New donor joins Pollock Conservation Cooperative
February 8, 2012
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.