Seattle-based Trident Seafoods and IntraFish Media announced Friday that Trident will serve as gold sponsor of next month's Women in Seafood Summit in Seattle.

The event will bring some of the industry's most prominent and promising female executives together for a limited-seating FREE event to discuss one of the seafood industry’s biggest challenges: bringing more women into the sector.

"Trident Seafoods truly believes in the importance of bringing more women into our industry," said Torunn Knoph Halhjem, senior director for the global species management team at Trident.

"We are very committed to supporting IntraFish with the Women of Seafood Leadership Summit for many years to come."

IntraFish Publisher Paal Korneliussen said the initiative is one IntraFish is proud to support and promote together with Trident and others in the seafood sector.

"The seafood industry needs new talent. The fact is, we're missing out on a key demographic," Korneliussen said. "With IntraFish's reach and support from companies such as Trident, we're hoping to help expand the industry's pool of potential leaders."

IntraFish first launched the Women in Seafood initiative with a series of interviews with key female leaders in 2015 to a loud response to raise the issue even higher on the industry's agenda.

"We heard loud and clear that while women in the industry love the work, its people and the challenges, they also face numerous hurdles on their way to the top," said IntraFish Editor Elisabeth Fischer, who initiated the series. "And those same hurdles are keeping new women from entering the sector.

“This issue needs to be addressed and with the launch of the Women in Seafood Summit in Seattle IntraFish hopes to keep doing its part,” Fischer said.

Earlier this year, IntraFish conducted a survey together with the UK Seafish Industry Authority that found the industry needs to address serious challenges to attract and retain female talent.

In addition to Trident's support, Halhjem will join the lineup of speakers at the event.

A full schedule of the evening will be released soon. Executives are encouraged to request a seat at the event by visiting www.intrafishevents.com/womeninseafood.

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