By Peggy Parker/March 23, 2026
Amid comments from NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñeiro Soler for “better council members” at the regional fisheries management councils, both Governors Mike Dunleavy of Alaska and Bob Ferguson of Washington submitted their preferred nominations for two seats on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC).
That council oversees 26 federally-managed species caught in Alaskan waters, including the nation’s largest fishery, Alaska pollock. Taken together, about 30% of the nation’s total seafood production is managed by the 11-member NPFMC.
Dunleavy nominated Märit Carlson-Van Dort, the current chair of the Alaska Board of Fisheries, to replace Ryuichi “Rudy” Tsukada, CEO of the CDQ group Coastal Villages, after his first term expires this August.
Marit Carlson-Van Dort
Ferguson nominated Jamie Goen, an incumbent member of the North Council who is ending her first three-year term this August. Members may serve three terms, for a total of nine years, before being replaced.
Jamie Goen
Piñeiro Soler’s comments at the Seafood Exhibition North America (SENA) in Boston were critical of a few of the nation’s eight regional fisheries management councils after conference participants complained that commercial stakeholders are getting short shrift.
The event was a listening session hosted by the Southeastern Fisheries Association, whose members rely on the resources managed by both the Gulf and South Atlantic Councils. Industry stakeholders in the audience raised issues with the NOAA director on the lack of industry representation on the New England council as well.
Steven Rash of Florida-based Water Street Seafoods brought the issue up first, and Piñeiro Soler was quick to agree that there needed to be better representation on those councils, according to an article by SeafoodSource.
Earlier in his career, Piñeiro Soler served on federal councils and international commissions. He was chair of the Caribbean Fishery Management Council from 2001 to 2010, served on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the International Whaling Commission, and the Marine Protected Area Federal Advisory Committee.
Piñeiro Soler was astonished that not one member of the Gulf Council is a commercial shrimper. “You have 17 members and don’t have one shrimper?,” he asked. “That cannot be. That is a travesty. But, it’s up to you to give me good candidates.”
He explained that the governors nominate candidates for the councils, and the federal government can only select members from the names it is given. The industry needs to pressure governors and work with them to nominate people from the commercial sector, he told the group, according to SeafoodSource.
“The stakeholders, the fishermen, they have to come up with the right person. My intention is to balance this whole thing,” Piñeiro Soler said.
Florida processor Rash begged to differ.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way,” Rash responded. He accused Florida Governor Ron DeSantis of making nominations as political favors.
“I’ve seen people on the council who were furniture dealers,” he told Piñeiro Soler.
Piñeiro Soler responded that vets all the governors’ recommendations and assured Rash that he has some influence with Secretary Lutnick on who serves the fishery management councils.
“If I don’t like it, I won’t approve any,” Piñeiro Soler said. “If it’s a commercial seat, it has to be a commercial person.”
When Dunleavy and Ferguson sent their separate letters of recommendation to Lutnick, they offered three names each, with the governors’ preferences for first, second, and third.
For Ferguson, incumbent Jamie Goen of the Bering Sea Crabbers Association was his primary choice. Second was Chad See, Executive Director of the Freezer Longliner Coalition. Ferguson’s third choice was James Johnson, Executive Director of the Deep Sea Fisherman’s Union of the Pacific, AFL-CIO, and Director with Eat on the Wild Side. All three are steeped in the industry, each with more than 20 years of service.
Dunleavy’s first preference to replace Tsukada is Märit Carlson-Van Dort, chair of the Alaska Board of Fisheries and an Alaska Native from the village of Chignik Bay. Carlson-Van Dort was raised in Southeast Alaska and along the southern Alaska Peninsula. She has had some commercial experience fishing for salmon, but no experience in the federally managed sphere. Second was Forrest Bowers, who is the Acting Director of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Commercial Fish Division and who has 28 years of experience as a manager and researcher. Third is Israel Peyton, former director of ADF&G’s Sport Fisheries Division, and current member of the Board of Fisheries.
Carlson-Van Dort has been lauded for her work changing the public testimony protocol that makes it easier for Alaska Natives, particularly elders, to speak at BOF meetings. But her voting record and public comportment have created headwinds for her confirmation to the NPFMC.
United Fishermen of Alaska, Alaska’s largest commercial fishing organization, has opposed her appointment twice in the past. Last month she and Curtis Chamberlain, also a member of the BOF, were named in a complaint for conflict of interest. The Aleutian East Borough sent the complaint to the Alaska Attorney General that was signed by several tribal governments in the region.
In a statement issued after the complaint was filed, AEB explained that Carlson-Van Dort dismissed the conflict twice.
“The conflict was never resolved. The Board voted anyway,” AEB said.
“What happened to Area M at the Board of Fisheries is what happens when politicians appoint board members who arrive at the meeting with their minds already made up. We asked them to use science to determine what tools should best be used to help the AYK chum returns. Instead, they have done nothing to help the stocks — just a repeat of board meetings over the past 40 years that will result in the continued decline of salmon returning to their systems,” said Mayor Alvin D. Osterback of the Aleutians East Borough.
“The State of Alaska needs to address the conflict of interest rules for this Board before they ruin other fisheries in the state while accomplishing nothing to stop the decline in the AYK systems. Area M loses and the AYK loses because the Board of Fisheries is failing Alaska’s fishermen and its fish. It’s a sad day for all fishermen and their communities.”
