World Seafood Congress 2023

Melanie Siggs has worked internationally in strategic roles for both commercial and NGO organisations across the food and timber sectors, and has specialised in fisheries and aquaculture over the past 14 years. She is a Director of the Global Seafood Alliance, Vice President of The Centre for Responsible Seafood and an Advisor to the World Economic Forum’s Ocean Program ‘Friends of Ocean Action’.  Melanie is a former Special Adviser to HRH The Prince of Wales’ International Sustainability Unit.  Melanie is a frequent speaker on sustainable seafood and a regular facilitator for UN FAO, The High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, OECD, World Economic Forum and The Economist. She is an Honorary Professor of the Heriot Watt University, Scotland, and holds an MSc in Responsibility & Business Practice (Bath). 

Paolo Caricato is a veterinarian and started his professional career in the Italian Ministry of Health in 1991. He was Director of the Border Control Post of Venice. He joined the EU Commission in 1999, starting as auditor for fish and shellfish hygiene in the former Directorate-General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO) in Dublin (Ireland), and performed numerous audits in EU member States and third countries. In 2002 he reached DG SANCO headquarter in Brussels where, thanks to the experience gained both in Italy and as auditor, started to work on the revision of the legislation on the hygiene of fishery products and bivalve molluscs.Today he is the official responsible in DG SANTE for the legislation on fish and shellfish hygiene and participates regularly in training missions with the EU’s Better Training for Safer Food Programme.

Ricardo graduated in Biology in 1999 from the Faculty of Sciences of Lisbon University, where he also obtained his PhD in Biology (specialization in Animal Biotechnology) in 2005. In 2008 he joined the University of Aveiro where he is now Principal Researcher working on applied marine ecology, sustainable aquaculture and blue biotechnology. He currently coordinates the CITAQUA Project under the Blue Hub initiative, part of the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan. He has authored more than 250 peer reviewed scientific publications, and is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Aquaculture, Fish and Fisheries and Associate Editor of the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society. He is also a Co-Representative of Portugal in the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) – Fisheries and Aquaculture Research group – advising the European Commission. Previously he was a member of the board of the BlueBio Alliance, and mentor of the Blue Bio Value Acceleration Program (promoted by Fundação Oceano Azul and Fundação Callouste Gulbenkian).

Alison Turnbull leads the Fish Health, Biosecurity and Seafood Safety team at the University of Tasmania, where her research is focused on current and emerging seafood safety and market access issues impacting the Australian seafood industry. Her research is aimed at risk mitigation and improving options for risk management, working with a broad range of seafood sectors and government stakeholders. Alison’s current research projects include marine biotoxins in seafood (shellfish, rock lobster, abalone, urchins and periwinkles); heavy metal contamination in lobster; management options for faecal risk management and vibrio risk assessment in shellfish growing areas. She currently leads SafeFish, an industry and government funded initiative providing technical support on food safety and hygiene issues for trade and market access for Australian seafood.

Mark has a BSc in Fisheries Science from the University of Plymouth (UK) and is currently employed as a Shellfish QA Specialist at the University of Tasmania. Mark's previous roles have included Executive Officer for the Seafood Importers Association of Australasia, Seafood QA Manager at Bidfood Australia, Risk and Compliance Manager at Sydney Fish Market, and Senior Fish Technologist at Seafish Industry Authority in the UK. Mark, who is a past president of IAFI, is committed to ensuring the seafood industry provides safe and sustainable seafood to global consumers now and into the future. 

Ana is Professor at the Analytical Chemistry and Food Department of the University of Vigo in Spain, and until recently was also Director of the EU Reference Laboratory for the control of Marine Biotoxins (2009-2021). She specialises in the development of chromatographic-based analytical methods for the analysis of marine biotoxins. She has previously worked at the Institute of Marine Biosciences in Halifax, Canada and at the Food Research Division of the Ministry of Health in Ottawa, Canada. She has been engaged in several scientific and advisory committees related with marine and freshwater toxins (including AOAC, CODEX, EFSA; EU Commission, FAO, ETC) and has supervised numerous Doctoral and Master’s Degree research projects. 

Yahya Mgawe is a former Chief Executive of the Fisheries Education and Training Agency (FETA) and current Chair of the Board of Directors of Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIRI). He is a member of the Steering Committee of the African Network on Fish Technology and Safety (ANFTS). Mgawe is a Fish Value Chain & Fish Loss and Waste expert with over 30 years of experience in providing fisheries education and training to fisheries experts from across Africa and consultancy services for FAO and other agencies in several countries around the world. He holds MSc and MBA degrees and is currently a senior adviser on fisheries matters to the Government of Tanzania.

Steve Jones is a Research Associate Professor of Natural Resources and Marine Science at the University of New Hampshire. His main research focus is the ecology and management of pathogenic Vibrio species in coastal ecosystems and bivalve shellfish. Dr. Jones is also the Associate Director for Research of the New Hampshire Sea Grant Program.