The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 13: July 2001
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Environmental Hero Award
Sonja Fordham, Fisheries Project Manager for The Ocean Conservancy (formerly the Center for Marine Conservation, CMC) has been named an Environmental Hero by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in recognition of nearly a decade of defending depleted ocean fish. Sonja has worked as a CMC fish advocate since 1991. She is a regular participant in the deliberations of NMFS, the regional fishery management councils, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the US Congress and several international fisheries bodies. Sonja is especially active in New England and Mid-Atlantic fish issues, as well as in shark conservation, both in the USA and internationally. Her advocacy often focuses on under-appreciated yet imperilled fish such as the spiny dogfish (cape shark), skates, groundfish and tilefish.
Sonja Fordham receives her award from Andy Rosenberg, NOAA. Photo: The Ocean Conservancy.
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During her nine years at CMC, Sonja has authored numerous reports and articles, become a resource for the media and appealed to countless like-minded as well as opposing groups in the interest of fish conservation. Her most rewarding activities involve encouraging concerned citizens to "speak for the fish".
"I am deeply honored to receive this award as well as privileged to have worked with so many dedicated and talented NOAA staff members over the years", remarked Sonja. "This honor also signals the government's recognition of non-fishing interests as important stakeholders in the conservation of our ocean fish".
"The fish could not ask for a better advocate", stated Roger Rufe, CMC president.
Sonja is a long-term, active member of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group and the American Elasmobranch Society and maintains appointments to Mid-Atlantic Advisory Committees for dogfish and tilefish, the NMFS Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Consultative Committee. In recent years, she has served on several U.S. delegations to NAFO Annual Meetings as well as those related to development and implementation of the 1999 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Currently, Sonja has been spending much of her time working to end the wasteful practice of shark finning and to close shark conservation loopholes in Atlantic state waters.
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