Mark Fina, a leading regulatory analyst for more than a
decade with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Anchorage, is
leaving that post to join US Seafoods in Seattle to work on regulatory issues.
In an announcement posted in early January, US Seafoods
President and Chief Executive Officer Matthew Doherty said that the regulatory
environment in which US Seafoods operates continues to grow in complexity and
that Fina’s legal, economic and analytical expertise “will be invaluable for
charting a safe course through it.”
Chris Oliver, executive director of the federal council,
said in a staff memo that he wishes Fina all the best and congratulates US
Seafoods on an exceptional hire, but at the same time this is a major blow to
the council staff.
“Mark has been nothing short of a phenom to our council
process and has guided us through many very complex management programs in his
10-plus years here,” Oliver said, who has posted the job opening on the
council’s website, www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc
The job description reads in part: “Primary responsibilities
will be to participate as part of an analytical team in support of the
council’s initiatives to develop and modify management programs for the
multi-billion dollar, federally managed groundfish and crab fisheries off
Alaska. Economic and social impact analyses, including cost benefit and
economic impact and distributional analyses of several different management
approaches will be required.”
Fina will remain on staff through mid-February, so he will
be at the council’s February meeting in Portland, but he will not be working on
any issues that have a potential bearing on his new employer.
This means he will not be doing any further work on the
Central Gulf of Alaska trawl catch share program, or such things as the Bering
Sea/Aleutian Islands flatfish specifications flexibility package.
He will however still work on crab issues, and will be
staffing that agenda item at the February meeting.
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