Molly Masterton

Senior Attorney, Fisheries, Nature

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Kari Birdseye
415-875-8243
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Molly Masterton works to promote sustainable fisheries management and the application of ecosystem-based management tools to ocean resources in the United States and abroad. Prior to joining NRDC, she clerked for the Maine supreme judicial court, served as a graduate research fellow for Pace Law School's environmental law program, and worked as a wildlife conservation educator. She graduated from Bowdoin College before going on to receive her JD from the George Washington University School of Law and a master of laws in climate change and energy law from Pace Law School. She is based in New York City.

This website provides general information, not legal advice. If you need legal help, please consult a lawyer in your state. Molly Masterton does not hold themself out as a specialist in a particular area of law or law practice.

Areas of Work
Ocean Agriculture & Food

Related content

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A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter hovers over a fishing vessel in the Northern Pacific Ocean.

This National Seafood Month, Support Fair Seafood

Expert BlogUnited StatesMolly Masterton
This National Seafood Month, much work remains to tackle illegal fishing and labor abuses that pervade the global seafood industry.

U.S. Seafood Import Monitoring Program Needs Strengthening

Expert BlogUnited StatesSandy Aylesworth, Molly Masterton
New NRDC report provides recommendations to improve seafood traceability and combat IUU fishing.

Senate Passes Measures to Combat Illegal Fishing

Expert BlogUnited States, InternationalMolly Masterton, Valerie Cleland
A defense package with IUU fishing reforms is headed to the president's desk.

Resources

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Strengthening U.S. Leadership to Deter Illegal Seafood: Implementation Challenges and Recommendations for the Seafood Import Monitoring Program

Issue BriefUnited States, InternationalSandy Aylesworth, Molly Masterton
As the world’s largest seafood-importing nation by value, the United States holds outsize purchasing power and the market leverage necessary to help transform the seafood industry and eliminate destructive illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

Building Climate-Ready Fisheries and Fishing Communities

Issue BriefUnited StatesDr. Lisa Suatoni, Molly Masterton
Warming waters are driving a mass migration of life beneath the sea—and a decades-old fishery law cannot keep up without climate-ready science and policy.

Unethical Seafood: How U.S. Leadership Can Curb Illegal Fishing

Fact SheetUnited States, InternationalDillon Hanson-Ahumada, Molly Masterton, Irene Gutierrez, Sandy Aylesworth
Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a major driver of harmful overfishing. IUU fishing depletes fish populations, harms marine habitats, and endangers sensitive species, and is also linked to transnational crimes, including human trafficking, money laundering, murder at sea…