David Kerstetter, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography, has been reappointed to the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel (HMS AP) for a three-year term.
Panel members, who represent commercial and recreational fishing interests, and scientific and environmental communities, provide input to National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries in preparing and implementing fishery management plans for Atlantic tunas, swordfish, billfish, and sharks.
Kerstetter is one of only four academic scientists in the U.S. Atlantic/Gulf regions to serve on the panel.
“I’ve been working with HMS since serving as a John A. Knauss Sea Grant Marine Policy Fellow with the International Affairs Division of NOAA Fisheries in 1998,” Kerstetter said. “When I returned to graduate school afterward, my research focused on blue marlin biology and management—a good combination of my marine science and public policy background and interests.
“This is my third term with the AP, on which I started serving in 2010. Not only is the intersection of research and management professionally challenging, but it helps provide real-world guidance to the managers at the federal level. I’ve also been able to use that insight into management needs to guide my own research program at NSU, which has benefitted several of our graduate students.”