KODIAK -- The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has a new executive director.

KMXT reports Michael Cerne will join the institute next month. That will allow for several months of overlap as he learns from Ray Riutta, who will retire as executive director at the end of the year.

Both men are retired Coast Guard officers. Cerne left the Coast Guard last year. His last post was in Juneau as manager of the Alaska fishery patrol operations.

Since his retirement, he's been working on a United Nations project to improve global tuna fisheries management.