International Seafood Sustainability Foundation

Members of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) serve to review information and provide analysis. The Members do not develop policy and any involvement with the Foundation does not imply endorsement of policy decisions. The SAC ultimately provides reference material for the Board of Directors to consider prior to taking action, although actions taken by the Board are not always based upon the counsel of Committee Members.

Dr. Victor Restrepo – Chair

Dr. Restrepo currently serves as Chair of the ISSF Scientific Advisory Committee. Previously, he worked with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

Dr. Restrepo has also served as the Chief of the NOAA/NMFS Sustainable Fisheries Division in the southeast USA, where he acted as head scientist of the USA Delegation to ICCAT. He has also spent time as a Population Dynamics Expert at ICCAT, as an Associate Professor at the University of Miami and as an IPA Research Specialist at the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Office of Science and Technology in Silver Spring, USA. He has also attended numerous scientific meetings of ICCAT, ICES, NAFO, FAO and US, and chaired ICCAT working groups on Precautionary Approach and Stock Assessment Methods.  In addition, he has also served as the Chairman of GFCM-ICCAT working group on Mediterranean Large Pelagic Fishes.

Dr. Restrepo holds a PhD in Population Dynamics from the University of Miami, as well as a BSc in Marine Science and Biology from the University of Miami.

Dr. Meryl J. Williams – Vice Chair

In 2009, Dr Meryl J. Williams initiated FishWatch-AsiaPacific on behalf of the AFS.

She is also currently involved in several non-executive positions, including member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility, Chair of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research Commission and member of the Scientific Steering Committee for the Census of Marine Life. From 2004 to 2005, Dr. Williams served as the inaugural Executive Officer of the Future Harvest Alliance Office of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. From 1994 to 2004, she was the Director General of the WorldFish Center, concentrating the Center focus on eradicating poverty, improving people’s nutrition, and reducing pressure on the environment.

Dr. Williams was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Science, Technology and Engineering in 1993, and awarded an Australian Centenary Medal in 2003 for her contributions in marine science to Australian society and government. She has also written over 80 research papers, technical reports, conference proceedings and books.

Dr. Williams holds a B.Sc. from the University of Queensland and James Cook University, a Diploma in Education from the University of Queensland, a PhD in both Zoology and a Masters in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Queensland.

Dr. Robin Allen

Dr. Robin Allen retired from the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) in 2007 and currently serves as the Executive Secretary of the Interim Secretariat for the International Consultations on the establishment of the proposed South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization.

During 1999-2007 he served as Director of the IATTC, the regional fishery management organization responsible for the conservation of stocks of tuna and tuna like species in the eastern Pacific Ocean. He was responsible for the research of the scientific staff and for the stock assessment and management advice provided to the Commission. The management of the fisheries of the eastern Pacific in the face of increasing fishing capacity is the major fisheries management issue faced by the Commission.

Allen was born in New Zealand and studied mathematics and statistics before starting work as a fisheries statistician. He completed his PhD in fish population dynamics at the University of British Colombia, and subsequently pursued a career in fisheries research and management with the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. He held positions of Director of Fisheries Research and Assistant Director General (Fisheries Policy) in New Zealand, and played a significant role in the introduction of the New Zealand Quota Management System.

Dr. Laurent Dagorn – Senior Scientist Institut de Recherche pour le Développement

A French senior scientist working for the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (France), Laurent Dagorn has published about 60 scientific papers, of which more than half were in peer-reviewed international journals. He has been working on fish aggregating devices (FADs), with a special emphasis on the behaviour of fish at these FADs, for about 20 years. He has spent about 12 years in the Pacific (French Polynesia, Hawaii, California) and Indian (Seychelles, La Réunion) oceans, collaborating with various scientific organisations and is currently based in the Seychelles.

