Dr. Robert Boenish is a marine ecologist who focuses on a wide variety of ocean issues from global fisheries and seafood nutrition to coral reef ecology, marine diseases, and how climate change affects marine ecosystems.  Growing up on an island in the Pacific Northwest, he naturally gravitated to the ocean, spending nearly a decade as an Alaskan commercial salmon fisherman before pursuing a PhD studying lobster ecology and international fisheries at the University of Maine. Robert has worked on ways to improve the sustainability of fisheries in developing countries and has also published on the global state of coral reefs. He currently works at the U.S. Department of State on global food security issues and focuses on how seafood contributes to human nutrition. In his free time, Robert is an avid SCUBA diver and free diver.