Sandra Diamond - Texas Tech University
Dr. Diamond holds a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University in Fisheries Ecology. She has over 20 years of experience working on marine fisheries issues including more than six years with the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) as a Marine Biologist and six years as a faculty member at Texas Tech University. While at CDFG, she worked on population dynamics of marine species, and for three years, ran the offshore observation program in the drift gillnet fishery for sharks and swordfish. Her work has primarily focused on bycatch, including the population-level effects of bycatch mortality on marine mammals in gill nets, juvenile fishes in shrimp trawls, and regulatory discards in reef fish fisheries. She is currently chairperson of the Finfish Stock Assessment Panel and a member of the Science and Statistical Committee for the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. She has interacted extensively with fishermen, scientists, and conservationists in addressing conflicts related to the management of commercial and recreational fisheries.

Georges Fraser - Mantane Shrimpers Allocation (Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada)
Acadian born, Fraser has been around the cold water-shrimp industry for 30 years as a deck hand, captain, instructor, boat owner, general manager and share holder in the Matane shrimp plant. His three sons fish his 60-foot vessel while he manages from shore and runs a small fishing gear supply shop. He has been president of the Matane Shrimpers Association for more than 10 years and holds a teaching license.

Alejandro Gonzalez Cruz - Instituto Nacional de la Pesca
Alejandro Gonzalez Cruz obtained his bachelor's degree in Engineering from the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas in 1993. From 1996 to 1999, Mr. Gonzalez worked as Assistant on the project: Evaluation and Management of the Brown Shrimp (Farfantepenaeus aztecus) Fishery in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico for the National Fisheries Institute (Instituto Nacional de la Pesca - INP) in Tampico, Tamaulipas. From 1999 to 2001, he served as Chief of the Information Department for the INP in Tampico, and from 2001 to the present he is Director of the INP's regional office in Tampico. He has participated in numerous studies on the Brown Shrimp fishery, presented at annual conferences to discuss migration, abundance and status of the fishery, and presided over the research justifying the establishment of the Closed Season for the shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Mexico.

Howard M. Johnson - H.M. Johnson & Associates
Howard M. Johnson is president of H.M. Johnson & Associates, an Oregon-based seafood planning, marketing, market research and publishing company. His clients include U.S. government and international agencies, financial institutions, non-governmental organizations, leading seafood corporations and commodity marketing organizations. Mr. Johnson has over 30 years experience in seafood sourcing, sales, marketing, market research and strategic planning. He has assisted companies and organizations to develop marketing plans and strategies and been involved in start-up seafood and aquaculture projects in Southeast Asia, Central and South America, Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. He is a former director of the National Fisheries Institute. Mr. Johnson is the editor and publisher of The Annual Report on the United States Seafood Industry, an authoritative reference on seafood trends. He recently co-authored Sourcing Seafood, a Professionals Guide to Procuring Ocean-Friendly Fish and Shellfish. Mr. Johnson serves on the technical advisory board of the London-based Marine Stewardship Council, an independent non-profit organization promoting responsible fishing practices.

Robert Jones - Southeastern Fisheries Association Bob Jones has been executive director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association for 42 years. He has served on numerous commissions and advisory groups including the US State Department Law of the Sea panel which preceded the Magnuson Act. He served six years on the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council where he was vice chairman for 4 years and chairman for one year. He is currently a member of the US Coast Guard Advisory Committee, the Florida Food Safety Task Force and teaches HACCP courses throughout the region. One of his current projects is to persuade state and federal agencies to stop backdoor sales of seafood and to stop product substitution, especially when a foreign seafood product is substituted for a domestically harvested product.

Phillip Lara - Bay King
Captain Phillip Lara lives in Corpus Christi, Texas, with his wife and four children. He manages his family's business, Bay King, which operates several bay and Gulf shrimping and fishing vessels and a seafood house. Captain Lara has more than 15 years of experience working as a shrimper and commercial fisherman. He has frequently testified before Texas lawmakers and plays a leading role working with state regulators on improving fishery management.

Mario R. Ramade Villanueva-FEDECOOP
Mario R. Ramade Villanueva is an oceanologist specializing in marine resource administration. He received a bachelor's degree from the Autonomous University of Baja California, and a Master's in Fisheries Ecology from the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education of Ensenada, B.C. Since 1991, he has worked in the fisheries department at the Federation of Cooperatives of Baja California (FEDECOOP). His principal function is that of liaison between government authorities managing the fishery and the fishers, carrying out administrative activities and management of the species important to the cooperatives affiliated with FEDECOOP. Mr. Ramade is also charged with monitoring and reconciling annual capture quotas for benthic resources with the National Fisheries Institute (INP).

