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Spring 2002 Newsletter

Thank You!:

The SEERS membership wishes to thank the organizing committee of the Spring 2002 meeting in beautiful Savannah, Georgia. Well done! Special thanks to Chandra Franklin, Whitney Palefsky and all the student volunteers from Savannah State University for their hard work in pulling off a great meeting. Much appreciation also goes to Marc Frischer, Keith Maruya and colleagues at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (University of Georgia) for hosting a terrific oyster roast. 

We had 87 registrants for the meeting - a great turnout for a post-ERF meeting. There were 24 platform presentations and 13 poster presentations, including 14 student presentations. A special feature of this meeting was inclusion of a special session featuring the Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program's Crustacean Workgroup. A series of presentations on fisheries habitat issues and research were given by members of the Workgroup. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission helped sponsor the meeting and provided two additional travel awards to students. Thanks also to the other sponsors of the meeting: NOAA Coastal Services Center, Savannah State University, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, Skidaway Marine Science Foundation, Turner Designs and YSI.

SEERS Student Awards:

Student Presentation Award Winners:

Congratulations to SEERS student members Kurt Bretsch (PhD candidate - USC Marine
Science program) for Best Graduate Student Presentation and Jeanne Zimmerman (Savannah State University) for Best Undergraduate Student Poster.

Student Travel Award Winners:

Congratulations to the following students who received SEERS travel awards to attend the Spring 2002 meeting: 

Straud Armstrong, University of South Carolina
*Jennifer Beseres, University of South Carolina
Sandra Fox, University of Florida
*Tara MacPherson, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Edward Majzlik, University of South Carolina
Suzanne Pickard, University of South Carolina
Jeffrey Pollack, Duke University Marine Lab

*funding provided by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program

Fall '02 Meeting:

The Fall '02 meeting of SEERS will be held at Coastal Carolina University, Conway, South Carolina and will be hosted by long-time SEERS member and newly appointed Member-at-Large Keith Walters. Welcome back to the area Keith! The meeting announcement and any additional meeting-related information will be posted on the SEERS web site as they become available between now and the meeting time.

Elections: 

At our spring meeting in Savannah, the SEERS membership elected new officers for the positions of President-Elect and Program Chair. We would like to welcome our new President-Elect Mike Mallin, UNC Wilmington, and our new Program Chair Marie DeLorenzo, NOAA/National Ocean Service and University of South Carolina. They join Alan Lewitus (President), Claudette Jenkins (Secretary-Treasurer), Keith Walters (Member-at-Large), Evan Chipouras (Past-President) and Susan White (Student Representative) on the SEERS Governing Board.

Special recognition goes out to outgoing SEERS Board Members for their dedication to SEERS:

- Evan Chipouras
President
2000-2002

- Eugene J. Olmi
Program Chair
2000-2002

-Lori J. Morris
Member-at-Large
2000-2002

Their hard work and enthusiasm have truly made an impact on SEERS. This is evidenced by the quality of our meetings, the growth and recognition of the society, and the collaboration and good times shared by the membership. Thank you!

SEERS Website: 

A new Web Committee has been formed to accommodate a number of additions proposed for the SEERS Website. The committee consists of Geno Olmi (Chair), Jennifer Cardinal, Marie DeLorenzo, Susan White, and the new Website Manager, Nick Stines. We are greatly indebted to Joan Herrera for her contributions as previous Website Manager, and Clay Montague as previous Web Committee Chair. One of the additions to the Website will be a SEERS student web page created by Student Representative, Susan White. The SEERS Website will continue to provide information and links about the Fall and Spring meetings and information for prospective members. Any questions, suggestions or information for the Website should be directed to Geno Olmi at Geno.Olmi@noaa.gov.