In mid June, we welcomed a group of six visitors from Croatia, Finland, France, Gambia, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom to northwest Florida. The participants traveled here as part of the International Visitor Leadership Program to look at coastal and marine management.
The first day of the professional program started with a visit to Pensacola City Hall where Council Member Sherri Myers welcomed the visitors. Next, they met Dr. Wade Jeffrey, Dr. Jane Caffrey, and Dr. Jeff Eble at the University of West Florida Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation (CEDB) to learn more about BP Oil Spill recovery. Then, at the Gulf Ecology Division of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Williams Fisher, James Hagy, and Matt Harwell discussed coastal policy issues and gave a tour of the EPA labs.
The next day, the group visited the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) Lab where they met Lab Director Guy Davenport to learn about the various marine and coastal research programs being undertaken by NOAA in the Gulf of Mexico. A visit with Heather Barrineau of to the Navarre Beach Marine Science Station complimented the NOAA appointment as did a discussion and site visit with Captain Robert Turpin and Timothy Day of the Escambia County Community and Environment Department Marine Resources Division.
A nature walk through Gulf Islands National Seashore with Suzanne and Randle Carpenter and dinners in the homes of Gerry and Leslie Yandle, the Carpenters, and Liz and Basil Yelverton rounded out the project.
Thank you, everyone, for helping to make the group’s time professionally rewarding!
