The Freezer Longline Coalition in Seattle has hired federal
policy professional Chad See as its new executive director.
See fills the slot vacated when Kenny Down left to become
the new president and chief executive officer of Blue North Fisheries Inc., a
coalition member.
See was previously with the global law firm K & L Gates
LLP, and spent 12 years as a member of the firm’s public policy and law group
in Washington DC.
See has over a decade of experience in developing coalitions
and advocating to federal officials in presidential administrations and in
Congress. He has also served on the staffs of US Senators Patty Murray, D-WA,
and John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W VA.
While with K&L Gates, See’s work included efforts on
behalf of the fishing and commercial maritime industries in the Pacific
Northwest, including outreach to the federal Department of Commerce,
congressional delegations for Washington and Alaska and others to support
industry priorities.
Kenny Down, a veteran of over 30 years in North Pacific
fisheries, joined Blue North Fisheries in late August. He has for years been
instrumental in steering policies of the freezer longline Alaska cod fishery. Blue
North Fisheries owns and manages five freezer longline fishing vessels
operating in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, and several other fishing
vessels.
The Freezer Longline Coalition is a non-profit corporation
that represents owners and operators of vessels participating in the freezer
longline sector of the Pacific cod fishery in federal waters of the Bering Sea,
Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska. The coalition promotes public policy
facilitating the orderly, sustainable harvest of Pacific cod and other
groundfish species, and supports research and education about the longline
fisheries.