UF/IFAS faculty appointed to new Florida Oceans and Coastal Council

August 24, 2005

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — James Cato and Karl Havens, professors at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, have been appointed to the new Florida Oceans and Coastal Council, established by the 2005 Florida Legislature to help protect and conserve the state’s ocean and coastal resources while recognizing their economic benefits.

Cato is director of UF’s School of Natural Resources and Environment and the Florida Sea Grant College program. Havens is chairman of UF’s Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.

The council will develop priorities for ocean and coastal research and establish a statewide ocean research plan. It will also coordinate public and private ocean research for more effective coastal management.

The council includes 15 members and three nonvoting members. Colleen Castille, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and Ken Haddad, director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), are co-chairs of the council.

Castille and Haddad, along with Charles Bronson, commissioner of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS), each appoint five members to the council. Castille, Haddad and Bronson serve as nonvoting members.

In addition to Cato, FWC appointees are Billy Causey, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary; Shirley Pomponi, president and chief executive officer of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution; Jerome Lorenz, research director of the National Audubon Society’s Tavernier Science Center; and Grant Gilmore, senior aquatic scientist at the Dynamac Corporation.

In addition to Havens, DEP appointees are Thomas Waite, dean of the College of Engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology; John Ogden, director of the Florida
Institute of Oceanography and professor of biology at the University of South Florida; Thomas Lee, research professor of meteorology and physical oceanography at the University of Miami’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences; and Lisa Robbins, chief scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey Center for Coastal and Watershed Studies.

DACS Appointees are Jane Davis, aquarium director of The Living Seas at Disney World; Ernest Estevez, director of the Mote Marine Laboratory’s Center for Coastal Ecology; Rob Kramer, president of the International Game Fish Association; Jerry Sansom, executive director of Organized Fishermen of Florida; and Jody Thomas, director of The Nature Conservatory’s south Florida region.