2007 Judges

Takafumi Arimoto

Dr.Arimoto is Professor of Fish Behavior in the Department of Marine Bio-Sciences at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology (TUMSAT) formerly known as Tokyo University of Fisheries.

He directs education and research activity in Fish Behavior and Physiology in relation to Capture Technology, both at undergraduate and graduate level. He was also actively involved in the International Affairs Committee at TUMSAT charged with establishing a global academic network for research and education on fisheries science and was a Council member of the Asian Fisheries Society and at present of the Japan Society of Scientific Fisheries.

He is also a member of the steering committee for the 5th World Fisheries Congress on "Fisheries Global Welfare and Conservation" to be held in Yokohama Japan in October 2008. Dr Arimoto has extensive experience of worldwide fisheries having extended sabbatical visits at the Marine Laboratory in Aberdeen, Scotland (1985) and the Australian Maritime College (1996) working on fish swimming behavior and trawl by-catch reduction devices.

His education includes a Masters on Schooling Behaviour of Fish (1974) and a PhD degree from the Tohoku University on Capture Mechanisms of Coastal Bottom Longline (1985).

Steve Beverly

Mr. Beverly is a longtime fisherman who has worked as a longline tuna fisherman, spiny lobster fisherman, commercial diver and tugboat operator in Hawaii; done exploratory fishing for bottom fish and crayfish in Australia, New Zealand and the Pitcairn Islands; fished as a commercial longline fisherman Fiji and Guam; and was a master fisherman for SPC in New Caledonia.

His work at SPC has included several fish aggregating devices (FAD) projects and a two-year tuna longline project in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea as well as several FAD workshops, and fish-handling workshops. Beverly became a full-time fisheries development officer with SPC in March 1996.

Matt Broadhurst

Matt Broadhurst has worked in several research positions for different agencies throughout the world, including three years with the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco at Recife, Brazil. His current position is Principal Research Scientist with the Fisheries Conservation Technology Unit of the NSW Department of Primary Industries in Coffs Harbour, Australia.

Matt has about 18 years research experience with commercial and recreational marine fisheries that mostly encompasses the mitigation of unwanted fishing mortalities, and other negative impacts of fishing. This work is summarized in more than 75 scientific papers that Matt has written and published in international scientific journals and a similar number of other reports in various forms of media.

Charles Cheng

Charles has always been interested in animal population biology; he is involved in several research projects in his laboratory, such as the conservation biology of seabirds and a computer simulation project on the outbreak and control of rabies in Taiwan, the only rabies-free state in Asia.

Based in Kaohsiung, the most prosperous high sea fishing harbor in Taiwan, he enjoys good relationships with the fishermen and promotes the ideas of seabird conservation with friends.

Since 2002 he has served as the president of the Wild Bird Federation of Taiwan (WBFT) and has developed a task force, which proposed a national seabird conservation program. He is also a member of the Steering Group for the Global Seabird Programme, BirdLife International. In 2006 Taiwan's national plan of action for seabirds was prepared and Charles was one of the people invited to edit the draft.

Charles holds a BSc and an MSc in entomology from the National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan. He received a PhD in insect ecology from the Imperial College, University of London in 1985 and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan (1985-1991). Since then he has been an associate professor at the Department of Biology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Chris Glass

Dr. Glass is Director of the Northeast Consortium and Research Professor in the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire. A specialist in animal behavior and marine biology, Chris Glass has a long record of conservation gear research in New England’s Fisheries, and has recently been appointed Director of The Northeast Consortium.

The Northeast Consortium provides funding for cooperative research programs involving fishermen and the scientific community within the ecosystems of The Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank.

Prior to joining The Northeast Consortium, Chris served as Director of Marine Conservation at Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences where he specialized in the study of fish behavior and applying knowledge of this subject to develop more selective fishing gears directed at reducing bycatch and discard in commercial fisheries while minimizing environmental impact of fishing operations.

Previously Chris worked for 14 years at The Marine Laboratory in Aberdeen, Scotland and has worked extensively on bycatch reduction and conservation engineering programs throughout Europe and North America. Chris has been a featured lecturer on sustainable fisheries topics at numerous international conferences and has published extensively in scientific journals.

His education includes a B.Sc. in Marine Biology and Animal Behavior from The Queens University, Belfast and a Ph.D. from The University of Glasgow.

Dr. Glass is an appointed member of the joint Mid-Atlantic and New England Fishery Management Council Survey Trawl Advisory Committee, inaugural Chair of the Northeast Fishing Technology Expert Working Group and Convener of the International Council for Exploration of the Sea, special scientific symposium on Fishing Technology in the 21st Century (Boston 2006).

