New donor joins Pollock Conservation Cooperative

February 8, 2012

Marmian Grimes

The Coastal Villages Region Fund, an Anchorage-based Community Development Quota group, is the newest member of the Pollock Conservation Cooperative, one of the largest private contributors to the University of Alaska.

The group contributed $150,000 to the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences in December.

The cooperative has donated more than $11.7 million to the school, funding the Pollock Conservation Cooperative Research Center, the Ted Stevens Distinguished Professorship of Marine Policy and the preservation of Ted Stevens’ papers at UAF’s Rasmuson Library.

Founded in 2000, the research center receives approximately $1 million annually from the pollock fleet for marine research and education. It funds scientists studying North Pacific marine and coastal ecosystem issues, fisheries, and marine mammals. Projects often involve graduate students working on their thesis research under the supervision of project leaders.

“The Pollock Conservation Cooperative has enabled our students and faculty to study important industry issues that would not have been possible otherwise,” said SFOS dean Michael Castellini. “Investing in higher education to study the health of the North Pacific and Bering Sea ecosystems promotes sustainability.”

Other Pollock Conservation Cooperative members include American Seafoods, Arctic Storm, Glacier Fish Company, Coastal Villages Region Fund, Starbound and Trident Seafoods Corporation.