US nonprofit Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) Global Tuna Director Tom Pickerell stepped down from his position in September to kick off his own consulting endeavor Tomolamola Consulting.

Pickerell will lead the Global Tuna Alliance (GTA), backed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) until December 2020 at which the alliance needs to consider alternative funding, he told IntraFish.

His responsibilities will include working with retail and other tuna supply chain businesses to eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and ensure tuna meets the highest standards of environmental performance and social responsibility.

As a first task, the consultant will set up the GTA website to explain a bit more about the program.

Pickerell was responsible for the group's tuna work program at SFP, including the global fresh and frozen tuna supply chain roundtable and canned tuna program.

Prior to SFP, the marine biologist was Seafish's technical director for nearly four years.

He has also held several seafood related roles in Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Shellfish Association of Great Britain, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as well as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Pickerell recently shared his opinion on how sushi can change consumer seafood choices in response to IntraFish reporter Nina Unlay's article on the three new Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standards for tropical marine finfish and flatfish.