Professor Manuel Barange is the Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division at the FAO, and responsible for the FAO biennial “State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA)” report. Read more

Previously he was Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Science at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK, and Chair of the Science Committee of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Manuel is an Honorary Professor at the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, UK.
Professor Barange is a global expert on the impacts of Climate Change on marine ecosystems, fisheries and aquaculture, and on the interactions between natural and socio-economic drivers of change. He sits in advisory boards of several institutions and is a regular speaker at international scientific conferences. He has over 130 academic publications and contributes to IPCC assessment reports. In 2010 he was awarded the UNESCO-IOC Roger Revelle Medal for his contribution to ocean science.

Bjørge is citizen of Norway, born in Ålesund where he completed high school in 1971. After a brief period of work onboard commercial fishing vessels and in the fish processing industry, Bjørge commenced science studies at the University of Oslo where he completed the master degree in 1979. Read more

Bjørge also has a doctoral degree in fisheries biology from the University of Bergen. Bjørge’s professional career includes research positions at the Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Bergen (1979-84), Senior Advisor and deputy head of the Nature Conservation Division at the Ministry of Environment, Oslo (1984-89), senior scientist at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Oslo (1990-1998), and scientist and head of the Division of Resource Ecology, IMR (1999-2004), and research position at IMR (Oslo, 2004-present). Bjørge has had several positions of trust in international organisations, e.g. FAO, HELCOM, ICES, IWC, and NAMMCO, and he was elected chair of the IWC Scientific Committee in 2005-2010. Bjørge has more than fifty peer-reviewed scientific articles, mostly on harbour seal and harbour porpoise biology and ecology, and on marine mammal bycatch monitoring and mitigation.

Danto, Anatole

Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University

Elvevoll, Edel O

The Arctic University of  Norway

PhD candidate Anatole DANTO, MA and MSc, is ending his doctoral thesis in marine social sciences. He is affiliated to Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and the Apolimer Observatory (La Rochelle university). Read more

He holds master degrees in Sea and Coastal Sciences (University of Western Brittany), in Ethnology and Identity Dynamics (same) and in Maritime History (University of Southern Brittany). He also holds Bachelor degrees in Geography (University of Nantes) and in Social Sciences (University of Strasbourg). His research focuses on the dynamics of fishing societies in the face of political, socio-economic and environmental changes. His fields of research are the West of France, the German coasts, the Baltic Sea and Saint-Pierre et Miquelon North American French archipelago. He also worked for many years for French ministries in charge of Ecology and Culture. He is a member of the WG in History of Fisheries of the ICES and member of the cultural network of the RAMSAR convention. He gave more than 400 hours of lectures in universities and high schools, published 25 peer reviewed papers, and conducted several expertise for French institutions on Intangible cultural heritage. For more informations: https://cv.archives-ouvertes.fr/anatole-danto 

Elvevoll is a trained engineer and holds MSc and PhD from NTNU in industrial processing and thermodynamics. She has a combined career, research and administration, research leader at Nofima (1989–1998), dean of Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics (2009–2017) and since 2018 as professor in Food Science and Technology. Read more

She has led several multidisciplinary projects involving industry collaboration. She has studied beneficial  cardiovascular health effects of whale oil compared to other marine and terrestrial oils and more recently supervised a student focusing on bioactivities in whale blubber. She teaches food safety with particular emphasis on marine challenges.
A publication record of scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters (70) as well as supervision of MSc and PhD students. She is currently involved in several national and international projects aiming at the production of sustainable, healthy and affordable food and feed from the ocean – in particular the utilization of marine organisms from the lower end of the marine food web.

Danielsen, Åge Hammeken 

The hunter association in Ittoqqortoormiit/NanuTravel

 Haram, Øyvind André

Norwegian Seafood Federation

Åge H. Danielsen is a 34-year-old fulltime hunter and a tourist guide from Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland. He has been a professional hunter since the age of 17, but began hunting much earlier.Read more

Growing up and still being so closely connected to nature, he sees at 1^st hand and has therefore a lot of knowledge of environmental and animal conditions especially in East Greenland, which he openly shares and collaborate upon with managers, biologists, anthropologists, and other specialists. As a Chair of hunter association in Ittoqqortoormiit, he often represents East Greenlandic hunters, their perspectives, and their knowledge in national, regional, and international meetings. Self-sufficiency and food preparation for the season is not only a necessity for Åge and his family, considering Ittoqqortoormiit is in a remote area of Greenland, but also an interest and prioritization that preserves considerably important traditions that goes back in many generations. Åge will present his everyday life as a professional hunter and their ways of self-sufficiency focusing on marine mammals in the northern most city of East Greenland.

