Speakers

Salvatore (Sal) Aurigemma serves as the Investigative Support Program Manager (ISPM) for NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) Pacific Islands Division. A retired Naval Officer with over 20 years of IT and cybersecurity experience as a Department of Defense civilian and contractor, he holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Information Sciences from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

In his current role, Dr. Aurigemma serves as the primary manager for the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) for the U.S. fishing fleet in the Pacific. His team is a cornerstone of OLE’s mission to combat Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, leveraging advanced technical expertise in information systems and maritime domain awareness tools to ensure fleet compliance.

Beyond fleet oversight, his team actively monitors the vast U.S. Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) across the Pacific and Oceania to detect IUUF activity and unauthorized foreign vessel incursions. This critical mission safeguards the economic and ecological integrity of marine resources throughout the region and is bolstered by close cooperation with a network of domestic and international partners, including the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of State, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, and international bodies such as the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA).