June 22, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Kathryn Ford is now leading the center’s Population and Ecosystems Monitoring and Analysis Division. She is replacing Wendy Gabriel who retired in 2021 after 38 years with NOAA Fisheries.
This division executes a massive data acquisition, management, and analysis effort. It includes scientific ecosystem surveys on vessels operated by NOAA, universities, other national oceanographic laboratories, and fishing vessels. The team also analyzes biological trends in important fishery species. It conducts biological studies to understand how a range of ecosystem factors influence the growth and health of important fishery species.
Ford comes with a great respect for the work she will manage. “I believe in the science that this particular team brings to the table,” said Ford. “This division’s data collection and analysis are central to what the center does. They are the basis for all the other analyses.”
Ford comes to NOAA Fisheries after a career filled with multidisciplinary work in coastal and ocean science at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. Initially hired there to pilot a remotely operated towed vehicle in a conservation engineering study, she eventually rose to lead the division’s fisheries habitat program.
Trained as an oceanographer, Ford has applied those skills to coastal and ocean planning, artificial reefs and eelgrass restoration, aquaculture, and offshore wind energy development. She served on:
- The first state joint task force to work with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on wind energy areas off Massachusetts and Rhode Island
- The Northeast Regional Ocean Council
- The New England Fishery Management Council’s Habitat Plan Development Team