Craig H. Faunce

Craig’s interest in marine life was established by fishing for striped bass in New Jersey with his father. After a summer course in Marine Biology he fell in love with the outdoors, muck, and mystery of catching fish. Craig explored how fishes use mangrove habitats while earning a Masters degree from the Florida Institute of Technology. He studied the life history of exotic cichlids and conducted reproduction and age and growth studies while working in the Everglades with the National Audubon Society. After earning a Ph.D in Fisheries from the University of Miami in 2005 Craig then led a team of researchers monitoring the fish reef populations for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Institute and helped found one of the largest fish tracking networks in the region. His experience designing monitoring programs earned him a position at the Fisheries Monitoring and Analysis Division of the AFSC in 2008. While he still dreams of scuba diving in warm clear waters, Craig has thrived in Seattle. Since his arrival in 2008, he substantially contributed to the restructure of one of the largest fishery monitoring programs in the world, developed an annual process for setting the anticipated monitoring goals and evaluating past performance, and designed the functional requirements for the Observer Declare and Deploy System (ODDS). Craig is a three time Bronze medalist - (The highest honor award granted by the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere), and has provided counsel to the fisheries monitoring programs of New Zealand, Chile and Canada. He currently serves on the Gulf of Alaska Plan Team of the North Pacific Marine Fisheries Council that reviews fishery stock assessments and harvest recommendations. Craig enjoys working with younger new scientists and learning from observers. His current research is examining trends and drivers behind observer reports of IUU (Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated) fishing and Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault (SASH). When he is not working, it is rumored he hikes, skis, and even goes fishing.