After completing the coordination of a European Union project (FADIO) on the behaviour of fish at drifting FADs in 2006, Laurent Dagorn is currently the coordinator of a major EU funded project (MADE) dealing with the mitigation of adverse ecological impacts of open ocean fisheries (tuna purse seiners and longliners) in the Indian ocean, Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

Dr. Richard B. Deriso – Chief Scientist, Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission

Dr. Deriso presently serves as the Chief Scientist for the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission. Before accepting his most recent position at the IATTC, Dr. Deriso has served as the Chief Scientist of the Tuna-Billfish Program (IATTC), an Associate Adjunct Professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UCSD), an Ocean Studies Board member at the U.S. National Research Council, an Affiliate Associate Professor of Fisheries at the University of Washington, a Scientific and Statistical Committee member of the Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council, a Population Dynamicist at the International Pacific Halibut Commission, and a Visiting Research Assistant Professor of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

Dr. Deriso has also served on several committees and working groups, including groups with ICES, FAO, NAS, OSB, and NRC. He is also a Past co-chairman of the NRC Committee on Fish Stock Assessment Methods.

Dr. Deriso holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University, an M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in Biomathematics from the University of Washington.

Dr. John Hampton – Program Leader, Ocean Fisheries Programme (SPC)

Dr. Hampton serves at the Manager of the Oceanic Fisheries Programme (Secretariat of the Pacific Community), where he manages fisheries stock assessment and population dynamics research. Previous to his time at the SPC, Dr. Hampton was the Principal Fisheries Scientist for the SPC’s Oceanic Fisheries Programme, an Experimental Scientist, at the CSIRO Division of Fisheries Research, and a Biologist at the Fisheries Division of the Department of Primary Industry in Australia.

Dr. Hampton holds a BSc (Hons) from James Cook University of North Queensland, and a PhD from the University of New South Wales, where his research focused on population dynamics and fishery management of southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii).

Dr. Gerald Scott – Senior Advisor, NOAA-Fisheries Southeast Science Center

Dr. Scott is a senior advisor on the US NOAA-Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center’s (Miami, FL) resource assessment research programs and conducts stock assessment research that supports domestic and international management decisions on Atlantic large pelagic fisheries resources. From 2005-2010, he served as the elected Chair of ICCAT’s Standing Committee on Research and Statistics and was previously the Chief US scientist to ICCAT.

Dr. Scott has extensive experience, spanning more than 25 years, conducting quantitative stock assessment research on a diverse set of resources including Atlantic tunas and tuna-like species, marine mammals, coastal migratory pelagic, and reef resources.

He holds a PhD (Biological Oceanography) from the University of Rhode Island and an AB (Zoology) from the Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Dr. Dale Squires – Senior Scientist and Economist, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, U.S. Dept. of Commerce

Dr. Dale Squires presently serves as the Senior Scientist and Economist for the National Marine Fisheries Service, also carrying out his duties as an Honorary Professor at the University of Southern Denmark and as an Adjunct Professor of Economics at the University of California San Diego. Previous to his work with the National Marine Fisheries Service, Dr. Squires served as a visiting scientist with the WorldFish Center, as well as on the U.S. Delegation to Renegotiate South Pacific Tuna Treaty and as the Pacific Fisher Mgmt Council Leader of the Highly Migratory Species Plan Development Team.

Dr. Squires has co-authored six books and written over 75 academic papers.  He has a Ph.D. in Resource Economics from Cornell University, and an M.S. and B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from UC Berkeley.

Dr. Iago Mosqueira – Fisheries Scientist, EC JRC, Ispra

Dr. Iago Mosqueira is a fisheries scientist at the European CommissionJoint Research Centre in Ispra, developing and testing methods forrisk-based management of marine fisheries under uncertainty. He hasparticipated in the scientific work on various tuna RFMOs assessingthe status of tropical tuna stocks. He chaired the Working Party onTropical Tuna of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission between 2005-10.

He previously held positions as Fisheries System Modeller at CefasLowestoft, UK, and at AZTI Tecnalia, Basque Country, Spain, asprincipal researcher on tropical tuna. He has also taken part invarious European research projects on stock assessment and fisheriesmanagement.

Dr. Mosqueira holds a BSc in Ecology from the University of EastAnglia, and a PhD in fisheries science from Imperial College London.