1999

24th NMEA Conference

August 6-11, Charleston, South Carolina (College of Charleston)
Theme: Exploring Our Coastal Heritage: A Voyage Through Cultures, Lands, and Seas

Executive Committee

President: Joy L. Wolf (CA) (1998-99)
President-Elect: Rob Moir (MA)
Membership Secretary: Sharon H. Walker (MS)
Treasurer: John Trowbridge (LA)
Secretary: Pam Stryker (TX)
Editor of Current: Nora L. Deans (CA)
Editors of NMEA news: Catherine Seymour and Johnette Bosarge (MS)
Administrative Assistant (National Office): Catherine Seymour/ Johnette Bosarge (MS)

Board of Directors:

(1996-99): John Dindo (AL), Terri Kirby Hathaway (NC), Gene Williamson (OR)
(1997-00): Vicki Clark (VA), George Duane (NH), Pam Wingrove (FL),
(1998-01):Rita Bell (CA), Cathy Lepore (CT), David Niebuhr (VA),
(1999-02): Dru Clarke (KS), John Dindo (AL), Terri Kirby Hathaway (NC)

Chapter Representatives:

FMSEA (Florida Marine Science Educators Association): Alex Waters (FL)
GAME (Georgia Association of Marine Education): Gail Joiner (GA)
GLEAMS (Great Lakes Educators of Aquatic and Marine Science): Bill Simpkins (OH)
GOMMEA (Gulf of Maine Marine Education Association): Don Hudson (ME)
MAMEA (Mid-Atlantic Marine Educators Association ): Tony Thomas
MME (Massachusetts Marine Educators):Gail Brookings (MA)
NAME (Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators): Mike Spranger (WA)
NJMEA (New Jersey Marine Education Association): Mary Masterson (NJ)
NYSMEA (New York State Marine Educators Association): E. Bruce Carlsten (NY)
OCEANIA: Mary Gullickson (HI)
SAME (Southern Association of Marine Educators): Jean May-Brett (LA)
SCMEA (South Carolina Marine Educators Association): Elaine McClure (SC)
SENEME (Southeastern New England Marine Educators): Cathi Lepore (CT)
SWMEA (Southwest Marine Educators Association): Beth Thomsen
TEAMS (Tennessee Educators of Aquatic and Marine Science): Diane Nelson (TN)
TMEA (Texas Marine Educators Association): Rick Tinnin (TX)

Awards:

James Centorino Award: Sarah V. Mitchell (GA)
Outstanding Teacher Award: Julie S. Cliff (SC)
Marine Education Award: Sharon H. Walker (MS)
President’s Award: Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums

Joy Wolf (CA), Sarah Mitchell (GA), Julie Cliff (SC), and Bill Simpkins (OH) were among the honored NMEA members. (Photographer is unknown)

Conference Highlights

This advertisement (actual size) was passed out at the 1998 conference. It provided everyone with information about the 1999 conference dates. It also provided a sample of grits. When the cover was lifted, inside was a recipe for making “Folly Island Style Shrimp and Grits.” (Clever girls........ those co-chairs for the conference: Wendy Allen and Paula Keener-Chavis.)(Photograph by Susan Leach Snyder)

Right: This conference announcement was distributed prior to the conference. (Photograph by Susan Leach Snyder) (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

The South Carolina Marine Educators Association welcomed NMEA to the lowcountry of South Carolina. From the welcoming dinner reception at the Charleston Visitor Center, where conference committee members dressed as southern belles, served mint juleps, and chamber music was played..... to the Grand Finale at Middleton Place (a former plantation and National Historic landmark), conference participants knew they were experiencing truly great southern hospitality.

Left: Conference Program (Photograph by Susan Leach Snyder)

The Campus at the College of Charleston was beautiful. (Photographer is unknown)

On the first day of the conference, prior to the evening welcoming festivities, some people pre-registered for the all-day (4:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M.) “Living in Water,” hands-on curriculum workshop presented by Valerie Chase. Others attended the NMEA Board and committee meetings.

Left: Each conference participant received a conference notebook. (Photograph by Susan Leach Snyder)

The second morning began with a continental breakfast and a keynote address titled “To See a World” by Rudy Manche, Director of Science and Nature Programming for South Carolina Educational Television. Next were symposia titled “The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources---Advocate for and Steward of South Carolina’s Coastal Resources” by Paul A. Sandifer, Director of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and “Preserving the Gullah Culture in a Changing Coastal Environment” by Emory S. Campbell, Executive Director of Penn Center. An extensive assortment of concurrent sessions and a delicious dinner at the maritime Center of the South Carolina Aquarium filled the rest of the day.

Conference Mug (Photograph by Susan Leach Snyder)

The focus of day three was field trips and special workshops. Field trips included, but were not limited to deep sea fishing, performing an inventory of a loggerhead sea turtle nest, scuba diving, kayaking, stomping around a cypress swamp, doing a harbor trawl, and cruising aboard a shrimp boat. The two workshops were: a study of plate tectonics and sweetgrass basket weaving. After the field trips and workshops, the “Taste of Charleston” and NMEA Auction took place in the Colonial Room of the Westin Francis Marion Hotel.

Right: What a treat........watching a loggerhead hatchling emerge from its nest. (Photographer is unknown.)

Left: What fun...learning how to weave sweetgrass and pine needles into baskets. (Photographer is unknown)

Robin Goettel (IL-UN), Mike Klepinger (MI), Rosanne Fortner (OH), and Jim Lubner (WI) found some time to discuss the Great Lakes Sea Grant network project on exotic species. (Photographer is unknown.)

Jeff Sandler (Mr. Fish) (ME) auctioned off PIKE. (Photographer is unknown)

Day four was a day of more symposia and concurrent sessions, poster sessions and chapter meetings. The symposia were “The Sustainable Sea Expeditions--A New Opportunity for Marine Education” by Francesca Cava, Project Manager of the Sustainable Seas Expedition for the National Geographic Society and “H. L. Hunley: Recovery of a National Treasure” by Dr. Robert Neyland, Hunley Project Director at the Hunley Research Center. The evening ended with the “Beach,Boogie, and Blues Dinner” at the Sand Dunes Club on Sullivan’s Island.

The fifth day began with Sea Faire/Sea Swap and a continental breakfast. Next was the Stegner Lecture. This was a special treat, titled “A Celebration of Barrier Islands: Restless Ribbons of Sand” in which Mary Edna Fraser (visual artist), Dr. Orrin Pinkey (coastal geologist), and Marjory Wentworth (poet) combined their efforts in a presentation of large scale batiks on silk, scientific textoriginal maps and poetry. Concurrent sessions were presented after the lecture, and they were followed by a bus trip to the Grand Finale at Middleton Place, where local artisans demonstrated their crafts and a lowcountry banquet was served.

The landscape at Middleton Place was exquisite. (Photograph by Susan Leach Snyder)

Plantation singers entertained the NMEA crowd. (Photographer is unknown.)

The final day of the conference offered field trips to hunt for fossils, sail in the harbor on a tall ship, spend an afternoon and evening studying turtles, and to learn about Charleston’s Heritage.

In 1999, NMEA published one issue of Current: The Journal of Marine Education, titled “Polar Seas.” The issue was divided into two sections, "Antarctica" and "The Arctic Ocean." The guest editor of this issue was Dr. Peter E. Wilkniss, former researcher in the marine environment of the Arctic and Antarctic for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and former director of the Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation. At the time the issue was written, Dr. Wilkniss was the president of the Alaska-based Transnational Arctic and Antarctic Institute and Polar Kybernetes International LLC. Polar Kybernetes International, LLC, was co- sponsor of the issue.