NYSG’s Summer 2013
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
Friends and Colleagues,
Transition pervades everything. Nothing really remains the same; some things change quickly and some very slowly. Some transitions are cyclical and some are more linear. Living life is about dealing with transitions.
New York Sea Grant has experienced its share of transitioning recently. Director
Jim Ammerman took a position with Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences to lead an effort to develop closer ties between those institutions and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the matter of coastal storm forecasting, preparedness and protection. We wish Jim well in this important new endeavor and thank him for his contributions to Sea Grant in New York during his time with the program.
The New York Sea Grant Board of Governors asked me to step in as the program’s Interim Director upon Jim’s departure. I readily agreed. I had worked for the program from 1979 through 1986, first as Assistant Director and then as Acting Director. Having stayed close to Sea Grant over the ensuing years and having cut my eye teeth as a young professional with it, New York Sea Grant will forever occupy a warm spot in my heart. My welcome by the Sea Grant staff has been superb. Together with those fine and dedicated people, and a Board of Governors committed to Sea Grant’s future in New York, I am looking forward to providing the stability and leadership necessary to carry the program forward until a new Director is installed.
As I arrive, one of New York Sea Grant’s stars is beginning to leave. Seafood Specialist
Ken Gall is entering a phased retirement from our program after what can only be described as a stellar career “bringing science to the shore.” In his field of serving the seafood industry and innovating the science of seafood safety, Ken has touched the lives of thousands of business owners and consumers and his impact on our program has been immense.
The smooth running of the New York Sea Grant program owes a great deal to the competence of its fiscal officer. During this time of transition, NYSG’s fiscal officer,
Mary Kethman, has moved on to Stony Brook University’s Department of Information Technology and fiscal responsibilities are now in the very capable hands of
JeanAnn Johnston. We congratulate JeanAnn on her promotion.
One final transition, only tangentially associated with New York Sea Grant. New York State Senator
Owen Johnson retired from the Legislature at the end of 2012 (central in the photo below). From the time of his first election in 1972, Owen was “the Man” in the State Senate on marine fisheries issues, the principal Senate sponsor of every piece of significant marine fisheries legislation signed into law by a list of Governors. I do not think we will see Owen’s like again. We thank him and wish him well.
— Bill Wise
Saying farewell to NYS Senator Owen Johnson at the School of Marine Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University are (left to right) Cornelia Schlenk, NYSG Assistant Director; State Sen. Ken LaValle; Bill Wise, NYSG Interim Director and Associate Director, SoMAS; Sen. Johnson; State Sen. John Flanagan; Dr. Minghua Zhang, Dean, SoMAS; and Jim Gilmore, Marine Resources Bureau Chief, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.
Photo by Barbara A. Branca
