Dennis Hansford, 2009 IFOMC Conference Chair

Dennis C. Hansford received his Bachelor of Science in Biology from Lincoln University in 1979. Prior to graduation, he worked as an intern at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Woods Hole, MA. After graduation, he continued to work at the Science Center aging Winter and Yellowtail flounders, Silver hake, and Redfish. He was a certified research diver for the Manned Undersea and Technology Division, served as the Watch Chief and member of scientific parties for Resource Survey Cruises onboard scientific survey vessels, Albatross IV and Delaware II. He deployed on foreign and domestic commercial fishing vessels as an observer, trained observers on data collection methodologies, species identification, and identification of various fishing gear types, coordinated observer coverage for gillnet, pelagic longline, lobster, and trawl fisheries in the Northwest Atlantic from Maine to Rhode Island for the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program. In 1999, Dennis moved to Silver Spring, MD to become part of Science and Technology, National Observer Program. In this capacity, Dennis coordinates with regional observer programs through the National Observer Program Advisory Team to address common regional issues on a national level, i.e. observer training, safety, data quality, data requests, funding, and outreach.
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Gavin Begg, Ph.D., Australia

Gavin Begg is the Program Leader of Fisheries and Marine Sciences at the Bureau of Rural Sciences, Department of Agriculture Fisheries & Forestry, Australia. He is responsible for leading a team of scientists who provide scientific advice and information on domestic and international fisheries and marine environment issues that underpin Government policy. Prior to BRS, Gavin was at the Australian Fisheries Management Authority where he led the observer and other data collection programs responsible for monitoring Commonwealth fisheries. He has also worked on population and fishery dynamics of exploited tropical and temperate marine fish stocks, stock identification, management strategy evaluation, and resource allocation in Australia, Iceland and the US.
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Lisa Borges, European Commission

Lisa graduated in Marine Biology and Fisheries from the University of Algarve, Portugal in 1995. After completing her Master in Fisheries from the University of Porto, Portugal in 1998 she started working in IPIMAR, the Portuguese Fisheries Institute, on international groundfish surveys. After two years she moved to the Marine Institute in Ireland. In the MI she worked on stock assessment but also managed the data from the discard observer's programme, trying to improve data quality and sampling methodologies. In Ireland she also completed a PhD analysing discards from demersal fisheries. In 2005 she took up a position in IMARES, the Dutch Fisheries Institute, where she again worked in stock assessment and on discards from pelagic fisheries. In the beginning of 2007 she decided to take up a considerable challenge by moving to the European Commission in Belgium, to work on conservation policy for fish stocks in Atlantic waters. She is responsible, among other things, for legislative proposals on reducing discards in European fisheries.
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Teresa Turk, USA

Teresa Turk is a fisheries biologist with NOAA Fisheries, the Office of Science and Technology, National Observer Program in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. She received her B.S. in Zoology and M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Arkansas and her M.S. in Fisheries Science from the University of Washington. Ms. Turk's career has focused on improving fisheries at sea data collection, quality, transmission and analysis through the use of automated and electronic data collection software and hardware in both fisheries independent surveys and observer programs. Prior to joining the Office of Science and Technology, Ms. Turk was the team leader for the Northwest Fisheries Science Center's survey program and has led or participated in survey operations throughout U.S. waters and Antarctica. Ms. Turk started her career in fisheries as an observer working aboard Russian trawlers in the Bering Sea in Alaska. Later she participated as a domestic observer aboard crab and scallop vessels, was an observer field coordinator for a private contractor. She designed the Northwest Fisheries Science Center's groundfish observer program prior to joining the Office of Science and Technology in 2003. Ms. Turk has served as a member of the International Fisheries Observer and Monitoring Conference steering committee since 2000.
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Andrew France, New Zealand

Andrew France is the Development Officer for the Ministry of Fisheries Observer Programme, based in Wellington, New Zealand. Most of his work is focused on new initiatives, in particular the design and registration of an observer specific qualification and the design and implementation of an electronic data entry at sea system. He is also involved in arranging and overseeing recruitment and training processes for observers. His association with the Observer Programme began in 1993 when he was employed as a sea-going observer. In 1996 Andrew became a shore based member of the Observer Programme, arranging observer placements upon vessels, briefing, debriefing and training observers. In 1997 he moved into the role of managing the Observer Programme, which he did for 7 years before taking on his current role.
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Charles Gray, Ph.D.

