GLIN==> News Release: MN Sea Grant Gains New Director

["Marie E. Zhuikov" <mzhuikov@d.umn.edu>]

                             MN SEA GRANT
                             NEWS RELEASE
10/16/06
Contact: Marie Zhuikov (218) 726-7677, mzhuikov@umn.edu

                Minnesota Sea Grant Gains New Director

Dr. Stephen Bortone joined the University of Minnesota Sea Grant 
Program today, becoming the research and outreach organization's fifth 
director. After over 30 years of working in the coastal subtropics, 
Bortone moved to Duluth to focus on Lake Superior and Minnesota's 
inland lakes.

"Minnesota Sea Grant has a history of achievements and a national 
reputation for being effective," said Bortone. "I'm excited about 
combining my experiences with academia, ecological research, and 
coastal communities to guide the future of this program.

"I'll probably miss Floridian winters but I won't miss the hurricanes. 
Lake Superior is so vast and dynamic, I'm looking forward to getting to 
know this unique system and to teaching again," Bortone said.

Bortone, who directed the Marine Laboratory at the Sanibel-Captiva 
Conservation Foundation on Sanibel Island in Florida since its 
inception in 2002, brings a wealth of research and leadership 
achievements to the program and to the University of Minnesota Duluth's 
Department of Biology, where he is a tenured faculty member.

Bortone earned a Ph.D. in marine sciences from the University of North 
Carolina-Chapel Hill, and spent most of his career as a faculty member 
in the biology department at the University of West Florida. His 
research has focused on the biology of fish and seagrasses in brackish 
water, and most lately on how the growth patterns of an economically 
important sportfish (the spotted seatrout) might be used to monitor 
environmental trends.

Inheriting international, national, and regional responsibilities along 
with the Minnesota Sea Grant director title, Bortone succeeds Carl 
Richards, who directed the program for almost six years before 
accepting the directorship of the Environmental Protection Agency's 
(EPA) Mid-Continent Ecology Division in Duluth.

Minnesota Sea Grant is a university-based program supporting coastal 
resource use and conservation through the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration. It is part of a network of 30 Sea Grant 
College Programs spanning coastal states throughout the United States 
and Puerto Rico. To learn more about Sea Grant, access 
www.seagrant.umn.edu or call (218) 726-8106.

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