Amy Sierra Martins

Amy Martins is the Deputy Division Chief for the Fishery Monitoring and Research Division (FMRD) at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) in Woods Hole Massachusetts, for the National Marine Fisheries Service.  The FMRD collects scientific information with commercial and recreational fishermen and support the use of that information to inform fisheries science and management.  As the Deputy Division Chief, Amy works in budget, communications, training, hiring, and contracts and serves as the Facility Director at the NEFSC Technology Park.  Amy oversaw the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program, the At-Sea Monitoring Program, and the Industry-Funded Scallop Observer Program for more than a decade, and led some of the first ventures in electronic monitoring.  Amy has worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service since 1991, starting out as an observer on scientific, fishing, and opportunistic research platform vessels.  She has a Wildlife Biology and Forestry Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Master of Science degree from the University of Maine Orono, in Wildlife Management.  Some of her specialties included aging and determining food habits of seals, wildlife photography, aerial and line transect surveys, and collecting genetic samples from free ranging whales and dolphins.  For several years, Amy worked at the Alaska Regional Office and managed the Alaska Marine Mammal Observer Program, conducting surveys and observations in the salmon gillnet fisheries in Kodiak and Southeast Alaska.  Amy has also worked on ecosystem surveys in Antarctica for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.  Amy is a member of the National Observer Program Advisory Team and is working with various Regional, National, and International working groups and steering committees on the efficient collection of fisheries data, and the safe and professional operations of research and observer programs.