Francisco’s experience ranges all across the fisheries sector since the 80s, from a deckhand in small trawlers in Argentina, a crew and fisheries observer in the squid, hake and toothfish fleets, to an MSc in Fisheries Biology and a researcher in Argentina’s fisheries research and development institute. In the 90s, went back to be a fisherman in the tuna longilne fishery in the central southern pacific and later in New Zealand, where he work his way up from a crew member to a elected member of the NZ seafood Standards Council. He later joined FAO HQ in Rome as Fishery Officer for two years and then went back to specialist consulting.

He has expertise in a wide range of Fisheries areas, such as Applied Regulatory Compliance, Monitoring Control and Surveillance (MCS), EU IUU & SPS Market Access Requirements, Fisheries Development, Private Sector Support, Fisheries Research, and Project Management. In 2012, as part of a team, he worked on an evaluation of the implementation of Regulation 1005/2008 on IUU Fishing in 50 countries worldwide, in 2013 he peer review a EU Parliament study on the effectiveness of the EU IUU legislation. Since 2012 he has been supporting the EU IUU CCS structuring for the members of the Pacific Islands Fisheries Forum Agency under the EU funded DevFish II program

He holds a 2nd Mate license, a Masters in Fisheries Biology, and another in Food Science. He divide his work with the NZ fishing industry and over 10 international organizations worldwide.  (www. franciscoblaha.info)