Fisheries veteran Linda Behnken, of Sitka, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, named by President Obama on Nov. 3 as a U.S. commissioner to the International Pacific Halibut Commission.
Behnken has fished commercially for over three decades, and also served on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council from 1992 to 2001.
A graduate of Dartmouth College, Behnken has a master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
In other appointments to international fisheries commissions on Nov. 3, President Obama named Donna Darm and Charles O. Swanton as U.S. commissioners to the Pacific Salmon Commission.
Darm is an associate deputy regional administrator for the West Coast Region of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Darm has worked for NMFS in various roles since 1992, including assistant regional administrator for protected resources in the Northwest region, from 1996 to 2013, and senior policy advisor from 1992 to 1996.
From 1991 to 1992, she served as the assistant director for intergovernmental affairs with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and was previously an attorney advisor with the State Department from 1986 to 1991.
Darm earned a bachelor’s degree from Portland State University and a law degree from the University of Washington.
Swanton is a deputy commissioner within the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
He is the state’s commissioner to the Pacific Salmon Commission charged with implementing the Pacific Salmon Treaty.
Swanton has worked with Pacific salmon for more than 35 years, in field research and fisheries management positions with progressive levels of authority culminating in his current appointment as deputy commissioner.
Swanton holds a bachelor’s degrees in biology and fisheries science from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a master’s degree from the University of Washington’s Fisheries Research Institute.
The International Pacific Halibut Commission, originally the International Fisheries Commission, has a mandate to research and manage five stocks of Pacific halibut within convention waters of Canada and the U.S. The IPHC has three government appointed commissioners for each country who service at the pleasure of their governments.
The Pacific Salmon Commission, a regulatory body run jointly by the Canadian and United States governments, has a mandate to protect stocks of five species of Pacific salmon. Its precursor was the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission, which operated from 1937 through 1985. The PSC enforces the Pacific Salmon Treaty ratified by Canada and the U.S. in 1985.