Øyvind A. Haram is Head of Communication at Norwegian Seafood Federation, and has been working with seafood for more then 15 years.Read more

 He is educated journalist and worked for the Norwegian Brocasting Corporation, covering seafood. The last six years he has been chairman for the Norwegian organization «Merkevareforeningen Norsk Hval», Norwegian whalers own marketing initiative. Øyvind strongly believes in eating more seafood and survive!

Joensen, Hóraldur

Faroe Islands

Hóraldur grew up on a farm in a small village in the Faroe Islands called Hvalvík, meaning the whale bay. The name derives from the pods of whales – pilot whales mainly –  regularly frequenting the bay.Read more

He is a newly retired associated professor in chemistry, prior member of the Academic Council and former programme leader of the biology education at the University of the Faroe Islands. His professional background was in physics, chemistry, and marine chemistry. Early in his career he worked as a full-time teacher in physics and chemistry at high schools and part-time in academia. During the last years he has been conducting research in marine chemistry, generally, and lipids especially. Moreover, he has acquired knowledge  in biology, biochemistry, genetics, biotechnology, seafood products and functional food through courses and self-study. As a participant in several international projects and as a former board member of WEFTA (West European Fish Technologists Association), NAF and AG-fisk (Nordic Workgroups of Fishery Research) he had a wide professional network.

Laksá, Unn

Sjókovin – Blue Resource

Lund Olsen, Natuk 

Government of Greenland

Dr. Unn Laksá holds a PhD in the politics and communication of climate change from the University of Liverpool. She is CEO at the private, not-for-profit research institute Sjókovin – Blue Resource, which has the objective to foster sustainable development in the blue bioeconomy. Read more

She has extensive experience working on EU FP7, H2020 and Horizon Europe research projects relating to marine resource management. She was work package leader of the H2020 project ClimeFish – a project investigating the effects of climate change on European fisheries and aquaculture. Currently, she is leading work packages in the Horizon H2020 project Aquavitae, and Horizon Europe project SeaMark. Unn also has extensive experience in several officially appointed working groups on fisheries and aquaculture.

Natuk Lund Olsen is the head of the Department of Constitution at the Government of Greenland. She also serves as the chair of the Greenlandic Agricultural Council. Lund Olsen will submit her PhD dissertation “The Meaning of Kalaalimernit: Greenlandic foods, Cultural Identity and Changes” on 1 August 2022.

Mahoney, Shane Patrick

IUCN’s Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group (SULi)

Morishita, Joji

Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology

Shane Patrick Mahoney, President of Conservation Visions and Founder of the Wild Harvest Initiative®, is an internationally recognized conservationist and wildlife advocate, and is considered a foremost expert on the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. Read more

Former Executive Director of Sustainable Development and Strategic Science for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Shane serves as Deputy-Chair of IUCN’s Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group (SULi) and as the IUCN representative to the Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management (CPW), as well as a delegate to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).  He also serves as President of the Policy and Law Division for the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC) and is the International Liaison for The Wildlife Society (TWS).

Professor, Department of Marine Policy and Culture, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. Advisor to Japan’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on International Fisheries Affairs.Read more

He has been Involved in international oceans and fisheries issues since 1982 as a representative of the Government of Japan, covering bilateral fisheries access and trade negotiations with several countries, meetings of RFMO/As including CCAMLR, CCSBT, NPFC, and WCPFC, multilateral fisheries conferences including FAO COFI, APEC Fisheries WG, and their expert meetings, and also CBD, CITES, and UN General Assembly Informal Consultations on the sustainable fisheries resolution, the Meeting on High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean, Rio plus 20, IUCN Congress, and other international ocean and environmental meetings. He was Japan’s Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) from 2013 to 2018 and served as IWC’s Chair from 2016 to 2018.  He was also the Chair of the Scientific Committee of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC) from 2015 to 2019. He is currently Commissioner to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). He holds degrees of PhD (Agriculture), Kyoto University, Master of Public Policy (MPP), Harvard University and BS, Fisheries Science, Kyoto University.

Mulvad, Gert

Ilisimatusarfik – the University of Greenland

Shahidi, Fereidoon

Department of Biochemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Mulvad is a family physician at the Centre for Primary Health Care in Nuuk, Greenland. He has been working in Nuuk since 1986. His research field is Traditional Food Risk/Benefit and Family Health. Read more

He serves on many committees involved in health care delivery, research and education in Greenland. He is the chair of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. Internationally he is active in AMAP Human Health working group, Committee for Inuit Circumpolar Health, Chair of the Arctic Health and well-being network under the University of the Arctic.

