WHHM Conversation: Celebrating 150 Years of Science at the Woods Hole Fisheries Lab

By Jon Hare, Science and Research Director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Woods Hole

Jon Hare has been the Science and Research Director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center since October 2016. He oversees science activities related to the NOAA Fisheries mission in the Northeast region, including fisheries, aquaculture, protected species, habitat, and ecosystem science. Hare received a PhD in Coastal Oceanography from State University of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook. He was awarded a National Research Council Research Associateship in 1994 to work at  NOAA’s Beaufort Laboratory and was hired by NOAA in 1997.
 
Jon Hare moved to NOAA’s Narragansett Laboratory in 2005, was appointed Oceanography Branch Chief in 2008 and Lab Director in 2012.  Before becoming Center director, he served as a Supervisory Research Oceanographer and Acting Ecosystems Processes Division Chief, managing division research while also managing personnel and research resources at five different locations in the center.
 
As Northeast Fisheries Science Center Director he is now located a NOAA’s Woods Hole Laboratory, one of the five research facilities in the Northeast that make up the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. NOAA Fisheries, founded as the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries in 1871, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. The Woods Hole Laboratory is the nation’s first marine research station, and is the founding laboratory of NOAA Fisheries, formally called the National Marine Fisheries Service.. 
 
Jon Hare’s research has focused on fisheries oceanography: understanding the interactions between the ocean environment and fisheries populations with a goal of contributing to assessments and management. He is also an expert on the effect of climate change on marine fisheries and the implications to coastal communities.