The Pew Environment Group has announced the recipients of the 2011 Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation.

Each of the four fellows will receive $150,000 over three years to conduct scientific research or a conservation project that addresses a critical challenge to healthy oceans. This year's projects include efforts to map genetic patterns in dolphin populations, measure the economic and ecological tradeoffs of removing small fish species from the ecosystem, establish protected marine areas in the Chilean fjord region, and analyze common threads in communities that prioritize environmental conservation.

The 2011 Pew Fellows are Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute and professor of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University; Timothy Essington, associate professor at the University of Washington's School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences; Vreni Häussermann, scientific director of the Huinay Scientific Field Station in the Comau Fjord in Chilean Patagonia; and Andrea Sáenz-Arroyo, scientific director at Comunidad y Biodiversidad A.C. (COBI) in Mexico.

"We are proud to welcome this exceptionally talented group of ocean conservationists into the Pew Marine Fellowship Program this year," said Pew Environment Group managing director Joshua S. Reichert. "They've each proposed innovative projects that will help foster greater protection for ocean life and habitat in the years ahead."