Gary Graham

Professor Gary Graham, Marine Fisheries Specialist, has served with the Texas Sea Grant/Cooperator Extension Program since 1970. He began his career in fisheries in 1966 when he entered the commercial shrimp industry to supplement funding for his education at Texas A&M University.

Mr. Graham graduated with a B.S. in 1969 and continued to fish commercially until his employment with the university. Since that time, he has been actively involved in research and extension throughout the southeast region of the Gulf of Mexico.

He attained Professor with the Texas A&M Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences in 1996. He is credited with a number of projects to include introduction of the quad trawl system in the shrimp fisheries, introduction of bottom and pelagic longlines in the Western Gulf, development and introduction of high technological fibers to the trawling industry.

In the past 20 years, Mr. Graham has been actively involved in the introduction and development of turtle excluder devices and bycatch reduction devices in the shrimp industry and has focused much effort on technology transfer of these gears to the shrimp industry. He also worked cooperatively with the shrimp industry to develop a comprehensive atlas to pinpoint over 12000 bottom trawl obstructions extending from Brownsville to the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Mr. Graham serves on a number of committees that include Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council committees, including the Shrimp Advisory Panel, the Red Snapper Advisory Panel, and Ad Hoc BRD Committee.

He has served on the Sea Turtle Conservation Committee and the Cooperative Research within National Marine Fisheries Service Committee of the National Academy of Sciences. Mr. Graham chairs the Gulf & South Atlantic Fisheries Foundation Industry/NMFS Committee on gear research.

Norman Graham

Dr. Graham is based at the Marine Institute in Galway, Ireland and manages of one of the demersal stock assessment teams responsible for provision of scientific advice on the status of commercially important stocks.

He holds a Ph.D. in by-catch reduction and stock impacts of discarding (Humberside). Previously, he has worked for fishing technology departments in both Scotland and Norway and until recently was chair of the ICES-FAO Working Group on Fishing Technology and Fish Behaviour. He has published in a number of international journals on the topic of by-catch and discard reduction and the incorporation of selective fishing techniques in management plans. Prior to commencing his academic career he worked as a commercial trap and trawl fisherman.

His recent research has focussed on the importance of fishing gear technology within effort and fleet based management plans, the setting up of surveys using commercial fishermen and the incorporation of their knowledge into scientific advice. He is an advocate of the multi-disciplinary approach to fisheries assessments and involves professional fishermen, gear manufacturers and other stakeholders in his research projects where possible.

Martin Hall

Dr. Hall has been the head of the Tuna-Dolphin Program of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission since 1984. He has performed original research on dolphin behavior related to bycatch in tuna nets, and his findings have been used in developing methods to reduce dolphin bycatch.

The fishers education program, together with the widespread adoption of improved gear and procedures, resulted in dolphin mortality reductions of close to 99%, without reducing the productivity of the fishery. Dr. Hall has also been directly involved in developing and implementing the international agreements that address the tuna-dolphin issue.

In recent years he has developed, in cooperation with WWF, NOAA, national fisheries agencies, and local and international conservation groups, a program to reduce sea turtle mortality in the longline fisheries of the eastern Pacific that is currently underway in most countries of the Pacific coast of America, from Peru to Mexico.

His publications in recent years center on bycatch issues in general, and the strategies and approaches to implement successful mitigation programs. He has presented papers at numerous scientific and management conferences, and organized well over a hundred workshops for fishers, on bycatch problems and solutions.

Philip MacMullen

Philip MacMullen has worked in the fishing and seafood industries for nearly 30 years. He has 25 years' experience in the management of very diverse research and development programmes focussing on fish harvesting technology and the interactions between fisheries, the broader natural environment, management regimes and the market.

He also has extensive knowledge of the seafood industry in the UK, continental Europe and elsewhere plus consultancy experience in the Middle East and the Americas.

In early 2005 Philip was appointed Head of Environment at Seafish. This new post was built on his existing skills and experience. Much of his current work involves encouraging dialogue between the disparate stakeholders that have an interest in the marine environment, looking for the factors that are driving their policy decisions and exploring supply chain solutions where there are problems in sustainable or responsible sourcing.

Much or this involves working with the major players in the multiple retail and food service sectors, with regulators and conservationists and with fishermen and their representatives.

Charlotte Mogensen

Ms. Charlotte Mogensen is currently the Head of section at the Danish Directorate for Food, Fisheries and Agri Business, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Denmark working on fisheries research and development aid for fisheries.

Prior to this Ms. Mogensen worked as Fisheries Policy Officer at WWF European Policy Office, Brussels advising the WWF network on aspects of the Common Fisheries Policy, involving a wide range of fisheries management issues including technical measures in relation to bycatch and discard of commercial and non-commercial species.

