Dr. Rita Curtis is the Chief of NOAA Fisheries Service Office of Science and Technology, Economic and Social Analysis Division. Dr. Curtis first began working with NOAA in 1999 as an economist for the Office of Science and Technology. In 1999, she completed her PhD in Agriculture and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland. Beforehand, Dr. Curtis worked at the Pacific Islands Fishery Science Center in Hawaii studying the longline fleet.

Robert Humphreys was born in Newport Beach California, April 30, 1953. He grew up fishing in his big backyard, the Pacific Ocean and Newport Beach, California. Bob became a marine biology major at the University of California, Berkeley where he studied leopard sharks and bat rays in Bodega Bay. After graduating with his bachelor's degree, Bob then worked for the California Fish and Game office before heading to Hawaii in 1977. He began working at the NMFS Honolulu Laboratory during that year.

Dr. Richard Methot grew up in western Massachusetts. He attended the University of Washington and received a bachelor'sdegree from the College of Fisheries. Following graduation, Dr. Methot went to Scripps Institution of Oceanography where he earned his Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography in 1981. After a one year postdoc at Bodega Marine Laboratory, he began working for NOAA that same year at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in LaJolla, CA. In 1988, he moved to the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, WA.

Paul Rago is a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist. He was born in 1952 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and later studied at University of Michigan as well as Colorado State University where he received his master’s degree. Later, he earned his Ph.D. and dedicated much of his life to fishery science.

Interview contains discussions of: power plants, striped bass, preservation of fish species in the Great Lakes, nuclear energy, fishing yield.

Paul Rago's interview reviews his career path and his work.

Robin Waples was born in Berkeley, California. He received a Bachelor’s degree in American studies from Yale University and his Ph.D. in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 1986, Waples joined the Northwest Fisheries Science Center as a National Research Council Research Associate. From 1997 to 2000 he was the Director of the Conservation Biology Division. In 2001, he became the center's Senior Scientist. His research interests include population genetics of anadromous and marine fishes.

Edward DeMartini was born in San Francisco, California in 1946.His father died when he was four years old, and he was introduced to fishing when he was six by his cousin who acted as a surrogate father at the time. Ed says he was a natural historian at a young age and credits his mother with giving him the latitude to be an avid explorer and sparking his early interest in fish. Ed graduated with a degree in biology from the University of San Francisco in 1968, and a Master’s in Biological Oceanography in 1970.

Thea Johanos has been a research wildlife biologist with the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program at the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (and its precursor, the Honolulu Lab) since 1982. She grew up in both Texas and Pennsylvania, and did her undergraduate and graduate work at Penn State University. After graduate school, she applied for work in Hawaii, as her family had just moved there. Her first job in Hawaii was with the US Forest Service working with Hawaiian honeycreepers and other forest birds.

Interview with Hazel Nishimura, Darryl Tagami, Betty Young, Marian Yong by Edward Glazier. All four interviewees are current or retired employees of the Honolulu Lab which became the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.

Hazel Nishimura grew up in Hawaii and worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service Honolulu Lab retiring as Head Librarian in 1990 after 30 years. She graduated from the University of Hawaii with a Bachelors in History and from Case Western University with a Master's in Library Science.

Mr. Rauch is Deputy Assistant Administrator for regulatory programs of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. After receiving a B.A. from the University of Virginia, he received a M.S. from the University of Georgia with the goal of becoming a forest ecologist scientist. He then earned a J.D. from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College and worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office on the spotted owl litigation team. He was transferred to NMFS where he first worked on salmon cases before becoming Assistant Section Chief where he oversaw all NMFS litigations.

Gordon Waring was born on July 19, 1946 in Brooklyn, New York. He earned his B.A. in Biology from Humboldt State College, his Master’s from Bridgewater State College, and his Ph.D. in Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Waring began working for NOAA in 1973 and is a retired former team leader of the seal project within the Protected Species Branch at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.