Members of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting virtually in early February due to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, recognized retiring two federal officials, attorney Lauren Smoker and scientist Anne Hollowed, for outstanding achievement.
Smoker, who has served as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) General Counsel for three decades, was presented with the Bob Mace Distinguished Service Award. Council members noted that Smoker worked on some of the most complex and controversial fishery management actions in Alaska, including the Community Development Quota Program, the Crab Rationalization and Amendment 80 programs, and salmon management. The council said her depth of knowledge about the legal requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act helped guide the council to ensure that its decisions would be robust and defensible to litigation.
Smoker helped establish clear procedures on council-member recusals and record-building, and was always available to answer questions on the record at meetings, as well as on individual matters, the council said.
Smoker’s award was named for Bob Mace, who represented the state of Oregon as a council member for 23 years.
Hollowed, a NOAA Fisheries senior scientist, was honored as the third recipient of the Terry Quinn II Distinguished Scientist Award. The council praised her contributions to fisheries science, ecosystem-based fishery management and the implications of climate variability for fish and crab stocks.
Hollowed has been a member of the council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) since 2003, and the co-chair since 2018. She also leads the stock assessment team at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. In those capacities, Hollowed has been instrumental in upholding the scientific foundation of groundfish and crab management in the North Pacific, both through her own research and mentorship of SSC members and new scientists, the council said.
The Terry Quinn II award is named for Quinn, a University of Alaska fisheries professor in Juneau, who served on the SSC until his death in 2019.