Gilles HOSCH
Managing Director of Diatom Consulting / Independent Researcher, Luxembourg
Gilles Hosch is a marine biologist by training. He has a vast international track record as a fisheries management adviser, with a focus on IUU fishing, and monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) work. He started his career in fisheries in 1998 as an officer of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with postings to Samoa (Polynesia) and Ghana (West Africa). In 2001, Gilles became an independent adviser and researcher, and started a first posting as an MCS adviser to the Ministry of Fisheries in Angola in 2002. As of mid-2003, Gilles focused on implementation of short-term assignments with Government agencies in developing countries under the auspices of the specialized Agencies of the United Nations, assisting their various efforts in developing their capacity in the domain of MCS. Gilles has implemented advisory and research work in over 70 countries worldwide. This includes the formulation of national plans of action to combat, deter and eliminate illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (NPOA-IUUs) – including the 2007 NPOA-IUUs for Mozambique and the Seychelles, the 2008 and 2010 NPOA-IUUs for Madagascar and Djibouti, and the 2015 NPOA-IUU for Myanmar. Gilles has also been active in fisheries project monitoring and evaluation work, evaluating several large fisheries projects worldwide, and implemented the final evaluation of the "MCS of highly migratory large pelagics of the Indian Ocean" project – which finished in 2008, and the Indian Ocean Regional Tuna Tagging Project of the IOTC – which finished in 2011. Gilles has authored and co-authored a number of FAO technical reports, articles in the peer-reviewed academic press, and other materials. His publications cover diverse fisheries management and policy areas, including - but not limited to - coastal fisheries survey design, trade measures to combat IUU fishing, the IUU Fishing Index, training resource materials for fisheries managers, catch reconstructions, and monitoring of environmental contaminants in target species.