June 11, 2021 — Alaska pollock supplier American Seafoods has hired Chris Oliver, a former top administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as special advisor on government affairs in the company’s regulatory division.
Oliver has has a long career in fisheries. In 2017, he was designated by presidential appointment as Assistant Administrator for Fisheries at NOAA, where he was responsible for the management of commercial and recreational marine fisheries and protected species throughout the US Exclusive Economic Zone, which encompasses the Alaska pollock fishing grounds.
Oliver worked at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council — the government agency charged with managing the Alaska pollock fishery and setting its annual catch quotas– for more than 30 years, as a fisheries biologist, a deputy director, and finally as executive director for 16 years.