David Hugo is the current recipient of the South Atlantic Reef Fish Extension and Communication Fellowship, which provides on-the-job education and training opportunities in reef fish extension and communication for an early-career professional in the southeast region. The fellowship is a collaboration between North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida Sea Grant programs and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. This story was originally published in Coastwatch.    The trap glided to the ocean floor, enveloped in a veil of dim sunlight. A soft thud and a wispy clou ..read more

My name is Madison Willert and I have a Ph.D. in biology from Georgia Tech. I entered the 2023 Knauss Fellowship Program through Georgia Sea Grant. My work in the National Sea Grant Office and NOAA’s Marine Debris Program supports the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act activities across both offices to enhance coordination and communication between the teams concerning marine debris-related projects. My unique position between two NOAA offices affords me a broader perspective of the goings-on at NOAA. I’ve mastered the art of being a chameleon this year, blending int ..read more

“What do you hear? How often do you pay attention to the sounds around you? What produces sound?” These are some of the questions I challenged Summer Marine Science Campers to consider as I introduced them to the idea of soundscapes. Soundscape ecology is the study of the interactions between human-made, earth and biological sounds, and it’s something I studied as an undergrad prior to becoming a Marine Education Fellow at Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant.   As an undergraduate at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, my research involved conducting a soundscape analysis ..read more

I am Knauss Fellow working in the office of Congressman John Garamendi, who represents California’s 8th Congressional District. As someone born and raised in the Lowcountry, my only exposure to the different paradigms of water management/rights in the Western U.S. was in the environmental policy courses I took during my Ph.D. work at UGA. While coastal Georgia and California’s 8th share many issues, like saltwater intrusion and sea level rise, understanding the complexity of Western water rights, the Central Valley Project, and the vast differences in urbanization has been an eye-opening learn ..read more

To be honest, I never thought a Georgia Sea Grant fellowship would appeal to me or my career path. My research interests have always been on inland systems from freshwater swamp to dry sandhills. My research as an undergraduate and my master’s thesis at Georgia Southern University has been in xeric upland habitat working with lizards — not many connections to the ocean there. However, when I saw the opportunity to work with the predators of Jekyll Island, I couldn’t pass that up. Jekyll Island State Park is a small barrier island on the Georgia coast that is accessible by causeway. Jekyll host ..read more

I have always been in the pursuit of knowledge and research even when I didn’t understand what that meant. As a child, I would spend my summer afternoons in the front yard catching bees and counting how many could be found on a given day. I like to joke that this was my first foray into scientific research. Interestingly, I didn’t decide to study science in college until the very end of my high school years when application season began. Up until that point I had set my sights on a creative career as an artist. Lucky for me, becoming a scientific researcher has nurtured my creative side much m ..read more

Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary is a hidden gem along the coast of Georgia. It is a 22-square-mile protected parcel of the ocean that hosts a variety of unique organisms and habitat. As a Georgia Sea Grant state fellow, I have had the privilege to work in the sanctuary office and learn about this special habitat and how to protect it. During my year-long fellowship, I have been a part of some historic moments at the sanctuary, including conducting a status and trends workshop that reflected on the past 10 years of management in the sanctuary as well as the overall condition of the reef ..read more

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more appreciative of the values and experiences my parents instilled in me at a young age. I find myself often reminiscing on all the camping, beach-going, and fishing trips we would spend together, and the realization that I was slowly cultivating my passion and life goals during those times is comforting. Being selected for the marine education fellowship through UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant has felt like a dream come true as I literally get to do what I love and gain professional experience while doing so. Through this fellowship, I’ve attende ..read more

When I stepped off the bus in January 2015 for a week-long field trip with my high school, I had no idea that I was walking into the place I would work as a Marine Education Fellow eight years later. While growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, my favorite vacations were those where I got to leave the city behind and visit the beaches of South Carolina, so I jumped at the idea of spending a week in coastal Georgia as part of my high school’s coastal ecology class. Upon my arrival as a student, I quickly learned that this experience would not be a week-long vacation, but instead a deep dive into the m ..read more

When I arrived at Skidaway Island back in September 2022 to begin my year-long Marine Education Fellowship at the UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium, it didn’t take long for me to hit the trails that are practically in my backyard! The observation platform along our Jay Wolf Nature Trail quickly became one of my favorite places on campus. This long boardwalk extends into the Skidaway River, giving visitors the opportunity to sit on the edge of the salt marsh. Observation platform along the Jay Wolf Nature Trail at the UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium. When I first stumbled upon ..read more