The International Pole and Line Foundation (IPNLF) is excited to announce that it has appointed two new directors to key positions in the organisation.
IPNLF is the only international charity that works to develop, support, and promote socially and environmentally responsible one-by-one tuna fisheries worldwide. IPNLF aims to contribute to thriving coastal fisheries, including the people, communities, businesses, and seas connected with them.
Taking over full responsibility for leading the fisheries team, Craig Turley has been appointed the new Fisheries Director.
Turley, working at IPNLF since 2020 as its Fisheries Improvement Consultant, has extensive experience implementing feet-on-the-ground projects and enjoys working closely with coastal fishing communities to help manage and drive community-based fisheries programs.
Before joining IPNLF and after completing his studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, he gained valuable experience as an at-sea fisheries observer and manager of a community bycatch reduction project on Masirah Island, Oman.
More recently, Turley led some of IPNLF’s most innovative projects, such as demonstrating how handline quality improvements can open new market opportunities and exploring alternatives to livebait in pole-and-line fisheries. As Fisheries Director, Turley will lead the development of new strategies to expand IPNLF’s work to new geographies, strengthening global one-by-one tuna supply chains and helping ensure that the organisation’s work remains relevant and pioneering in a fast-changing world.
Another change at IPNLF is the appointment of Shannon Hardisty as IPNLF’s Social Responsibility Director.
Hardisty will lead the charity’s work in understanding, enhancing and evidencing the social benefits of one-by-one tuna fisheries, provide social responsibility guidance to market actors, NGOs and advocacy groups and drive IPNLF’s agenda on social equity issues faced by small-scale fisheries.
Hardisty joined IPNLF in 2020 as a researcher for the social responsibility team, where she focused on better understanding the social benefits linked to one-by-one tuna fisheries and the labour and human rights issues in small-scale fisheries. In mid-2022, she was appointed as the organisation’s Indonesia Strategy Manager. In this role, she led the work of the Indonesia team, linking closely with government representatives, funders, IPNLF members and scientists to implement fishery improvement activities under various grants while seeking out new opportunities and collaborations.
Hardisty takes up the role at a timely point and will help realise the organisation’s ambition to accomplish its Social Responsibility Action Plan, thereby advancing fishers’ labour and human rights and protecting the health of our oceans.
She completed a Master’s degree at Rhodes University in South Africa, investigating small-scale fisher livelihoods and how this links to marine protected areas. She has also been involved in research projects on marine livelihoods, poverty alleviation in Kenya, and microplastic distributions in the Indian Ocean.
Commenting on the appointments, Martin Purves, IPNLF’s Managing Director, stated: “Shannon and Craig’s strong knowledge of our organisation and experience is vital as we continue our ambitious plans to grow and use the influence of the market to develop and demonstrate the value of one-by-one caught tuna to consumers, policymakers, and businesses throughout the supply chain. We are delighted to have found the right talent from within the organisation to drive two essential pillars of our organisation forward, not just under the current Strategic Plan but also into the future.”
Purves also acknowledged the significant contributions made by Turley and Hardisty’s predecessors, “I would also like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of Roy Bealey and Zacari Edwards, who led our work on fisheries and social responsibility, respectively. During the four and a half years that Roy led our fisheries team, we’ve seen tremendous growth in our influence and expansion to new geographies. We want to thank Roy for his dedication and his important contributions over the years. We are lucky that Roy, who is keen to spend more time with his family, will continue supporting the fisheries team in a part-time consulting role.
I would also like to acknowledge Zac’s many contributions over the years. Zac has been a driving force in establishing our Sourcing Transparency Platform (STP), growing our global influence on social responsibility in seafood supply chains, and contributing to our organisational effectiveness and fundraising. We wish him all the best in his new role as the Senior Seafood Campaign Coordinator at the Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum (GLJ-ILRF). I am sure he will continue to make valuable contributions in providing guidance and promoting accountability in the global seafood industry.
Purves added, “These are exciting times for IPNLF. We have taken a comprehensive approach to seafood sustainability for over a decade. We will soon be updating our next 5-year strategy and are keen to focus more on climate change solutions, reducing carbon emissions, incorporating new technologies and innovation, and addressing the high loss of biodiversity by incorporating nature-friendly commitments into the commercial operations of small-scale fisheries.
A paradigm shift is needed, and markets can play a crucial role in helping achieve a world more aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Now more than ever, we need to address the loss of biodiversity caused by industrial fisheries, the lack of transparency under which many of these fisheries operate and also better recognise the crucial contributions that responsible small-scale fisheries can make to ensure a future in which no one is left behind.”