Press Release
IIFET is an international professional association of individuals, institutions, and agencies from over 65 countries. IIFET Fellows are selected because they have made substantial, long-term, ongoing contributions to the advancement and development of theoretical and/or empirical economics of fisheries, aquaculture, and/or seafood trade, as evidenced by research, teaching, academic service, and/or policy impacts.
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Jon Sutinen has been selected as one of two Fellows chosen for 2020, and will give a keynote address at the biennial IIFET 2020 conference in Vigo, Galicia, Spain.
Jon’s long career is exemplified by excellence and innovation in research, outstanding mentoring of new generations of fisheries economists worldwide, and service to both policy makers and the discipline of fisheries economics. The strength of his research made him a natural leader within the profession, and he served as President of IIFET, President of the North American Association of Fisheries Economists (NAAFE), and as the founding editor of IIFET and NAAFE’s flagship journal, Marine Resource Economics. When Dr. Sutinen started MRE in the mid-1980s, he had an admirable and challenging mission but he persevered, with the support of the Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at URI, and led the journal through the tough, formative years. Now in its 34th volume, MRE is internationally recognized as the leading journal in the field of fisheries economics and has an impact factor comparable to or better than, the leading academic journals in agricultural and natural resource economics.
Dr. Sutinen’s own research focused primarily on the following themes: compliance and enforcement in fisheries, tradeable fishing allowances, recreational fisheries, and the political economics of fisheries governance. He belongs to the relatively small group of fisheries economists who have made contributions that have changed our thinking of how fisheries management works that have stood the test of time. Furthermore, he was a proponent of working with non-economists to develop effective fisheries management tools and policies, highlighting the value and importance of interdisciplinary work.
A persistent collaborator, Dr. Sutinen has extensive experience advising government agencies and stakeholder groups in the US and abroad in his areas of expertise. His work and advice on fisheries compliance and enforcement has shaped policies and practices worldwide and he has served as a consultant to several organizations and governments, including Australia, Denmark, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), European Union, New Zealand, South Africa, and the US.
In addition to his service to IIFET, NAAFE, and MRE, Dr. Sutinen is the former chair of the National Research Council Committee on Defining Best Available Science, former co-chair of the Social Science Advisory Committee of the New England Fisheries Management Council, and a former member of the ICES Working Group on Fishery Systems and the Ocean Studies Board. Jon also received the IIFET Distinguished Service Award in 2008 for his substantial contributions to teaching and research in fisheries economics, the economics of enforcement and compliance, and their application in fisheries management policy internationally.