Dr. Dmitry Lajus

Dr. Lajus is an independent Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) consultant and fisheries expert, currently affiliated with the Estonian Marine Institute, University of Tartu. Since 2017, he has partnered with ForSea Solutions, conducting MSC pre-assessments for Pacific Salmon, Alaska Pollock, Pacific Cod, and Pacific Flatfish in the Russian Far East.With extensive experience across multiple organizations, Dmitry has led 28 MSC Fisheries pre-assessments, 17 full assessments, and 13 Chain of Custody (CoC) audits across Europe and Asia. His CoC audit work spans Pacific salmon processing plants and vessels in Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands (Russia), as well as value-added production factories in the United Kingdom.As part of his MSC expertise, he has collaborated with leading conformity assessment bodies (CABs) such as MRAG Americas, SCS Global, and Control Union, and worked alongside eNGOs like World Wildlife Fund and Wild Salmon Center to support responsible fisheries practices.Dmitry specializes in population biology of marine fish and invertebrates, phenogenetics, stress assessment in marine environments, historical ecology, and population dynamics. Before joining the University of Tartu, he spent two decades as an Associate Professor at St. Petersburg State University. His academic contributions include numerous peer-reviewed publications, including MSC assessments.A Fulbright Fellow at the University of New Hampshire (2006), Dmitry holds an M.S. from St. Petersburg State University and a Ph.D. from the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. He is fluent in English and Russian.