During the meeting of WG-SAM in Concarneau, France, we were lucky enough to be able to join the Mayor of Concarneau and staff from the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN) at an evening reception to celebrate the retirement of Prof. Guy Duhamel. Guy is a genuine CCAMLR legend, having first attended the Conference on the creation of CCAMLR in 1980 in Canberra, Australia. He estimates that he has spent a total of two and a half years of his life in CCAMLR meetings. In over 30 years of participation in CCAMLR, Guy has been the driving force behind the sustainable management of the fisheries around the French islands in the Indian Ocean sector of CCAMLR. He has led surveys to estimate the biomass of 20 fish species around Kerguelen and charted the recovery of previously overexploited species.

In addition to the magnificent scientific legacy that Guy has created, he has built an excellent succession plan and ensured that, while for much of his time in CCAMLR Guy was, by his own admission ‘a team of one’, France now has a team of fishery and ecosystem scientists that can continue to ensure that science remains at the core of fishery management in CCAMLR. Marc Eléaume, France’s Scientific Committee Representative to CCAMLR told the reception that ‘As the one following Guy in this position, I can assure you that I will do all that I can to ensure the legacy that Guy has built over the years is in good hands and will be developed further’.