Last fall, New York Sea Grant’s David White (at left, alongside Larry Migliozzi, NYS Parks & Recreation Bureau Of Marine Services) was named the 2015 NASBLA Northern States Boating Educator of the Year. Photo/Ro Woodard, NYS Parks.

Ithaca, NY, April 7, 2016 - Already honored as the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation 2015 Boating Educator of the Year, New York State Sea Grant’s (NYSG) David White was recognized with a legislative resolution that included a round of applause in his honor during a recent session of the NYS Senate.

He was notified of the award via a letter from a letter of appreciation from State Senator Patty Richie, Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

“This really blew me away—I was caught completely off guard,” said White, a coastal recreation and tourism specialist with NYSG and Associate Director of the Great Lakes research consortium, who in 2015 also was named the Northern States Boating Educator of the Year by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators. “I am humbled and very honored to be recognized for doing something that I love.

“My favorite part of being an educator is working with those that live, work, and play along New York’s Great Lakes,” adds White, who is based at the State University of New York College at Oswego. “The issues we face are as diverse as our resources and each day can bring a new opportunity-challenge for extension education programming.”

A state-certified volunteer boating safety instructor since 1985, White has delivered educational outreach to thousands of New York mariners. He is widely recognized for the “Discover Better Boating” segments he hosts on Time Warner Cable News.

White is also credited with helping to spearhead creation of the premier exhibit at the 2014 Great New York State Fair. Titled “Great Shipwrecks of New York’s ‘Great’ Lakes,” the interactive presentation–featuring the work of together nine partner agencies–combined history, STEM education, boating safety and aquatic invasive species prevention. The educational experience was delivered to over 960,000 visitors at the 2014 fair and is now on display at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center in Erie, Pa.

According to Kathy Bunting-Howarth, associate director of NYSG, and Cornell Cooperative Extension’s assistant director for coastal programs, it is White’s ability to foster partnerships and promote collaboration that is his biggest strength. “For over 30 years, he has brought people together to add value to their individual contributions and develop a final project much greater than the sum of its parts,” said Bunting-Howarth. “He makes learning fun through combining boating safety, aquatic invasive species awareness and prevention, pollution prevention with recreation and an appreciation for our Great Lakes ecological as well as economic resources.”

On YouTube: New York State Boating Educator of the Year Award Ceremony (September 2015)


For more on NYSG’s Great Lakes Boating and Shipwrecks resources, got to: www.nyseagrant.org/marina and www.nyseagrant.org/shipwreck.


More Info: New York Sea Grant

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.

New York Sea Grant maintains Great Lakes offices at SUNY Buffalo, the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark and at SUNY Oswego. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and Stony Brook Manhattan, in the Hudson Valley through Cooperative Extension in Kingston and at Brooklyn College. 

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 its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published several times a year.