Patrick Keliher, commissioner of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources, was appointed as chairman of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The agency comprises 15 states that coordinate and manage fishery resources – including marine fish and shellfish – along the United States’ Atlantic coast. The announcement was made at a commission meeting in New Castle, New Hampshire, on Tuesday.

Patrick Keliher

“It is both a great honor and huge responsibility to be trusted to lead the commission for the next two years,” Keliher said in a statement. “I am humbled by my fellow commissioners’ confidence in me. While my obligation to the great state of Maine will always come first and foremost, I also recognize that Maine sits on boards for just 10 of the 27 species managed by the commission.”

Keliher said he was looking forward to enhancing the relationship between the commission and other regulatory authorities, and improving interstate fisheries management all along the Atlantic coastline. He succeeds James Gilmore of New York in the post.

Keliher, a Gardiner native, has been the commissioner of the Department of Marine Resources since 2012.

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