Mandate & Expertise
Chopin - Fisheries and Blue Economy Advisory is led by Francis “Frank” Chopin (BSc Fisheries Science, Plymouth, 1979; DSc Fisheries Science, Tokyo University of Fisheries, 1996), a senior commercial fisheries development specialist with more than thirty years of experience across fifty countries. Prior to establishing the practice, Francis served as Chief of the Fishing Operations and Technology Branch at FAO Rome (2007–2015) and as Senior Fisheries and Aquaculture Officer and Multi-Disciplinary Team Leader at the FAO Sub-regional Office for the Pacific Islands (2015–2018), where he held responsibility for fisheries and aquaculture programming across fourteen Pacific Island countries.
Francis has led the formulation and technical oversight of more than USD 200M in fisheries and aquaculture projects, and works directly with multilateral development institutions — principally the World Bank and FAO — as well as national governments, regional fisheries bodies, and NGOs. Engagements span the full project cycle from scoping and feasibility through policy design, technical specification, and implementation support.
Since 2018 has operated principally in Small Island Developing States across the Pacific and Atlantic-Caribbean regions, delivering technically rigorous analysis grounded in peer-reviewed evidence and data from authoritative international institutions.
Frank lives and sails in Eastern Canada with his wife Teresa and daughter Victoria. A field practitioner at heart, he brings direct on-the-water experience into the policy and advisory arena — ensuring that projects are pragmatic, people-centred, and grounded in the realities faced by fishing communities, vessel operators, and the agencies that serve them.
Core Competencies
- Fisheries value chain development & investment analysis
- Risk assessment for offshore fisheries operations
- Fisheries & aquaculture policy evaluation
- SIDS blue economy strategy & governance
- Workforce development & technology transfer
- Abandoned, lost & discarded fishing gear (ALDFG)
- Fisheries data systems & digital tools
- FAO, World Bank & OECD project frameworks
- Fishery registries & licensing systems
- Fish aggregation devices (FADs)
- Monitoring, control & surveillance (MCS)
- Marine plastic pollution
- Safety at sea
- HR capacity assessment
- Fisheries meeting & workshop facilitation
- Mentoring of Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture staff
- Provision of advice to decision makers
Prior Institutional Experience
2007 – 2015 · Rome, Italy
Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations
Chief, Fishing Operations and Technology Branch
Led the technical and administrative direction of the FAO Fishing Operations and Technology Branch, with thematic leadership across fishing operations, energy use and GHG mitigation, abandoned and lost fishing gear (ALDFG), bycatch, IUU fishing and MCS, safety at sea, and low-impact fuel-efficient capture techniques. Coordinated the development of national, regional, and interregional technical cooperation projects and represented FAO at international policy fora. Fostered the formulation of international fisheries projects in excess of USD 100M.
2015 – 2018 · Pacific Sub-region
Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations
Senior Fisheries & Aquaculture Officer · Multi-Disciplinary Team Leader — FAO Pacific Subregional Office
Responsible for the design and implementation of fisheries and aquaculture projects across fourteen Pacific Island countries, and for coordinating the technical work of all officers in the FAO Pacific sub-regional office across fisheries, forestry, agriculture, and food security. Led design of projects ranging from small country-level assignments to large multi-country programmes, and provided strategic and technical advice to FAO member countries and regional organisations including FFA and SPC.
1998 – 2002 · Yokohama, Japan
Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Senior Fisheries Advisor
Served as Senior Fisheries Advisor within Japan's Official Development Assistance programme, leading the development and delivery of fisheries training programmes and providing specialist fisheries development advice through technical missions to partner countries across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia.
1987 – 1996 · St. John's, Canada
Fisheries and Marine Institute
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Director, Fishing Technology Unit
Established and directed the Fishing Technology Unit (FTU) as a world-class research, development, and training centre. Led commercial fisheries R&D programmes including small boat deep-water trawling, design of trawls to reduce non-target species and sizes of fish, and spearheaded the international marketing of the FTU.
World Bank Engagement
2018 – Present · International
The World Bank Group
Senior Fisheries & Aquaculture Consultant
Engaged as the lead fisheries and aquaculture specialist across a portfolio of World Bank lending operations, spanning project design and formulation, field site inspections, technical backstopping to task team leaders, data analytics and monitoring and evaluation, and direct provision of technical advice to government counterparts and fisheries ministries. Projects cover Pacific and Atlantic-Caribbean SIDS, with engagements running from early-stage scoping through to implementation support:
- —Grenada, St. Lucia & St. Vincent and the Grenadines — Unleashing the Blue Economy (UBEC) P181493
- —Cabo Verde — Resilient Tourism and Blue Economy Development P176981
- —Marshall Islands — PROP Economic Recovery & Resilience P178544
- —Federated States of Micronesia — PROP Economic Recovery & Resilience P151754
- —Solomon Islands — PROP Second Phase Economic Resilience P177239
- —Forum Fisheries Agency — PROP Second Phase P177661
- —Belize — Blue Cities and Beyond Program P181064
- —Samoa — Samoa Agriculture & Fisheries Productivity and Marketing Project (SAFPROM) P165873
- —PROBLUE Pacific — Marine Pollution & Ghost Fishing Gear Advisory
Private Sector Experience
2002 – 2007 · Atlantic Canada
Kanada Tuna Corporation
Manager
Managed operations of a Canadian-Japanese joint venture longline fishing company harvesting tunas in Atlantic Canada. Responsibilities encompassed vessel operations management, compliance with DFO licensing and quota requirements, coordination with Japanese joint venture partners, fish handling and product quality oversight, and commercial sales. The engagement provided direct industry-level experience in the economics, logistics, and regulatory environment of commercial tuna longline operations in a temperate Atlantic fishery context. Additional responsibilities included the design and evaluation of exploratory fishing surveys targeting bigeye (Thunnus obesus) and yellowfin (Thunnus albacares) tuna in Atlantic Canadian waters. In addition to his management role, Frank held a commercial tuna fishing licence, giving him direct regulatory and operational standing as a licence holder within the Canadian Atlantic tuna fishery.
2002 – 2007 · Canada
Canadian Fisheries Consulting
SME Development
Independent Fisheries Consultant
Concurrent with the management of Kanada Tuna Corporation, Frank operated as an independent fisheries consultant working directly with Canadian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to develop commercially viable small-scale fisheries. Work encompassed project design, funding proposals, industry-government liaison, at-sea and shoreside data collection and analysis, preparation of work plans, scientific and technical reports. Engagements supported SMEs in navigating the regulatory, scientific, and commercial dimensions of developing new fisheries, bridging the gap between field-level operators and the institutional funding environment.
Advisory Approach
Evidence-Based Analysis
All advisory outputs are grounded in peer-reviewed literature and data from authoritative institutions validated through stakeholder consultations.
Policy-Grade Rigour
Deliverables are structured to meet the technical and editorial standards required for multilateral development institution engagement.
Context-Sensitive Design
Recommendations account for the specific governance, financial, and environmental constraints of SIDS contexts, avoiding transplanted solutions that ignore structural realities of Small Island Developing States.