Graeme Macfadyen

Director

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Graeme Macfadyen is a founding Director of Poseidon with over 35 years of consulting experience in fisheries and the blue economy. Graeme holds a BA in Geography from Oxford University and an MSc in Fisheries Economics and a Postgraduate Diploma in Fisheries Economics from the University of Portsmouth. His career has focused on providing strategic, technical and economic advisory services to support sustainable fisheries and aquaculture development for governments, international organisations, NGOs and industry bodies.

Graeme specialises in fisheries governance (policy and management, monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing), fisheries economics (value chain analysis, investment appraisal and cost-benefit analysis, market research and development), and project design, monitoring and evaluation.

His advisory experience includes extensive work for consulting companies, NGOs and industry associations on large-scale regional and national programmes addressing fisheries governance, seafood value chains and blue economy development. He has supported both capture fisheries and aquaculture projects across marine and freshwater systems, combining economic analysis with practical sector knowledge. Graeme has extensive international experience in all regions of the world and ocean basins, with significant in-country field experience in more than 50 countries in addition to desk-based assignments supporting regional and global initiatives.

Graeme’s work has included:

Maldives: Project implementation support and restructuring for the Maldives component of the TransFORM project, and development of a 20-year fisheries and ocean resources master plan (World Bank, 2025 - 2026).

Mozambique: Team leader for the project formulation for an EU-funded blue economy intervention, focusing on fisheries, maritime transport, coastal tourism, land-based fish processing, and mariculture (EU, 2022 - 2023).

West Africa: Mid-term evaluation of the PESCAO project supporting improved fisheries governance, maritime domain awareness and combating IUU fishing in ECOWAS countries (EU, 2022).

Global: Senior adviser to the FAO FISH4ACP programme, refining value chain assessment methodologies, and designing and overseeing upgrading strategies for the mangrove oyster value chain in The Gambia and the tuna purse seine value chain in the Marshall Islands (FAO, 2021 – present).

Global: Development and bi-annual updates of a global IUU Fishing Risk Index using 40 indicators of port, flag and coastal State vulnerability, prevalence, and response (GI-TOC, 2020 – present).

Liberia: Team leader for a 3-year project building institutional capacity for fisheries management, MCS, stock assessment, business planning and M&E for the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (EU, 2020 - 2022).

Asia: Feasibility study of an ASEAN general fisheries policy with consideration and recommendations on policy content (GIZ/EU, 2019 - 2020).

Global: Value chain analysis of tuna catches, market flows, and prices by ocean area, species, flag, and fishing method, to determine a global ex-vessel and final market value of tuna in 2016, 2018 and 2020 (Pew Charitable Trusts, 2017 - 2021).

Indonesia: Team Leader for four supervision missions, the MTR, and the project completion report for a $42 million coastal community and livelihoods development project, supporting improved marine and habitat management, district and village-level infrastructure investments, value chain improvements, and marketing and processing enterprise groups (IFAD, 2014 – 2017).

EU/Global: Multiple ex-post and ex-ante evaluation of EU fisheries agreements with third countries in Africa and the Pacific, and evaluation of Regulation (EU) 2017/2403 on the Sustainable Management of External Fishing Fleets (EU, 2004 – present).

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