September 28, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council held its annual election of officers at the start of its September 28-30, 2021 webinar meeting. It voted in Eric Reid as chairman and Rick Bellavance as vice chairman to lead the Council in the year ahead. Both are from Rhode Island.
Eric was the Council’s vice chair for the past two years and then became acting chairman in mid-August when Dr. John Quinn, who chaired the Council for the past five years, became ineligible for reappointment after serving three consecutive three-year terms on the Council.
Chairman Reid is a fisheries consultant based in North Kingstown, RI. Over his 47-year career in commercial and recreational fisheries, he has been actively engaged in all facets of the industry both at sea and shoreside. He previously owned and operated his own business, Deep Sea Fish of Rhode Island, for 11 years and worked for numerous other companies, including Seafreeze Shoreside Inc., Seafresh USA, and The Town Dock. He was the past president of the Rhode Island Seafood Council and the American Seafood Institute, and he was a founding member of both the East Coast Fisheries Association and the New England Seafood Producers Association. He served as the New England Council’s liaison to the MidAtlantic Council and has represented the New England Council on several MidAtlantic Council committees.
Chairman Reid also is on the board of directors of RODA, the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, and serves as the alliance’s treasurer. He is a U.S. Commissioner to the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) and serves as Rhode Island State Senator Susan Sosnowski’s proxy on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC).
After being elected unopposed and by acclamation, Chairman Reid said of his new position, “I appreciate everyone’s support. It’s certainly an honor and a very humbling experience.”
Rick Bellavance is the owner/operator of Priority Charters, LLC, a charter fishing business located in Point Judith. A lifelong Rhode Island resident, he has engaged in a variety of recreational and commercial fishing industries for over 30 years. Rick currently serves as the president of the Rhode Island Party and Charter Boat Association. For more than a decade, he has represented the recreational for-hire fishing industry on state, regional, and federal panels, committees, and commissions. He has worked steadily to help develop electronic reporting tools that can improve recreational catch estimates, and he strongly supports improvements to the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP). Rick represents the Council on the NOAA Fisheries Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel and the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section of ICCAT. He has represented the New England Council on several Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic Council committees.