Ron Rogness will guide renewed focus on sustainability issues
Washington, DC – December 1, 2009 – The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) is expanding its staff of experts with the addition of Ron Rogness as leader of its sustainability efforts.
Rogness’ body of work has given him a uniquely broad view of the seafood industry. He started his career nearly 30 years ago as a commercial fisherman in Washington State and later in Alaska. As staff economist for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in the 1980s, he witnessed first-hand the development of a system that has been widely praised as the standard in sustainable management. In his purchasing roles at Long John Silver’s and the Unified Foodservice Purchasing Co-op, LLC, he gained a thorough understanding of the unique challenges seafood procurement presents.
“Ron brings a comprehensive view of seafood sustainability,” said NFI President John Connelly. “He will help us communicate to our customers and even our own industry about some of the vital issues that need focus now and ones that will need focus in the future.”
This is Rogness’ second stint at NFI. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he served as West Coast Government Relations Representative, led NFI’s trade and aquaculture committees and was responsible for all resource and market analyses.
“The ability to talk to seafood buyers and scientists alike is key to this position and that’s what Ron has been doing for three decades,” said NFI Chairman Ken Conrad.
With extensive experience as a resource analyst for some of the biggest names in the industry and as a key member of a management and regulatory body, Rogness has developed a sustainability sense that includes a view from both sides of the table.
“Sustainability is not just a buzz word for Ron,” said Chuck Bundrant, founder and chairman of Trident Seafoods. “There are some sad seafood sustainability stories out there and there are some great ones too. Frank talk and real education about what’s reliable and what’s rhetoric is something that Ron can provide.”
For more than 60 years, the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) and its members have provided American families with the variety of sustainable seafood essential to a healthy diet. For more information visit: www.AboutSeafood.com.
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Contact Information:
Gavin Gibbons
(703)752-8891
ggibbons@nfi.org
Oceana, long a Greenpeace wannabe, with lesser credentials and even lesser reach is trying to pull its own Alaska pollock type rhetorical attack on Pacific whiting.
In 2006 marine ecologist Boris Worm of Dalhousie University suggested that the oceans would be empty of fish by 2048. His prediction made for good sound bite science and the media ran with it. The problem is his prediction was wrong. And now he's admitted as much.
A brand new study published in the journal Science today finds Worm saying he plans to be "hosting a seafood party" in 2048 instead of mourning the loss of all marine ecosystems.
Yesterday the New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope of the blog Well, linked to a piece on shopping for sustainable seafood over at True/Slant written by Seattle food writer Kim O'Donnel.
Two things-- #1 I like Slate.com, it's usually fresh, illuminating and not afraid to call a spade a spade; qualities I tend to look for in a publication. #2 I am used to being left on the cutting room floor. My feelings are not hurt when a reporter doesn't include me in a piece for which I served as a resource. It's nothing personal, it's just my job, it happens.
Greenpeace is out ranking grocery stores again but the fact is these contrived rankings have become background noise during an important seafood sustainability discussion that has seen responsible ENGO's move forward with initiatives that show real promise and progress. Despite insistence that "several stores have already begun to develop sustainable seafood procurement policies" it presents no evidence those efforts are as a direct result of Greenpeace's continued attempts at public relations blackmail.
Today the Associated Press (AP) is reporting on a new study that claims "failed policies" have lead to "corruption" and "overfishing" the world over. For a venerable news agency it is an article that is packed with a surprising amount of hyperbole and maddeningly little research.
Today Greenpeace is asking supporters to "pre-order" sustainable skipjack tuna as a way of pressuring retailers and tuna companies in to sourcing only from pole and line caught operations-- but it fails to properly highlight that skipjack, be it from the Pacific or the Atlantic, is already the most sustainably managed of all the tuna stocks worldwide.
Skipjack is plentiful and well managed, period.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt believes it is okay to report something that another news outlet has reported without verifying, confirming or clarifying its authenticity and or currency as long as that other news outlet is "highly respected and reputable." Even if NBC has been made aware that the information they are reporting is erroneous.
How do I know this? Well... they told me.
I was pleased to see NBC responded to our request for a change to its April 20th story so quickly. The email from the Senior Producer for Standards and Practices is below. You will notice NBC hedges and returns a face-saving rewrite of the graphic we challenged-- allow me to translate:
We were wrong, we will change it immediately.
Done and done.
Now we're just waiting for a response to the request for a change to its April 19th story.
NBC Email:
Mr. Gibbons,
