WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • MARCH 2014 7 Gary Jensen is leaving his position as national program leader for aquaculture at the U.S. Department of Agriculture after 32 years of service with the Department and two Land Grant universities. Gary has dedicated his career to working with industry organizations and the university community to address critical needs, including farm worker safety, national effluent regulations, national organic aquaculture standards, seafood HACCP training, new animal drug approvals and more. Gary became interested in aquaculture as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador in 1970-72. After technical training at Oklahoma State University, he was a member of the first group of volunteers to initiate a nationwide fish culture program in research and extension. He left the School of Fisheries at the University of Washington to join the Peace Corps and later returned to complete his B.S. degree, then followed by M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at Auburn University. He led technical training programs in numerous Latin American countries while at Auburn University in cooperation with the US Agency for International Development. He was a member of a technical assistance team that developed a national aquaculture center in Egypt in 1981-1983 while working for the International Center for Aquaculture at Auburn. Gary was the first aquaculture extension specialist for Kentucky State University, from 1983 to 1985. He served as state aquaculture extension specialist for the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center from 1985 until 1990, when he became USDA’s first full-time national program leader for aquaculture. At USDA While at USDA, Gary administered, evaluated and coordinated aquaculture research and extension programs in partnership with the Land Grant university system, other client organizations and government agencies for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. He managed a significant part of the research portfolio and collaborated with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service on national aquaculture stakeholder workshops, including recent webinars to solicit stakeholder input on critical problems and priorities. He was federal manager for the Regional Aquaculture Centers and assisted the USDA Small Business Innovation Research Program. He collaborated with Land Grant and Sea Grant partners to form the National Aquaculture Educators Network, create the Aquaculture Network Information Center (AquaNIC), and establish the USDA-NOAA National Aquaculture Extension Steering Committee. He worked with NOAA Sea Grant in organizing five national aquaculture extension conferences and with NOAA’s Office of Aquaculture and USDA Agricultural Research Service on the alternative feeds initiative and report, The Future of Aquafeeds. Gary helped lead a collaborative project with the United States Aquaculture Society, American Fisheries Society Fish Culture Section and National Shellfisheries Association to evaluate aquaculture education at postsecondary institutions in the United States. He led several external reviews of university departments with recommendations to improve research, extension and higher education programs and functions. He has authored book chapters, scientific publications, technical papers and extension materials and had many opportunities over the years to present and share experiences, visions and information at national and international conferences. Interagency Task Force He was appointed by the Administration in 2010 to serve as chair of the Interagency Working Group on Aquaculture, where he led interagency efforts to advance aquaculture development in the nation. He helped lead the Working Group on Aquaculture Drugs, Biologics and Pesticides (for more than 15 years) and led the National Effluents Task Force (for 5 years) that assisted US Environmental Protection Agency develop national effluent limitation guidelines and standards for aquaculture facilities. Recent work focused on a National Strategic Plan for Federal Aquaculture Research and a new Aquaculture Regulatory Task Force to improve permitting for shellfish aquaculture and new operations in federal waters, considered milestones in the National Ocean Policy’s Implementation Plan. Efforts have focused on building a federal aquaculture community to leverage expertise and mobilize interagency efforts to address issues of national scope and importance. International Efforts International experience included chairing the external evaluation panel and member of evaluation teams for the US Agency for International Development to review their aquaculture programs; and assistance to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service for post-Hurricane Mitch assessment of agriculture sector in Central America, program manager for integrated farmed shrimp initiative in Central America, aquaculture feasibility study in Nicaragua, and water quality and effluents management in China. He was an invited lecturer at the last UN FAO Global Conference on Aquaculture in Thailand and a member of three US delegations to the UN FAO Subcommittee on Aquaculture. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 8) Aquaculture is Losing an Icon Gary Jensen, National Program Leader for Aquaculture at USDA, Retires Granvil Treece
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