Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Fina Departs Fisheries Council for US Seafoods Job


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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