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Gary Freitag: Oceanographer and fisheries biologist employed as Associate Professor and Ketchikan Sea Grant Marine advisory agent for the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Oceans Science. Gary works cooperatively with the NOAA as the Ketchikan Marine Mammal Stranded network coordinator. He also works with the Alaska Dept of Fish and Game-National Marine Fisheries Service- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center on marine invasive species monitoring in the Southern Southeast Alaska region. He has over 30 years of experience working in research and evaluation of fisheries and is a member of the Pacific Salmon Commission Chinook Technical Committee participating in meetings related to the Salmon treaty between the United States and Canada. Author of numerous publications he helped establish the OceansAlaska board in 1992 and serves as President.
Len Laurance: An owner in Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary. He is a key figure in the Ketchikan tourism industry, serving as a marketing director, consultant and advocate through his career in the industry and the community which has been his home for more than 40 years. He is a former assemblyman for the Ketchikan Gateway Borough and has served on the board of directors for the Greater Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce and the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau. He helped establish the OceansAlaska board.
Tomi Marsh: Owner of the boat “Savage,” she has been involved in the commercial fishing industry for 24 years. She has fished for crab from the Bering Sea of Alaska to the coast of Washington state, and participated in a variety of other Alaskan fisheries. In conjunction with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, she has been active in fisheries marketing promotion. She joined the OceansAlaska board in 2006.
Tena Williams: Copublisher of the Ketchikan Daily News who was born, raised and worked in Southeast Alaska most of her life. She has served as president of the Greater Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce as well as the Alaska Newspaper Association, and currently serves on the Ketchikan General Hospital Governing Board, and the Alaska Judicial Council at the request of Gov. Frank Murkowski. She is an enthusiastic quilter. She helped establish the OceansAlaska board in 1992 and serves as its treasurer.
Mike Round: A 35-year resident of Southeast Alaska, a former U.S. Coast Guard officer, commercial diver, pilot boat operator, tour-vessel operator and commercial salmon fishermen,. He also holds a commercial pilot license, a 100-ton Captains license as well as a NAUI scuba diver certification. Mike is presently the Assistant General Manager for Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association (SSRAA). His active participation in OA activities is, in part, donated by SSRAA to encourage research and promote development of healthy and diverse commercial fishing opportunities in southeast Alaska. He sits on the board of directors of the United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA) and on the Economic Development Committee for the Ketchikan Greater Chamber of Commerce as SSRAA’s representative.
Robert Boyle: Currently serves as Superintendent of Ketchikan Gateway Borough
School District. He is on the advisory Board for University of Alaska Southeast
Ketchikan,Board of Directors for KRBD Radio and Board of Directors for Medical
Reserve Corp of Ketchikan.He has written commercial fishing curriculum for the
Alaska Department of Education and promoted fisheries training and science
educational programs in schools across Alaska. He has worked in commercial
herring and salmon operations.
Bret Hiatt: Born and raised in Ketchikan, Bret is a fisheries scientist and real estate appraiser with a bachelors degree in Fisheries Science from Oregon State University. He has worked in the gillnet, seine, and longline commercial fisheries in Southeast Alaska. He has also worked for a variety of government and private entities on numerous fisheries related projects within Alaska, Oregon and Washington. In 2006, he published two articles related to SE Alaska's salmon industry and valuation issues of shore side seafood processors for IAAO's publication "Fair and equitable." He is a certified diver and avid sport fisherman, and enjoys any activity related to the ocean. Bret has followed the OceansAlaska project for several years and became part of the board in 2008.
John M. Scoblic: Started working on commercial fishing boats in 1987 as a teenager and continued working as a professional deckhand in several fisheries across the state, but primarily in Southeast Alaska up until 1998. In that period John worked on deck catching or tendering salmon, herring, halibut, blackcod, spot prawns, sea cucumbers, geoducks, dungeness/red king/ tanner & opillio crab, throughout Southeast but also in the Gulf of Alaska, Bristol Bay, Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea. When not crewing on boats or going to college John also worked in the processing sector for a handful of seafood firms and currently is working for Trident Seafoods Corporation as the Ketchikan Freezer Plant Assistant Plant Manager –Fleet Manager. John has taken numerous fisheries related courses at University of Alaska Southeast and attended the Alaska Seafood Processors Leadership Institute in 2008. He serves on the Southeast Alaska Regional Dive Fisheries Association board of directors. He is also the chairman of the local Ketchikan Fish & Game Advisory Committee.
The OceansAlaska Staff •
David Mitchel / General Manager: Born and raised in Ketchikan, David moved back to Ketchikan after receiving his Masters in Public Administration from Indiana University. He has administrative and legislative experience working for local, state, federal, and tribal governments. David has experience as a superintendent for a metropolitan general contractor, as well as working in Ketchikan for Cruise Line Agency of Alaska. David developed community projects for two years in the U.S. Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan, studied a year in England, and has traveled extensively. He enjoys fishing and the outdoors, coaching youth sports, and is a certified diver. David is a Rotary member, and a founding member of the Ketchikan Young Professional Network.
Phone: 907-225-7900
Fax: 907-247-7900
click here to email David Mitchel
John Sund / Development Director: As Development Director Sund brings decades of varied experience to OceansAlaska. Most recently he was Vice President for NorQuest Seafoods, one of Alaska's major seafood processors. Sund also served three terms in the Alaska Legislature, was President of Waterfall Resort one of Alaska's premier fishing resorts and was involved in several roles crafting legislation for Alaska's non-profit hatchery system. He has planned, supervised construction and completed startups on major capital facilities in many locations in coastal Alaska. John currently serves on the Governor’s Alaska Seafood Legacy Group.
Tom Henderson / Mariculture Director
Tom graduated from Haines High school and attended Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, where he was the first graduate in the Ocean Ranching program, an aquaculture program providing training in hatchery production of salmon. In 1981 Tom graduated from Colorado State University with a BS in microbiology, with an emphasis on fish diseases. Starting in high school and continuing through his college years, summers were spent on either a fish boat (driftnet or troller), or working with Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game. Tom worked for Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp. multiple times between 1977 until 1994 when he finished his salmon career at Esther Hatchery (WNH). In 1994 Tom left PWSAC and bought a small oyster farm south of Kake, and has remained there since. He has crewed in various fisheries over the years- including halibut longline and salmon seine, and owned and fished a dungeness crab permit.
While in Kake Tom has also been a part of the Kake City Council, and a member of the Board and Board President of Kake Non-profit Fisheries Corp., which runs a small local hatchery. Tom has also managed to work in a few adventures along the way, hiking the Chilcoot Trail at 14, and canoeing the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson. He also has enjoyed a few international trips, especially to Chile, and always keeps an eye out for aquaculture projects around the world.
click here to email Tom Henderson
Susan Round / Comptroller: A 30+ year resident of Ketchikan brings a diverse skill set resulting from wide-ranging work and educational experiences including: Herring Bay Tax & Books owner, associate planner with the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Bachelor of Urban Planning from the University of Cincinnati, commercial troller, gillnetter, and seiner, as well as local tour guide.