She was also a Marine Species Adviser for the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, UK governmental agency advising on recovery of stocks in relation to precautionary management of fish stocks including sharks and deep-sea fish stocks nationally and internationally. Ms. Mogensen is currently the Regional Vice Chair for the Northeast Atlantic region of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group.

James Ogbonna

James joined the Federal Department of Fisheries in Nigeria in 1976 and started off as a field officer supervising the activities of small-scale fishermen in 2 states (Sokoto and Niger States) in the North West of Nigeria.

He worked in 4 more states in Nigeria (between 1979 and 1985) as field officer and apart from supervising the development of small scale fisheries activities, his responsibilities included that of initiation of aquaculture development through the development/construction of model fish farms at various strategic positions in those states.

During this time he briefly worked as a co-manager of Panyam Fish Farm in Plateau State (North Central Nigeria) which was then under an FAO supervised Project on Fish Farm Development. Since 1985 his responsibilities have been on industrial fisheries activities.

He is the supervising officer of the Coastal Fishery Terminal Borokiri Port-Harcourt Rivers State (Niger Delta Region of Nigeria) where over 100 fishing vessels come for shore-based services monthly. These vessels are also inspected for compliance with conditions for access to the bunkering of fuel at the government owned terminals and also compliance with the use of appropriate gear for their operations.

In 2000, James was made Head of Individual Division of the fisheries Department ensuring compliance with the Nigerian fishing Regulations in terms of controlling capacity and access through the issuance of appropriate fishing licenses.

He also co-ordinates the activities of the GEF\UNEP\FAO-Tropical Shrimp Trawl Project, whose main focus is the reduction of the environment impact of shrimp trawling fisheries through the use of by-catch reduction devices and changes in management.

Dr. Andrew Revill

Dr. Andrew Revill is Senior Scientific Officer at CEFAS (The Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science), which is a multidisciplinary scientific research centre.

Dr. Revill specializes in fishing gear technology and the biological and economic impacts of technical measures. Dr Revill is a national advisor on such issues and leads and or participates in many national and international fishing gear-related research areas. He is an active member of ICES including the Fishing Technology and Fish Behaviour Working Group.

A principal area of Dr. Revill's research is the reduction of the adverse benthic impact of fishing gears by technical modification to fishing gears. He also works on discard/bycatch reduction techniques, technological modifications to fishing gears, evolution of abandoned fishing gears, efficacy assessments of technical measures (pre and post introduction), and selectivity enhancement.

Prior to joining CEFAS in 2002, he held research posts in two British universities. He holds a B.Sc. in fisheries (Humberside), M.Sc. in aquaculture (Stirling) and a Ph.D. in applied fisheries (Humberside). In his earlier years Andy was a commercial diver and also served for a period in the Royal Navy.

Tim Werner

Tim Werner is a Senior Research Scientist at the New England Aquarium, and Director of the Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction, a group of engineers, fishermen, and biologists engaged collaboratively in the research and development of alternative fishing techniques that reduce the bycatch of threatened marine species.

Before joining the Aquarium in 2005, Tim served as a senior director at the environmental non-profit organization Conservation International, where he oversaw programs that supported the creation of marine and terrestrial protected areas in Latin America and the South Pacific, and developed "eco-businesses" with rural communities.

With a long-standing interest in tropical marine environments, he has organized and led field expeditions involving wildlife biologists and fisheries scientists to document coral reef biodiversity in Indonesia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Brazil.

In addition to his focus on bycatch reduction, Tim is part of an international team of scientists funded by the National Science Foundation to study the biology and management of sea cucumbers. Tim holds graduate degrees in Marine Zoology from University of Maryland, and in Business Management from Stanford University where he was a 2001 Sloan Fellow.

Paul Winger

Dr. Winger is the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Resources (CSAR) at the Marine Institute of Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. He holds a Ph.D. in fish behaviour and fishing gear technology and has published a number of papers in scientific journals.

He has a broad knowledge of fisheries issues with experience in the areas of species- and size-selectivity of fishing gears, reducing bycatch and discard of unwanted species, impacts of fishing on the environment, and resource assessment of emerging fisheries.

Technical Advisor - John Watson

Currently the Leader of the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Centre's Harvesting Systems and Engineering Branch. Watson has been at NOAA and its predecessor agency since 1969 and during that time has conducted extensive research on fishing and fisheries sampling gear.

Mr. Watson has designed and supervised cooperative industry projects to develop selective harvesting systems and conservation technologies including turtle excluder devices for U.S. and international shrimp fisheries, bycatch reduction devices for shrimp trawls, selective harvesting seines for the aquaculture industry, bycatch mitigation technology for the pelagic longline fishery and improved resource survey technologies.