Matthew Isaiah Seal is a NOAA affiliate through Earth Resources Technology, a company that has been contracting with NOAA for over 18 years. His current position is located at the Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Pascagoula, Mississippi, with the Populations and Ecosystems Management Division's trawl unit. There, he works in collaboration with the Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) and state partners (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida) to conduct annual groundfish surveys (summer, fall) and plankton surveys (spring, fall) in support of fisheries management in the Gulf of Mexico. The surveys provide fisheries-independent data for the development of abundance indices. The indices are used in the population assessments of numerous species, including brown shrimp, white shrimp, red snapper, western Atlantic bluefin tuna, king mackerel, and gray triggerfish, among others.

Prior to working as a NOAA affiliate, Matthew earned a BS degree (Environmental Biology, Chemistry minor) from the University of Southern Mississippi, and a varied background in fisheries and marine sciences that extends to all three coasts. Matthew worked aboard longline, pelagic trawl, and demersal trawl vessels for five years as a certified North Pacific Groundfish Observer Program fisheries biologist, and also worked as a deckhand on fisheries surveys at the Gulf Coast Research Lab. He has additional research experiences, ranging from coastal habitat and water quality studies in Chesapeake Bay to examining melanosis in Gulf of Mexico brown and white shrimp.