Robin Riechers -Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
Robin Riechers is Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's science and policy director for its Coastal Fisheries Division. He has been working in fisheries management and policy for over 16 years with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He currently is the Director of the Science and Policy Branch for the Coastal Fisheries Division, which is responsible for designing and developing research programs and management strategies to insure the long-term sustainability of the coastal resources of Texas. Robin has served on many state and federal advisory panels dealing with fishery management issues and currently serves as the Texas Coastal Fisheries representative on the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. His primary research activities have focused on the research and evaluation of the human dimension aspects of both the recreational and commercial fisheries of Texas. Recent emphasis has been in the development of license management programs for the inshore commercial shrimp, commercial crab and commercial finfish fisheries, which were the first comprehensive limited entry programs in Texas fisheries.

Louise Savard - Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Canada)
Savard holds BSc and MSc degrees from Laval University in Quebec City. She has worked for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans since 1982 as a fisheries biologist, section head for Invertebrates and Experimental Biology and has served as Senior Biologist since 1998. Dr. Savard is responsible for the Gulf of St. Lawrence shrimp stock assessment and is the science advisory to the Gulf Shrimp Advisory Committee.

Ewell Smith - Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board
From New Orleans, Ewell Smith is the executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. Prior to joining the Board in 2000, Ewell was a marketing manager for the Southern Forest Products Association, an international trade association representing the Southern pine industry. He earned his degree in psychology from Louisiana State University and his MBA from the University of New Orleans.

Eugene A. Talbott - Research Strategies, Inc.
Eugene (Gene) A. Talbott founded Research Strategies, Inc. in 1986. Research Strategies, Inc. is a Primary Consumer & Business-to-Business Market Research Company conducting both qualitative and quantitative research in some 44 different business categories. Gene was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi near New Orleans and has a degree in Marketing and one in Mechanical Engineering. His brand development career started in New York City with Marstellar, Inc. (the world's sixth largest advertising agency) and BBDO - New York (the world's third largest advertising agency). His brand management assignments while based in New York included several Fortune 50 companies. Gene's new product development and research experience also included a number of food and seafood companies like Bryan Foods, Sara Lee Foods, Cal-Maine, Gulf City Fisheries, Gulf/South Atlantic Fisheries, National Sea, Sysco, White Swan, Gordons Foodservice, etc. Today Research Strategies, Inc. has 72 employees and works with clients across the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Michael C. Voisin - Motivatit Seafoods, Inc.
Michael C. Voisin lives in Houma, Louisiana. He is owner and general manager of businesses including Motivatit Seafoods, Inc., an oyster farming, seafood, harvesting, processing and distribution company; Wine Island, Inc., which is involved in oyster harvesting; Captain Salty's Seafood, Inc., a seafood distribution company in Vernon, CA; and Innovatit Seafood Systems, L.L.C., a seafood technology licensing company. Mr. Voisin contributes to the efforts of many industry, government, and university organizations such as Louisiana Oyster Dealers & Growers, Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference, Gulf and South Atlantic Fisheries Foundation, Terrebonne Parish Economic Development Consortium, Louisiana Restaurant Association, Southeastern Fisheries Association, Louisiana Seafood Processors Council, Gulf Oyster Industry Council, Louisiana Oyster Task Force, Louisiana Oyster Lease Damage Evaluation Board, Louisiana University Marine Consortium Foundation among others.

Armando T. Wakida Kusunoki - Instituto Nacional de la Pesca
Armando T. Wakida Kusunoki obtained a bachelor's degree in Oceanology in 1990 from the Marine Science Department at the Autonomous University of Baja California in Ensenada. He specialized in Natural Resources Administration at the same university from 1990 - 1991, and went on to receive a Master's degree in Coastal Oceanology from 1994 - 1996, also at the Autonomous University of Baja California. He completed a Master's Thesis in 1996 entitled Modeling Fishing Effort in the Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche Shrimp Fleet. He has obtained additional training in shrimp virology, shrimp pathology, recruitment, fisheries management and stock assessment, and attended a lobster fisheries management workshop in Havana, Cuba. He has presented at 18 conferences throughout Mexico and internationally, and authored or co-authored 10 papers. Mr. Wakida worked as an Aquaculture Technician for the Fisheries Secretary in Ensenada, Baja California from 1990-1993, as a researcher at the Campeche office of the National Fisheries Institute (INP) from 1993-2001, and from 2001 to the present time is the Sub director for Fisheries Resource Management in the Atlantic at the Campeche INP office.