Preserving public access to Alaska’s halibut fisheryforrest@rqealaska.org
Experience on the water. Leadership for the future.
RQE Alaska is guided by charter operators, fisheries leaders, and policy experts who understand both Alaska’s halibut fishery and the coastal communities that depend on it.
2C + 3A
Both regulatory areas represented
On the water
Decades of operating experience
At the table
Deep fisheries policy leadership
Governance grounded in experience
Two regions. One shared responsibility.
The RQE board brings together leaders from Southeast and Southcentral Alaska with practical experience in charter operations, fisheries science, public process, and halibut management.
Their role is to steward the organization’s mission, oversee responsible quota acquisition, and help translate a complex federal program into lasting value for guided anglers.
IPHC Area 2CSoutheast Alaska
IPHC Area 3ASouthcentral Alaska
Board of Directors
Leaders who know the fishery firsthand.
Each director brings a different mix of operational, scientific, civic, and policy experience to the work of strengthening opportunity for guided halibut anglers.
Area 2CArea 3A
Area 2C · Southeast Alaska
Tom Ohaus
Charter operator · Fisheries policy leader
Founder of Angling Unlimited with more than 30 years in North Pacific sportfishing and over 25 years in Alaska fisheries policy.
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Captain Tom Ohaus has guided salmon and halibut sportfishing trips on the North Pacific for more than 30 years. He began guiding in Neah Bay, Washington, before moving to Sitka, Alaska, in 1993, where he founded Angling Unlimited, a full-service lodge and charter business.
Tom has been actively involved in Alaska fisheries policy for over 25 years through the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, the International Pacific Halibut Commission, and the Alaska Board of Fisheries. He founded the Southeast Alaska Guides Organization in 2008 and has served as its president. He has also served on the Catch Accountability Through Compensated Halibut board and as a sport fish representative on the Northern Panel of the Pacific Salmon Commission.
Tom was part of the team that drafted the original National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant application that helped move the RQE proposal through the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. His work with SEAGO and CATCH has involved extensive discussion and testimony on halibut allocation, regulations, catch shares, and bycatch. He holds a degree in fisheries management from the University of Washington.
Area 3A · Southcentral Alaska
Greg Sutter
Owner · Captain Greg’s Charters
A lifelong charter fisherman and Homer operator with decades of service in industry associations and federal halibut management.
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Greg is the owner and operator of Captain Greg’s Charters in Homer, Alaska.
He began charter fishing at age 13 as a mate in Wachapreague, Virginia, and earned his captain’s license in 1978. Greg fished throughout college and during six years of reserve service in the United States Coast Guard. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Old Dominion University, he worked as a loan office manager for Great Western Bank. He left banking in 1995, moved to Homer, and began operating Captain Greg’s Charters in 1997.
Greg has served as a board member or officer for the Wachapreague Guides Association, the Wachapreague Town Council, and the Virginia Charter Boat Association, where he was a founding board member. He was also a founding board member of the Alaska Charter Association.
Greg has been closely involved in federal sport halibut management from the development of the Guideline Harvest Level through current management issues and has served on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Charter Halibut Management Committee.
Area 3A · Southcentral Alaska
Brian Ritchie
Charter fisherman · Fisheries science background
A Homer-born charter fisherman whose experience spans fisheries science, the North Pacific Council process, and halibut research.
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Brian Ritchie is a charter fisherman from Homer, Alaska, where he was born and raised. He holds a master’s degree in environmental science, with studies focused on fisheries science.
In addition to serving on the RQE board, Brian has served as a voting member of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. Before joining the Council, he served for three years on its Advisory Panel, including two years as chair.
Brian has also served on the International Pacific Halibut Commission’s Research Advisory Board, as vice chair of the IPHC Conference Board, and on the North Pacific Research Board’s Advisory Panel.
Area 2C · Southeast Alaska
Jeff Wedekind
Founder · Chinook Shores
A Ketchikan lodge owner with commercial fishing roots, engineering experience, and years of engagement in charter halibut policy.
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Jeff Wedekind’s introduction to Alaska’s fishing industry began in the late 1970s as a crew member on the F/V Crane and F/V Bemis. He later financed his college education by working on trollers, seiners, longliners, tenders, and crabbers from the Gulf of Alaska to the Bering Sea.
After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Oregon Institute of Technology in 1989, Jeff managed high-profile commercial construction and land development projects, including marine facilities, highways, rural roads, and underground utilities.
In 2005, Jeff founded Chinook Shores, Inc., a Ketchikan fishing lodge he built from the ground up. He and his wife, Nada, continue to operate the business, which offers guided and unguided fishing for halibut and other species.
Jeff is a member of the National Association of Charterboat Operators and the Southeast Alaska Guides Organization and has served on the Alaska Charter Association board. He participated in North Pacific Fishery Management Council meetings during development of the Charter Halibut Permit and Catch Sharing Plan and has also participated in IPHC and Alaska Board of Fisheries meetings and served on the Ketchikan Fish and Game Advisory Committee.
MFPhoto coming soon
Area 3A · Southcentral Alaska
Mike Flores
Founder · Ninilchik Charters
A Kenai Peninsula charter and lodge operator with long-standing involvement in sportfish representation and halibut management.
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Mike started his first fishing business, Ninilchik Charters, in 1994. It has grown into one of the largest fishing charter and hunting transport companies on the Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak. The company operates a fishing lodge, an ecotourism lodge, and a boat-based hunting and fishing operation in Halibut Regulatory Area 3A.
Mike served as a sport fish representative during 2012 and 2013 meetings considering a potential trawl fishery in Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet. He has served on the Alaska Charter Association board since 2014, supporting its goal of preserving halibut fishing opportunity for recreational anglers and the charter businesses that serve them.
He has represented Area 3A charter interests on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Charter Halibut Management Committee and has served as a sport fish representative on the International Pacific Halibut Commission’s Conference Board.
Area 2C · Southeast Alaska
Russell Thomas
General Manager · Alaska Sportfishing Expeditions
A Ketchikan lodge operator with deep salmon and halibut policy experience and a central role in the early RQE effort.
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Russell is the general manager of Alaska Sportfishing Expeditions, a family-operated group of guided and self-guided fishing lodges in the Ketchikan area.
Russell has been active in fisheries policy for nearly 20 years. His service has included the State of Alaska King Salmon Management Plan Task Force, the Southeast Alaska Guides Organization board, the Catch Accountability Through Compensated Halibut board, the Pacific Salmon Commission’s Northern and Transboundary panels, and the Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association board.
Although much of Russell’s policy work has focused on salmon, he was part of the team that drafted the original National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant application that became a catalyst for the RQE proposal at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. Through SEAGO and CATCH, he has participated in extensive discussions and testimony on halibut allocation, regulations, catch shares, and bycatch.
Russell has worked in the guided fishing industry for more than 25 years. He and his brother, Rod, also own a small seafood processing company. Russell and his wife, Leah, live year-round in Ketchikan with their four children.
Area 2C · Southeast Alaska
Dave Creighton
Second-generation owner · Shelter Cove Lodge
A Craig business owner and second-generation lodge operator committed to the long-term future of Alaska sportfishing.
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David Creighton was born in Anchorage and has spent most of his life in Southeast Alaska. He and his wife, Jen, have three children.
David began working in the charter fishing industry at age 16 at lodges outside Ketchikan. He guided his way through Oregon State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in biology with a minor in geology.
After graduation, David worked in the geotechnical field on Alaska’s North Slope until his family asked him to return to Craig to take over operations at Shelter Cove Lodge. As a second-generation owner and operator, he has helped lead the family business while living and working in Craig for the past 18 years.
David has also founded and operates two other local businesses. He has served on the Craig Fish and Game Advisory Committee and was elected to the Craig City Council.
David is committed to supporting the long-term success of a potential third generation of his family’s business and of future operators across the industry by helping address the regulatory challenges facing Alaska sportfishing.
Area 3A · Southcentral Alaska
Garrett Lambert
Board of Directors
Garrett represents Area 3A on the RQE Alaska Board of Directors.
Full biography coming soon
What the board brings
Built for thoughtful stewardship.
The board combines practical charter-fishing knowledge with experience in the public processes that shape Alaska’s halibut fishery.
01
Operational knowledge
Real-world understanding of charter businesses, anglers, and coastal communities.
02
Policy experience
Years of work across federal, state, and international fisheries processes.
03
Long-term focus
Responsible stewardship of a program designed to build opportunity over time.
Organization staff
Turning board direction into action.
RQE staff manage the organization’s day-to-day work, policy development, quota-purchase efforts, industry communication, and federal reporting responsibilities.
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Richard Yamada
Executive Director
Richard brings nearly 40 years in the sportfishing lodge business and helped lead the RQE concept from feasibility study through federal adoption.
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Richard has been in the sportfishing lodge business for close to 40 years. His company operates five charter halibut permits in Southeast Alaska out of Juneau.
Richard served as project director and co-author of the 2012 CATCH Report, a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant project that studied the feasibility of a market-based transfer of halibut allocation between the commercial and recreational sectors under a catch sharing plan. He later helped initiate and guide this novel approach through the North Pacific Fishery Management Council process and its final adoption by the National Marine Fisheries Service as a Recreational Quota Entity in 2018. The program gives guided recreational anglers a way to participate in the Alaska Sablefish and Halibut Individual Fishing Quota Program.
Richard is a past president of the Alaska Charter Association and has served on the SEAGO board of directors. He has also served as a U.S. commissioner on the International Pacific Halibut Commission, representing Alaska harvesters, and on the Department of Commerce Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee, which advises the Secretary of Commerce on marine affairs.
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Forrest Braden
Assistant Executive Director
Forrest has worked in Alaska guided marine sportfishing since 1995 and brings extensive operational and fisheries-management experience.
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Forrest has been involved in Alaska guided marine sportfishing since 1995. For 28 years, he owned and operated True North Sport Fishing in Gustavus, Alaska, providing combination halibut and salmon fishing trips.
Forrest has served SEAGO as a board member and executive director since 2008. He sits on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Charter Halibut Management Committee and has served on the International Pacific Halibut Commission’s stakeholder Conference Board and Management Strategy Advisory Board.
Forrest also holds Individual Fishing Quota in the commercial halibut fishery.
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