Director Emeritus – Don Hammond is a retired marine fisheries biologist. He previously worked at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources where he led the development of a research program to address the migration of dolphinfish along the east coast of the United States. Mr. Hammond continued this research through Cooperative Science Services, LLC, a company he founded in 2005, to run the Dolphin Tagging Study.  In 2008, Mr. Hammond renamed the study the Dolphinfish Research Program which he led until he retired at the end of 2017.  Under Mr. Hammond’s leadership more than 1,600 recreational and commercial fishing vessels and 2,500 fisherman participated in the Dolphinfish Research Program in the Caribbean Sea, Central and South America , the Mediterranean Sea, and the Gulf of Oman.  In 2019, we were honored to present to him the Recognition of Distinguished Leadership award for founding the Dolphinfish Research Program and advancing its work.  Click here to read more about that award.