Dr. Josu Santiago

Dr. Josu Santiago received his Ph.D. in Biology, specializing in tuna biology and tuna population dynamics. He is Head of the Tuna Research Area at AZTI (Basque Country, Spain), where he has worked since 1985. At AZTI, he has participated in several national and international research projects in the field of fish biology and fish stock assessment, particularly in temperate and tropical tuna. Dr. Santiago also has fostered scientific collaboration between AZTI and ISSF.

He has contributed to numerous publications and has been actively involved in the scientific processes of most tuna RFMOs. Since 2015, Dr. Santiago has been the scientific coordinator of the EU Delegation to the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), a position he also held in relation to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

From 1992-1999, he was Head of the Department of Fishery Resources of AZTI and Chairman of the Albacore Working Group of ICCAT. Among other responsibilities, Dr. Santiago has been Director of Fisheries of the Basque Government (Spain) for three mandates (1999-2009) and chairman of the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS) of ICCAT for two mandates (2011-2014).