UK-based Seafish announced Thursday (Jun 10) the appointment of John Whitehead as interim Chair of the organisation following the completion of Charles Howeson's three-year term as chair.

Speaking about his new role, Whitehead said: "I am assuming the interim chair of Seafish at a challenging time, when we are appealing against a Court of Appeal judgement that has affected more than half of our annual income. However, I am confident that we have the continuing support of government as we face the challenge of our appeal to the Supreme Court.

"More importantly, we are working on a fully-effective plan to improve our service to industry over the next three years and focus hard on delivering value for money against industry investment in us."

John Rutherford, Chief Executive of Seafish, said: "I join John Whitehead in thanking Charles Howeson for his distinguished contribution to our industry over the last three years. There could be no better candidate to replace Charles than John, who has long experience of the food industry and has already served as our Deputy Chairman since 2002."

Seafish is UK's only cross-industry public seafood body working with fishermen, processors, wholesalers, seafood farmers, fish friers, caterers, retailers and the import and export trade.