NYSG’s Summer/Fall 2011 New York Coastlines is available as a pdf, both in its full print version (see sidebar at right) and as individual articles. For individual articles and back issues of New York Coastlines, click here.

From the Director

Welcome to the Summer/Fall 2011 issue of New York Coastlines. It has been very busy and productive summer for New York Sea Grant (NYSG). It began when NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco received an honorary degree from Stony Brook University and used the occasion to visit our NYSG program. It was also a summer that saw a great deal of the subject of much NYSG research—brown tide in Long Island waters. Now in the waning days of the season we are selecting our next new suite of peer-reviewed research projects.

In these last few months, Dr. Kathy Bunting-Howarth took up the reins of our NYSG Extension program by traveling from one part of the state to another, meeting with extension specialists and their stakeholders. Many of our extension activities are documented on our Web site which was upgraded early this summer. In fact, you can now click on the orange RSS feed icon on our home page to keep up with our latest events, press releases and funding opportunities.

The goal of this newsletter has always been to create a balance of stories about NYSG’s research and outreach efforts from both New York’s marine and Great Lakes districts. So we are especially proud to announce that in June, New York Coastlines won a Gold Award from the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) for writing with a specialized publication.

It is fitting that our flagship publication won gold as we celebrate 40 years of “Bringing Science to the Shore.” In a field of over 200 public sector publications, the judge said there were “excellent examples of solid writing techniques that can keep a diverse audience engaged in a science and technical based newsletter.”

Congratulations to Communications Manager Barbara Branca and Web Content Manager Paul Focazio who do the majority of the newsletter’s writing, to Sharon O’Donovan for layout, and especially to Susan Hamill (pictured at left), longtime Communications administrative assistant who has been the guardian of NYSG publications for over 20 years. After all these years of dedicated service, Sue retired at the end of July. Join us as we wish her good luck in her retirement. Thanks and we will miss you. At the same time, we now welcome our new administrative assistant, Leigh Hubbard.

— James Ammerman