The Juneau and Seattle-based organisation, a coalition of seafood processors, harvesters, support industries, coastal communities and CDQ groups that are active in Alaska fisheries, is marking its 10th anniversary with new priorities and initiatives, as well as a new director.
The Alaska-raised Burden comes to the MCA from an extensive fisheries background, including time on the water as well as on land, where he worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Pacific Fishery Management Council.
Most recently, Burden was the senior fisheries economist for the Environmental Defense Fund.
The new director feels privileged to be heading up the organisation; Im expecting us to achieve some big things over the next few years, Mr Burden said, and am looking forward to helping chart a course which enhances MCAs impact in the pursuit of sustainably managed fisheries through the use of science.
Among MCAs current and new priorities are catch share programmes, bycatch management, Steller sea lions, habitat, and coastal and marine spatial planning. Mr Burden will also head up the MCA Foundation which continues to work on marine debris cleanup and cooperative research on important issues including crab tagging, information collection in the scallop fishery, and the intersection between fishery activities and right whales.
Merrick Burden will be based in Seattle with an office at Seattle Fishermans Terminal
MCA Announces New Director
US - Merrick Burden has been named the new Executive Director of the Marine Conservation Alliance (MCA).
