Chris Oliver has been named assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries in the US.
Mr Oliver will oversee the management and conservation of recreational and commercial fisheries including some aspects of marine aquaculture, the preservation and maintenance of safe sources of seafood and the protection of marine mammals, marine protected species, and coastal fisheries habitat within the US exclusive economic zone.
He said: “I understand how important stakeholder involvement, transparency, and best available science are to making the right policy decisions and I plan to ensure those tenets of the Magnuson-Stevens Act are applied across the board while I am leading the agency.
“I intend to rely heavily upon the regional expertise of the eight fishery management Councils and the associated NOAA Fisheries Regions and Science Centers, and to ensure they have the resources necessary to effectively tackle region-specific issues.”
Mr Oliver most recently served as executive director of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, a position he held for the past 16 years. He has been with the Council since 1990, also serving as a fisheries biologist and then deputy director.
During his time as executive director he led the way on the development of limited access privilege programmes and fishery cooperatives and catch share programmes, the North Pacific’s onboard observer programme, numerous bycatch reduction programs, extensive habitat protection measures, commercial and recreational allocation programmes, and coastal community development programmes.
Through his long-time participation in the Council Coordination Committee and various international regional fishery management organisations, Mr Oliver gained extensive knowledge of the national and international fisheries issues facing the agency.
John Connelly, president of National Fisheries Institute, stated: “NFI looks forward to working with the new Assistant Administrator to ensure NOAA continues to base its decision making on sound science and works to more compellingly communicate its sustainability successes. NOAA’s oversight is in and of itself a success story and no one knows that better than Chris Oliver. Americans are ready to hear more about the ongoing success of domestic fisheries.”
Mr Oliver takes over from acting assistant administrator Samuel Rauch, who will return to his position as the deputy assistant administrator for regulatory programmes.
