National Marine Sanctuaries and Ocean Conservation in 2017

William J. Douros, West Coast Regional Director, NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

Tuesday, December 12
6:00pm-7:30pm
McGowan Building, Room 102

About the Topic: William Douros will discuss how national marine sanctuaries, including one of the country’s largest, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, are advancing ocean conservation and some of the latest challenges and opportunities to protecting our ocean.

About the Speaker: William J. Douros serves as the West Coast Regional Director for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, a position he’s held since 2006. In the role as Regional Director, Bill is responsible for oversight of nearly 16,000 square miles protected as national marine sanctuaries on the west coast of the United States. Bill came to federal service in 1998 where he served until 2006 as was the Superintendent for Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. From 2010 through 2012 he served as the Acting Deputy Director of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, working much of that time from Washington, D.C. Bill’s past work and educational experience combine coastal policy, marine science and operational management. Immediately after graduating with a Master’s degree in Marine Ecology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1985, Bill worked for, and for many years managed, Santa Barbara County’s Energy Division, which regulates offshore oil and gas development in that county. Bill comes from families skilled as restaurant chefs and ship builders, neither of which he claims to have inherited. Some skills Bill has acquired from past jobs include bagging groceries, baking pizzas, and fighting forest fires. Bill’s graduate work, conducted at Santa Cruz Island, examined intra-specific competition within extremely high-density populations of black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii). He also evaluated archaeological remains to determine how pre-historic predation on abalone may have affected their population sizes. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Biology from U.C. Santa Barbara in 1981. Bill lives with his family in Carmel, California, where his two sons attend public schools.

Lecture Location: The McGowan Building is located at 411 Pacific Street, Monterey, CA, 93940, on the campus of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Attendees will enter through the glass doors from Pacific street, and room 102 is located inside to the right. The McGowan Building is indicated as #20 on the campus map. Access the campus map at http://www.miis.edu/admissions/visit/campusmap

Parking: Parking is available in any Middlebury Institute campus lot after 5pm or on the street (time limits on surrounding streets end at 6pm).

Questions: Contact Rachel Christopherson at the Center for the Blue Economy at cbe@miis.edu or 831-647-6615 x1.