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NORMA RE-ORGANIZATION

PALIKIR, Pohnpei (NORMA): July 14, 2008 - The National Oceanic Resource Management Authority (NORMA) convened a special meeting of the Board on July 14, 2008 in Palikir, Pohnpei to re-organize its officers and transact some business of the Authority.

During the meeting, Mr. Lorin Robert (At-Large) was elected as Chairman of the Board and Mr. Ricky Carl (Pohnpei) was elected to be his Vice-Chairman. Other members of the Board include Mr. Johnny Meippen of Chuuk, Mr. Thomas Tamangmow of Yap and Mr. Robert Taulung of Kosrae. NORMA welcomes the new Chairman and Vice Chairman. Mr. Robert and Mr. Carl replace Mr. Hubert Yamada and Mr. Francis Itimai respectively as Chairman and Vice-Chairman. Mr. Robert, in assuming the Chairmanship, thanked the members for the confidence in electing him as their Chair and emphasized that he would like to work closely with other members and management to carry out NORMA's work. He called upon his Vice-Chairman and members to assist him as much as possible. Mr. Robert has previously held the Chair position.

In other business, the Authority approved a proposal by Management to streamline responsibilities and reorganize the structure of the management staff in response to the current needs of the Authority. The new organization chart will be made available at www.norma.fm shortly. The change was prompted by the need to respond to the increasing responsibilities of NORMA under current and ongoing national, regional and international fisheries management issues.

The meeting also met with Mr. Peter Philipson and Mr. James Movick on the work to develop an FSM Commercial Tuna Industry Development Plan. The work was requested by FSM to develop strategies and identify options to develop the FSM Tuna industry with emphasis on private-sector participation and government merely providing a supporting role to these developments. The consultant was engaged by the Forum Fisheries Agency to assist FSM to prepare a national commercial industry development plan for consideration by the national and state leadership. The Terms of Reference for the Study was approved by President Mori late June.

The NORMA staff congratulates the newly elected presiding Officers of the Authority and looks forward to working with them. They also thanked and acknowledged the good work that was put in by the outgoing Chair and Vice Chair.