Darwin University, and is a Fellow of BirdLife Australia.