We are Seafood Harvesters of America.

Matt Alward started fishing as a crew member almost three decades ago and has been running his own boat since 2004. Based out of Homer, Alaska Matt raised his family on the back deck of his seiner fishing for salmon, herring, and halibut. He has been very engaged in fishery policy; he is currently the president of United Fishermen of Alaska as well as serving on the boards of numerous commercial fishing advocacy organizations. Matt also owns a marine trades business building and repairing purse seines and is engaged in the shoreside section of the industry as well.

Jack Cox has been involved in commercial fishing, charter fishing, and seafood sales for two decades. He is also the owner of Crystal Coast Fisheries in Morehead City, North Carolina. Jack is a board member for the South Atlantic Fishermen’s Association and has served on the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council and the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission.

Jason DeLaCruz has been fishing since he was five years old. Starting out as a recreational fisherman, he has worked as a professional spear fisherman as well as an owner-operator of commercial fishing vessels. He became actively involved in the fishery management process when he became a member of the Shareholders' Alliance. Jason is also the Executive Director of Gulf Wild, a non-profit in the Gulf of Mexico that is setting the standard for genuine, responsibly caught, traceable, and reliable wild domestic seafood.

Heather Mann is the Executive Director of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative (MTC). MTC is a trade association headquartered in Oregon which represents trawl businesses that participate in federal fisheries off the West Coast (whiting and groundfish) and in Alaska (pollock, cod and groundfish). Heather has been working in and for commercial fisheries for over 25 years. She currently sits on the North Pacific Council’s Advisory Panel and she sits on the Electronic Monitoring committees for the North Pacific and Pacific Councils. Originally from Massachusetts, Heather lives in Newport Oregon.

Brent Paine has been the Executive Director of United Catcher Boats (UCB) for twenty-five years. UCB is a vessel owner trade association whose members participate in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, Gulf of Alaska, and West Coast catcher vessel trawl fisheries. Brent was actively involved in the development of the American Fisheries Act in the late 1990s and was on the staff of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council for three years.

Brad Pettinger has participated in the West Coast commercial fishing industry for more than fifty years as a crewman, skipper, and vessel-owner. He has served on numerous fishing industry committees and commissions during his career and worked for 15 years as the director of the Oregon Trawl Commission (OTC), departing that position in June 2018. Brad has served on the Pacific Fishery Management Council since 2017.

Rebecca Skinner hails from Kodiak, Alaska, the top-three port in the nation for commercial fishery landings. Skinner is Executive Director of the Alaska Whitefish Trawlers Association, a Kodiak-based trade association for independently owned groundfish catcher vessels. She is active in Alaskan commercial fishing policy, and serves as Vice-President of United Fishermen of Alaska. Skinner grew up in an Alaska Native/American Indian household that depended on subsistence, and serves as Vice-Chair of the Kodiak Aleutians Regional Advisory Council to the Federal Subsistence Board.