GCRL Post-Katrina
GCRL Status Report – A Message from the GCRL Executive Director
April 11, 2006 (Click here for the previous status report.)
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Since Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory has made astounding progress toward recovery, but major challenges still lie ahead. The GCRL sustained approximately $50 million in damages to buildings, contents, collections, research and intellectual property as a result of storm surge and winds. Restoration of the Fisheries, Research and Caylor buildings, all flooded by the 20-plus-foot storm surge, is in the final stages. Faculty, researchers and staff are in the process of setting up the offices and laboratories that are housed in those buildings. Modular units on the GCRL and Cedar Point campuses are providing temporary replacement for classrooms lost at GCRL and at the J.L. Scott Marine Education Center and Aquarium.
Effect of Downtime on Research Programs
Although scientists have been heroic in their efforts -- writing grants and journal articles while compiling documentation for FEMA, GCRL research was practically shut down for four months. The striped bass restoration program that had operated continuously for almost 40 years was completely wiped out. Three-fourths of the faculty at GCRL still lack some part of their pre-Katrina infrastructure that is critical to their research. A number of funded programs await approval from insurance or the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency for action on replacement or repair of facilities.
Recovering Programs
Fisheries personnel made it back on the water to take monthly samples in September and operated in outdoor and makeshift laboratories to process samples that the GCRL team continued to collect on time and at all stations. Click here for more.
In February scientists with Mississippi's first spotted seatrout stock enhancement program moved female and male spotted seatrout – broodstock – from quarantine facilities into special tanks to begin the process of spawning. Rebuilding the native Mississippi broodstock lost to Hurricane Katrina is a first step in the program's comeback. Click here for more.
In spite of losing half its wet lab space, the aquatic toxicology program is now back to almost 95 percent capacity, conducting funded programs such as the Consortium for Estuarine Ecoindicator Research for the Gulf of Mexico and Aquatic Research Consortium (ARC).
The Scott Aquarium secured an emergency grant to take marine education programs "on-the-road" to Mississippi coastal classrooms. Scott Aquarium educators also organized the annual Ocean Sciences Bowl for the north central Gulf of Mexico region for the ninth year, hosting 13 high school teams, coaches and parents on the GCRL campus for the February event. Continuing as scheduled are funded programs such as the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence and teacher workshops that are part of the 2006 South Mississippi Science and Mathematics Partnership Program.
Centers for Ocean Sciences Educational Excellence
Education Programs 'Back in Business'
Although several graduate students lost important data to the storm or were dislocated from their homes and laboratories, graduate fall semester classes started back on Sept. 19, 2005, and have continued on schedule. None of our students separated from the program, and we continue to recruit new graduate students. Two key educational programs will continue as scheduled this summer at the GCRL's campus on East Beach Drive and Halstead Road in Ocean Springs. The GCRL Summer Field Program will host college students from throughout the United States for the 59th consecutive year and the J.L. Scott Marine Education Center and Aquarium will hold the 19th year of the popular marine science day camp, Project Marine Discovery Sea Camp, at its interim location at GCRL.
GCRL Summer Field Program
The GCRL Summer Field Program is alive and well with unique environmental and marine research opportunities for college students this year in the aftermath of Katrina. Modular classrooms and laboratories are on site as replacements for the teaching labs swept away by the storm, and the GCRL dormitory and dining hall have been fully restored. All the lab’s vessels survived the storm and will be available to support the program. With a steady stream of registrations, most of the courses are filling rapidly, and students from as far away as Wisconsin and New York are signing up in heartening numbers. Click here for registration information.
Project Marine Discovery Sea Camp
J.L. Scott Marine Education Center and Aquarium educators are preparing for a "Pirates of the Coast" theme for Project Marine Discovery Sea Camp 2006 for ages 5-14. With the Point Cadet facility in Biloxi scheduled for demolition, PMD Sea Camp will be held at the interim location on the campus of the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, the Scott Aquarium's parent institution. The interiors of modular classrooms that arrived in December are being tailored especially for the day camp and the Scott Aquarium's other pre-college programs. The camp will continue to offer hands-on experiences in the marine environment and with live marine and coastal animals. For camp information and registration forms click here.
Fiscal Challenges
The uncertainty that affects higher education in the state generally has created difficulties in adequately funding institutions of higher education. That reality coupled with Katrina losses and the lag in time for reimbursement on losses substantially clouds the fiscal future of affected institutions.
Best regards,
William E. Hawkins
Executive Director
