Guest of the Taliban Dan Harris '93, ABC News, leads press corps into Kandahar.
	Alumni Trustees Nominated
	It's the Faculty, Stupid Survey of Colby alums yield informative and positive results.

ALUMNI PROFILES
William '51 and Ellen Kenerson Gelotte '50
Star Gazing

Susan Monk Pacheco '67
Doctor in the House

Allen Throop '66

Nancy Heiser '75

Don McMillan '84

Thomas Warren '82
Something Fishery

Brian Post '97
A Natural Observer

Clay Surovek '98

To understand what Thomas Warren '82 does as a policy analyst with the National Marine Fisheries Service's Northeast Region Office, based in Gloucester, Mass., you have to understand what he doesn't do. "Even though it's fisheries management you're not managing fish, you're managing human behavior," Warren said.

His division, the Sustainable Fisheries division, is responsible for the management of commercial and recreational fisheries in federal waters (three to 200 miles offshore) stretching from Maine to North Carolina. "It's enjoyable because it's at the nexus of a lot of controversial issues and decisions," Warren said of his job, which directly affects both fish and human populations.

The concept of "tragedy of the commons" makes fisheries management both interesting and essential. "There's no incentive for an individual to conserve fish," said Warren, "because if I conserve fish there's nothing to prevent someone else from coming in and getting them. So, regulation is necessary."

Warren helps develop fisheries policies and regulations through recommendations from the New England Fishery Management Council and the Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council and analysis of ecological, biological and socio-economic information. "It's a balance between preserving the stock and meeting their biological needs, and preserving the fishery business and meeting their needs, too," Warren said. "It is a fine line."

The policy process involves formal and informal input from fishermen, coastal states, environmental groups, state and federal scientists and the independent research science center in Woods Hole, Mass. "All of that gets mixed into the bowl, and out of that comes a proposed rule or proposed set of regulations," Warren said. He then evaluates that proposal for compliance with other laws and for enforceability and administrative logistics.

"It's really a fascinating interdisciplinary field," Warren said of fisheries management. "I'm dealing with the fields of marine science, economics and sociology." He is currently working on management of the northeast multispecies, a group of species that includes the Gulf of Maine cod. To increase stock size, fishery scientists recommend drastic reductions in cod mortality; Warren expects the fishing industry will resist swallowing the bitter pill of new limits on catches.

He said he "dabbled in fish" in his journey to his current job. After graduating in 1982 he worked with inland fisheries in central Africa through the Peace Corps and went on to earn a master's degree in marine biology. Warren later worked for a Massachusetts scallop aquaculture outfit and then a Washington oyster aquaculture company. "I liked to refer to myself as an aquaculture slave," said Warren. "I cleaned tanks and got wet and spawned creatures."

Most recently Warren was a fisheries biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, where he collected data on fishery populations and on commercial and recreational fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico. "Along the way I wasn't sure where I was going," Warren said. "As I look backwards it pieces together nicely." And another advantage of Warren's policy analyst job: his wife and two kids are happy he no longer comes home from work smelling like fish.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Warren's current job is talking to fishermen. His favorite quote--"I've wrung more water out of my socks than you've sailed across"--came from a Down East fisherman. "It illustrates their perception that I'm some paper-pushing bureaucrat who doesn't know anything about the environment," said Warren. "How do I dare tell them anything?"

So, Warren listens to fishermen and explains the rationale behind regulations. He says it's worth the time spent. Even if fishermen still disagree with regulations he wants them to know the rules they're working under and that he is working for the fishermen and for their resource.

--Alicia Nemiccolo MacLeay '97