Dr Charles Gray is the Deputy Director of the Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre and the Research Leader of the NSW Department of Primary Industries’ Wild Fisheries Research Program in Australia. Charles currently leads a team of scientists and technicians investigating the biology and ecology of key recreational and commercial fish and invertebrate species, fishing gear technology, and observer- and port-based surveys and assessments of the fisheries resources of NSW. Charles has had hands-on involvement in observer- and port-based monitoring and assessment programs of estuarine and coastal fisheries for over 15 years. In particular, he has extensive experience running observer programs in small-scale fisheries. Charles has contributed papers and attended the last 3 International Fisheries Observer Conferences and has published more than 50 scientific papers concerning fisheries resource issues.
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John P. LaFargue, USA

John LaFargue has a degree in Fisheries Biology from Humboldt State University. He has observed in the North Pacific Groundfish, SW Drift Gillnet, and SW Sink Gillnet observer programs. In 2001 he helped implement the West Coast Groundfish Observer Program and is currently the logistics coordinator and lead safety trainer. John is an Alaska Marine Safety Education Association (AMSEA) trained safety trainer. He is the liaison for the International Fisheries Observer and Monitoring Conference Safety Working Group and sits on the National Observer Program Safety Committee. John has been working with other U.S. observer programs to facilitate cross training between safety trainers to raise the caliber of safety training and build a stronger “safety culture”. He hopes to expand cross training to programs outside of the United States. John has been part of the Conference Steering Committee since 2001.
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Howard McElderry, Canada

Howard McElderry received his M. Sc. in marine biology in 1980 from the University of Victoria, BC, Canada. He is a founding member of Archipelago Marine Research Ltd. and has been a senior partner in the firm for 28 years. Howard has worked extensively in the field of commercial fisheries monitoring and analysis and played a lead role in the development of Archipelago's at-sea observer programs and shore-based monitoring programs. Over the past ten years Mr. McElderry has led the development of Archipelago's electronic monitoring programs, a technology-based approach for provision of at-sea monitoring. Howard was the chair of the 2007 International Fisheries Observer Conference in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
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James M. Nance, Ph.D.

Dr. James Nance received his Ph.D. in Biology from Texas A&M University. He began working for the National Marine Fisheries Service in 1985 and has served as the Chief of the Fishery Management Branch at the NMFS Southeast Fishery Science Center's Galveston Laboratory since 1994. His primary research area has been the management of the shrimp fisheries of the Southeastern United States, with secondary focus on Southeastern bycatch issues. His involvement with observer programs began in 1992 with oversight of the Southeastern shrimp trawl observer program. He currently serves as the Science Center Lead for all the observer programs conducted in the Southeast, and is the Southeast Regional representative on the National Observer Program Advisory Team.
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Miguel Niguen Carranza, MSc, Peru

Miguel has been working in the Peruvian Marine Research Institute (IMARPE) since 1980, monitoring anchovy fisheries, the most important fishery in Peru, and nowadays one of the largest fisheries in the world. In the year 2000, Miguel was appointed Director of Pelagic Resources Research for two years, and later he directed the Population Dynamics of Pelagic Resources Research Unit in 2002. Today he is the General Director of Pelagic, Neretic and Oceanic Resources Research, managing and monitoring fisheries and assessing biological parameters of several pelagic populations such as Peruvian Anchovies, Pacific Mackerel, South Jack Mackerel, Tuna, Seabirds, Sea Lions, and other pelagic species. He closely supervises the Logbook and On-board Observer Program for Industrial Purse Seiners since its establishment in 1994; a program that has significantly grown since then, and implemented several new components that go beyond conventional fisheries monitoring towards an ecosystem management approach, including recruitment and population assessments of Peruvian Anchovy, discard estimates, interaction with predators, among others.
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Mark Showell, Canada

Mark Showell is a senior assessment biologist with the Population Ecology Division, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. He graduated from the University of Guelph in the 1980's, with a BSc and MSc in Zoology. Mark has been involved with Observer programs since the beginning of his career; he now combines these experiences with his role as a stock assessment biologist, but still maintains the Observer data collection and storage system for Scotia-Fundy region.
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Amy Sierra Van Atten, USA

Amy Van Atten is the Operations Coordinator for the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program (NEFOP) at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole Massachusetts. Amy has worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service since 1991. She has a Wildlife Biology and Forestry Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts and a Master of Science degree from the University of Maine Orono, in Wildlife Management. For several years, Amy worked at the Alaska Regional Office and managed the Alaska Marine Mammal Observer Program, conducting surveys and observations of bycatch in the salmon gillnet fisheries in Kodiak and Southeast Alaska. Amy has also worked on marine mammal surveys in Antarctica for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. In her current position, Amy manages the NEFOP and the Industry-Funded Scallop Observer Program, which covers commercial fisheries from Maine through North Carolina on the East Coast of the United States. Amy is a member of the National Observer Program Advisory Team and is working with the Electronic Monitoring Committee. Amy is actively involved with several Take Reduction Teams to assess and minimize marine mammal bycatch in commercial fisheries. Amy follows upcoming management and regulatory changes that may affect fisheries in the Northeast. Among her current projects, she is working with the New England Fishery Management Council’s Herring Plan Development Team on a new amendment to the Herring Plan. Amy is also the Outreach Coordinator, developing outreach materials and involving the program in industry, science, and maritime events.
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Greg Workman, Canada

Greg Workman is a groundfish research biologist with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo BC. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Victoria in 1986 and has been with the department since 1989. He is the science contract authority for DFO's Pacific Region At-Sea Observer Program. His primary responsibilities include organizing and implementing several large scale multi-species groundfish bottom trawl surveys each year, developing or acquiring new technologies for at sea data collection and supervising DFO's port sampling program. Early on in his career he occupied a variety of positions including working as an observer on the Japanese high seas salmon drift net fishery.


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