Dr. Tom Pickerell, director of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain (SAGB), has been appointed senior science manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.
The position he will take up in mid-September is within the Sustainable Seafood Initiative at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s division of Conservation Outreach.
Pickerell will be responsible for the overall scientific approach of the Seafood Watch program through the development and implementation of its scientific framework for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture. The position oversees the scientific analysis and decision-making process for consumers and major seafood buyers, supervises the program’s fisheries and aquaculture managers and the research coordinator.
He will also collaborate with external colleagues on a diversity of sustainability issues and act as a primary spokesperson for Monterey Bay on the science and policy of sustainable seafood.
The Seafood Watch program raises consumer awareness on the subject of sustainable seafood, encouraging restaurants, retailers and distributors to purchase from sustainable sources. Since 1999, it has distributed tens of millions of pocket-sized seafood-buying guides; its iPhone application has been downloaded more than 240,000 times, and it has close to 200 partners across North America, including the two largest foodservice companies in the United States.
Pickerell has been SAGB director for two years. Previously, he spent two years as shellfish development manager running the Shellfish Industry Development Strategy (SIDS) program.
SAGB expects to announce his replacement as director in due course.
