Balsiger's back

Here's personnel news from the National Marine Fisheries Service:

March 29, 2010

Balsiger Returns as Regional Administrator for Alaska

Dr. Jim Balsiger is back in Juneau to again serve as administrator for NOAA Fisheries' Alaska Region.

He has been working at NOAA Fisheries headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., for more than four years, first overseeing all of the agency's regulatory programs and then, for the past two years, serving as acting administrator for NOAA Fisheries.

Doug Mecum, who has been the acting regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries' Alaska Region, has returned to his post as deputy regional administrator.

"It was an honor to lead NOAA Fisheries for the last two years. Now it's good to be home where I can be part of managing Alaska's world-class fisheries and of conserving Alaska's species and habitat," Balsiger said.

Dr. Balsiger's background includes time as the science and research director at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, where he also served as deputy director from 1991 through 1995 and program leader for the status of stocks task within the Center's resource ecology and fisheries management division from 1977 to 1991.

Dr. Balsiger holds a Bachelor of Science degree in forestry from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich.; a Master of Science degree in forest silviculture from Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind.; and a Ph.D in quantitative ecology and natural resource management from the University of Washington in Seattle. He has authored or co-authored more than 33 publications in scientific journals and technical memoranda on fisheries subjects.