NOAA Environmental Hero Award to Jim Somers and Bob Buck

Seining

Seining

Jim Somers '04 and Bob Buck '04 were awarded the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Environmental Hero Award this year at a ceremony on Earth Day (initially scheduled for Arlington, VA, but moved to Seattle to minimize carbon footprint). This prestigious award is given to just ten volunteers annually, and was for their dedicated and enthusiastic work leading a team in collecting juvenile salmon data in pocket estuaries on Whidbey Island the past three years and now expanding that effort in 2008.

For a pictures of Jim and Bob, and details on the award see the articles at WSU Today Online or at NOAA. For more details on their specific seining activities, see the Beach Watchers Seining pages. See also the article describing all of the NOAA's 2008 Environmental Heroes.

Both Jim and Bob do much more than salmon research and have racked up over 2,500 volunteer hours between them in various BW projects. They would be the first ones to tell you what an amazing team they work with and how very many MORE environmental heroes exist in Beach Watchers. In Bob’s words

I know Jim will agree with me that this is truly a TEAM award. This activity is all about showing up and getting the field work done. Every team member can be proud that their dedicated efforts have been recognized through this award.

Island County Beach Watchers is very fortunate to have two such amazing individuals on our team. Congratulations to Bob and Jim and to you all!

Kristen Cooley