Contact:
Katherine Bunting-Howarth, New York Sea Grant Extension, E:
keb264@cornell.edu, P: 607-255-2832
Oswego, NY, Oct. 19, 2012 - Two Great Lakes coastal issue extension educators: Helen M. Domske, Buffalo, and David B. MacNeill, Oswego, have been honored for excellence by the Great Lakes Sea Grant Extension Network.
New York Sea Grant (NYSG) Coastal Education Specialist Helen M. Domske, Buffalo, received an Outstanding Outreach Award for public education programming related to the “Dose of Reality” campaign on the proper disposal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products to prevent the release of toxins into the Great Lakes.
Domske authored “Undo the Environmental Chemical Brew: Keep Unwanted Medications & Chemicals Out of the Great Lakes,” a publication co-produced by New York, Illinois-Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania Sea Grant programs with funding through the E.P.A. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
A survey by Domske’s Great Lakes Ecology students at the University of Buffalo indicated that a majority of their family and friends lacked awareness about proper disposal techniques.
Domske’s 4-page primer covers the impact of such substances as antibiotics, antidepressants, birth control pills, cosmetics, and even vitamins on the freshwater Great Lakes system that supplies drinking water to 42 million people in the U.S. and Canada.
NYSG Fisheries Specialist David B. MacNeill, Oswego, received the 2012 Superior Outreach Award for a workshop he developed to improve the design and use of trawls as a fisheries management tool in the Great Lakes. The workshop was supported by the Lake Ontario Great Lakes Regional Research Information Network (GLRRIN) Project.
MacNeill’s November 2011 workshop for managers of U.S. and Canadian Great Lakes fisheries valued at $5 billion resulted in efficiency modifications to three new Great Lakes trawling vessels and led to an improved understanding of the dynamics of prey fish capture by bottom trawls in the Great Lakes.
Additionally, a representative of the Czech Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Hydrobiology Fish Ecology Unit applied lessons learned at MacNeill’s 2008 trawl workshop, sponsored by Rhode Island Sea Grant, to the development of a new trawling research vessel now at work in the Czech Republic monitoring water quality in public drinking water reservoirs.
New York Sea Grant Associate Director and Cornell Cooperative Extension Assistant Director Dr. Katherine E. Bunting-Howarth said, “These well-deserved awards recognize the excellence of the programming developed by New York Sea Grant Extension educators throughout the state. The public reaps the benefits of their work to educate public and professional communities about how we can all help to maintain the vitality and environmental quality of New York’s Great Lakes and marine coastal ecosystems.”
More Info:
New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University
and the State University of New York, is one of 33 university-based
programs under the National Sea Grant College Program (NSGCP) of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NSGCP
engages this network of the nation’s top universities in conducting
scientific research, education, training and extension projects designed
to foster science-based decisions about the use and conservation of our
aquatic resources. Through its statewide network of integrated
services, NYSG has been promoting coastal vitality, environmental
sustainability, and citizen awareness about the State’s marine and Great
Lakes resources since 1971.
For updates on Sea Grant activities:
www.nyseagrant.org has RSS,
Facebook,
Twitter, and
YouTube links. NYSG also offers a free e-list sign up via
www.nyseagrant.org/coastlines for NY Coastlines, its flagship publication, and Currents, its e-newsletter supplement, each distributed 3-4 times a year.
