New seafood processing workforce development coordinator joins Alaska Sea Grant

By Alaska Sea Grant | March 11, 2024
Marc Solano smiling while holding two large Alaskan salmon, and wearing a baseball cap, blue raincoat, and waiters. Behind him are three fishing poles a riverbank, across from which is green vegetation and a small building. Overcast skies overhead.
Marc Solano with two salmon in Kodiak, AK. Photo courtesy of Marc Solano.

Alaska Sea Grant welcomes Marc Solano as our new seafood processing workforce development coordinator. Based out of the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center, he will be responsible for organizing seafood processing training sessions.

“We’re very excited to have Marc on board,” said seafood marketing specialist Quentin Fong. “Marc will provide many essential services to our Kodiak community and Alaska at large. From coordinating statewide seafood processing workshops such as Smoked Seafood School, to being our workforce training liaison with the state’s seafood processing sector, he will certainly be a valuable addition to the Alaska Sea Grant team.”

Growing up in suburban Chicago, Solano studied natural resources and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois with a concentration in fish and wildlife conservation. While volunteering at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa, Solano decided to pursue a career in fisheries. 

“There’s something about sea creatures and being on and around water that’s irresistible,” Solano explained. “It’s almost hypnotic. This pull eventually took me up and down the West Coast, including Alaska!”

Marc Solano smiling while holding a very large bright orange fish, a shortspine thornyhead. Marc is wearing a neon yellow warm hat, blue hoodie, and orange overall waiters. The background is inside the hull of a fishing boat, with a metal door and fishing equipment behind him.
Marc Solano with a shortspine thornyhead fish near the Aleutian Islands, AK. Photo courtesy of Marc Solano.

Solano’s fisheries experience includes observing aboard commercial vessels in Alaska and California, sampling recreational fisheries and hatchery work with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, supporting research around Puget Sound and Olympic Peninsula with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and industry advocacy in Alaska.

“While my career includes frequent relocations, I am thankful to have a broad variety of experiences,” Solano said. “There’s always something you can learn.”

Solano also loves seafood. On a recent East Coast trip, he spent a few days in Baltimore to visit the National Aquarium and to try their famous crab cakes.

Marc moved to Kodiak in Spring 2023 and is excited to continue his Alaska adventure and play a role in the development of the state’s seafood sector.

Posted in news and tagged , , , ,