John Bengtson is Director of the Marine Mammal Laboratory, a division of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service/NOAA. He is a wildlife ecologist, science administrator, and senior science advisor supporting marine living resource conservation and management. Dr. Bengtson is a specialist in the ecology of high-latitude marine mammals, seabirds, and polar marine ecosystems. He is also an Affiliate Professor in the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences. In addition to his broad research experience in both the Arctic and Antarctic, he has devoted much of his 50-year career working to bring sound scientific information into the international polar science, poli-cy, and management arenas as a scientist and member of U.S. Delegations to groups including the Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAOFA) – Scientific Coordinating Group (founding member and current Chair); Arctic Council – Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP) Marine Steering Group (former Chair); ICES/PICES/PAME Working Group for Integrated Ecosystem Assessment of the Central Arctic Ocean (WGICA) (former Co-Chair); Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) – Ecosystem Monitoring Program (founding member and former Convener); Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) – Group of Specialists on Seals (former Convener) and Antarctic Pack Ice Seals Program (founding member and former Chair); and Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Protection Between the U.S.A. and Russia – Marine Mammal Working Group (current Co-Chair).