Fereidoon Shahidi, Ph.D., FACS, FAGFD-ACS, FAOCS, FCIC, FCIFST, FIAFoST, FIFT, FISNFF, FRSC, is a University Research Professor and Distinguished Scholar in the Department of Biochemistry at Memorial University of Newfoundland.Read more

  He has authored over 1,000 publications as research papers and book chapters, 78 books, and 10 patents. His research interests are primarily in the areas of nutraceuticals and functional foods with particular attention to lipids, proteins, polyphenols, natural antioxidants and oxidation control. His work has been cited widely (see Google scholar). He has received numerous awards from different societies, including the American Chemical Society (ACS), American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS), Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), and the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST), among others. He has served on and chaired many international committees, evaluating different programs both nationally and globally, such as the nutraceuticals and functional food research at the USDA and as a member of the Washington-based Council of Agricultural Science and Technology on nutraceuticals.  He is currently the chair of the Scientific Council of the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) and serves as the editor-in-chief (EiC) of the Journal of Food Bioactives (JFB)  and the journal of Food Production, Processing and Nutrition (FPPN). Shahidi is the principal founder of the International Society for Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods (ISNFF), a Disciplinary Interest Group of IUFoST and Founding EiC of the Journal of Functional Foods for which he served in that capacity for 10 years. He was a principal founder of the Nutraceutical and Functional Food Division of IFT. He has trained nearly 200 graduate students, highly qualified personnel, visiting professors, scholars, and PDFs, now his colleagues in over a dozen countries.

Vaugeois, Romy

Candian Seals & Sealing Network

Woie, Therese Haugstmyr

Friends of the Earth

With an MBA degree (Laval / Renmin University) and a Bachelor of International Business (McGill University) Romy Vaugeois lived in China for more than 5 years working as Brand Manager for a Chinese real estate company. Read more

In 2015, Romy became Co-owner at SeaDNA and was responsible for the development, processing and commercialization of innovative seals meat and seal oil products for humans and for pets. This experience has allowed her to go through all the steps that many SMEs involved in the seal industry will have to face: Ensure supply and processing of raw material, manage various Government funding programs, develop new seal products, develop new markets and commercialize seal products throughout Canada and Asia.  Romy is also one of the people who initiated the culinary festival called Seal Fest to promote seal meat through Canadian restaurants.
Today, Romy plays an active role in the Canadian Seal Industry. As the Program Manager of the Seals and Sealing Network (SSN), her role is to lead, plan and implement programs focused on traceability, marketing and communication, branding and market development for seal products including seal oil, seal meat and fur/leather. In the past year, SSN has launched two multivendor e-commerce marketplaces for seal products: www.canadiansealproducts.com as well as www.proudlyindigenouscrafts.com.
 

Therese Hugstmyr Woie is a 24 years old environmentalist from northern Norway. Until  recently she was the leader of Nature and Youth, the largest environmental organization for youth in Norway.Read more

Natur and Youth has a clear position in support for norwegian whaling and seal hunting. In the last years she has particularly worked with the challenges of oil drilling in the Arctic, fisheries and aquaculture. Currentlyshe lives in Tromsø and works as a political advisor for Friends of the Earth.

Yoshifumi, Kai

Japan Small-Type Whaling Association

Ziegler, Friederike

RISE – Research Institutes of Sweden

KAI Yoshifumi is the Chairman of Japan Small-Type Whaling Association (JSTWA), and the managing director of Taiji Fisheries Co-operative Association (TFCA). Born and brought up in Taiji, he has enjoyed and respected the long-standing Taiji whaling tradition and food culture.Read more

Being also well-versed with coastal fisheries in general, he started to work with the TFCA management in 1981. He has taken a strong leadership in TFCA’s various activities and contributed greatly to rebuilding the deficit-ridden FCA.  He was in charge of guiding TFCA’s cetacean drive fishery for many years. He played a key role in changing the killing method, which resulted in substantial shortening of the time to death. In 2017, besides working for TFCA, he became JSTWA’s Chairman and worked hard for the resumption of commercial minke whaling. Recently, he was among the core member group who planned and set up a “road station” and related facilities in Taiji where visitors can experience Taiji’s whaling tradition and cuisine. From 2017 to 2020, he served as its first station manager and developed various whale and dolphin dishes for the restaurant.

Friederike Ziegler is a senior scientist at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, leading the research and contract work of the RISE seafood sustainability group. Read more

Her PhD research pioneered the field of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) applied to fisheries systems both with regard to typical LCA environmental impact categories like greenhouse gas emissions, and quantifying more fisheries-specific impacts on stocks, by-catch and seafloor habitats. After finishing her PhD, her research has concerned both fisheries and aquaculture systems around the world, focusing on North Atlantic fisheries and aquaculture systems. Recently, she has collaborated with nutritionists to describe and quantify the highly variable nutritional characteristics of different seafoods to more fully reflect the function of seafood in LCA studies and to provide guidance for production and consumptions to go towards more nutritious and broadly sustainable types of seafood.