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January 18, 2017

Fisheries activist Alden retiring from PERC

Photo Courtesy Island Ad-Vantage/Anne Berleant Robin Alden, longtime fisheries journalist and activist, is retiring as executive director of Penobscot East Resource Center.

Robin Alden, a long-time fisheries journalist and activist, is retiring from her position as executive director of Penobscot East Resource Center in late 2017, PERC announced in a web release.

Alden’s four-decade career includes 20 years as publisher and editor of Commercial Fisheries News, a regional fishing trade newspaper that she founded in 1973. She co-founded the Maine Fishermen’s Forum and was commissioner of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources from 1995 to 1997 before co-founding PERC in 2003. She’s also a founding partner of the Downeast Fisheries Partnership.

Alden was recently named “Hero of the Sea,” one of the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards.

According to the release, the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards, named in honor of the author of “Jaws,” acknowledge outstanding achievement leading to the protection of the ocean, coasts and the communities that depend on them. One of 10 categories of award, the Hero of the Seas is given to “a marine grassroots activist who has made a major and long-term commitment to improving the quality of our seas and the communities that depend on them.”

The award recognized Alden for her career working at the grassroots, engaging fishermen’s knowledge and participation to build sustainable, healthy coastal fisheries and fishing communities.

“Fisheries are at a turning point because climate change is forcing fishery regulators to face the fact that the ocean changes all the time,” Alden said in the release. “Constant change makes real time, on-the-ground observation so much more important than the old approach of primarily depending upon abundance predictions.”

PERC, located in Stonington, earlier this month announced its search for a new executive director.

According to that release, PERC promotes protection of the resources of the oceans through collective action of fishermen and their communities, supported by science and working in combination with regulatory authorities.

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Longtime fisheries activist Robin Alden fęted as she retires

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