NEWSROOM
Louisiana
Sea Grant Extension Agents Receive National Recognition
August
30, 2007
Three Louisiana
Sea Grant Extension/LSU AgCenter agents are the recipients of
the Superior Outreach Award from the national Assembly of Sea
Grant Extension Program Leaders (ASGEPL) for their response and
continuing recovery work following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The three receiving
the national award are Albert “Rusty” Gaude’,
associate area agent for St. Bernard, Plaquemines and Orleans
parishes; Kevin Savoie, area agent and fisheries agent for the
Southwest Louisiana Region; and Mark Schexnayder, area fisheries
agent and hurricane program coordinator for Southeast Louisiana.
In March, the trio received the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea
Grant Extension Network’s Outstanding Group Achievement
Award.
“Their work is
a magnificent example of what a few dedicated Sea Grant people
can accomplish working in a Sea Grant fashion – addressing
a critical need in a timely, professional manner, and enlisting
and involving multiple agencies and citizens’ groups,”
said Jack Thigpen, ASGEPL chair. “What distinguishes their
work from the other truly excellent nominees from the Sea Grant
network this year is that the Louisiana project was conceived,
started, and carried out while the agents themselves were in extremis
due to the personal impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on them.”
The 2005 hurricane
season brought unprecedented devastation to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Despite all three agents being displaced by either Hurricanes
Katrina or Rita, they quickly returned to assist their constituents,
most notably fishermen and local governments.
Among the trio’s
recovery efforts were: soliciting a Marine Travelift from Valdez,
Alaska, to get commercial fishing boats back into the water; aiding
operators of critical seafood processing facilities in reopening;
acquiring industrial ice machines to serve the needs of fishermen
in southeastern and southwestern coastal parishes; aiding in the
relocation of a displaced Lake Pontchartrain Commercial Fishermen
Association fleet; and storm debris marking and removal on Calcasieu
Lake.
Many of their
efforts are chronicled in a short documentary titled Sister Storms:
A Louisiana Sea Grant Response. The film is available for viewing
at www.laseagrant.org/comm/media.htm.
“The agents were
innovative and adaptive in their methods, particularly since the
world as they and coastal residents had known it had been shattered
by the storms,” said Thigpen. “The significance of
their effort is two-fold. It has profound implications on the
ability of the commercial fishery and coastal communities to rebound
in Louisiana. It also is a working demonstration of the significance
of Sea Grant extension work.”
The Assembly of Sea
Grant Extension Program Leaders facilitates communication and
interaction among the Sea Grant Extension programs and with others
in and outside of the Sea Grant network, and improves the delivery
of science-based information to constituent groups at the local,
regional and national levels in support of the Sea Grant mission.
Since its establishment
in 1968, Louisiana Sea Grant has worked to promote stewardship
of the state’s coastal resources through a combination of
research, education and outreach programs critical to the cultural,
economic and environmental health of Louisiana’s coastal
zone. Louisiana Sea Grant, based at LSU, is part of the National
Sea Grant Program, a network of 32 university-based programs in
each of the U.S. coastal and Great Lakes states and Puerto Rico.
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