ISRS-Sollins Fellowship

[John Ogden]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 12, 1997

USF GRADUATE STUDENT IS AWARDED FIRST ISRS-SOLLINS GRADUATE
FELLOWSHIP IN CORAL REEF ECOSYSTEM SCIENCE

Dr. John C. Ogden, President of the International Society for Reef
Studies (ISRS) announced today that Melanie Dotherow-McField, a
graduate student in the Department of Marine Science at the
University of South Florida, has been awarded the first
ISRS-Sollins Fellowship in Coral Reef Ecosystem Science.  The
fellowship, worth approximately $13,000, was established last year
by Professor Phillip Sollins of Oregon State University with a 
donation to the Society in partnership with the Center
for Marine Conservation in Washington, DC.  Ms.McField's
application was selected by a committee of the ISRS and the CMC
from a total of 29 applicants from all over the world. 

Ms. McField has worked in Belize since 1990, as a biologist with
the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, as the Belize Representative of the
International Tropical Conservation Foundation, and as a consultant
with the Coastal Zone Management Project. She also served on the
Board of Directors of the Belize Audubon Society.  Ms. McField will
use this Fellowship to support her graduate research on a survey of
coral reef community structure and the investigation of their
relationship to existing reef management efforts at various
locations along the barrier reef complex. The information collected
will also represent the baseline data for a long-term coral reef
monitoring program conducted with the assistance of the Belize
Fisheries Department and Coastal Zone Management Project. As a
citizen of Belize, she will assist in the continuation of these
conservation efforts in Belize upon completion of her PhD. 

Ms. McField's graduate supervisor is Dr. Pamela Hallock-Muller,
Professor of Marine Science, who began her research on coral reefs
as a graduate student at the University of Hawaii in the 1970's. 
Dr. Hallock and her graduate students at USF are investigating
human impacts on coral reef ecosystems, including nutrient
enrichment, diver impacts, and ultraviolet radiation. 

Dr. Steven Miller, ISRS Recording Secretary, who organized the
applications and the review said: "We are very grateful to 
Professor Sollins for establishing this fellowship at the start of
the 1997 International Year of the Reef, a global effort to 
raise public consciousness about threatened coral reefs."  The
coral reefs of Belize are among the most magnificent in the 
Caribbean Sea.  

The International Society for Reef Studies is an organization of
800 members from over 50 countries including students, scientists,
resource managers, and policy-makers dedicated to the production
and dissemination of scientific knowledge and understanding of
coral reefs, both living and fossil.  The ISRS publishes the
scientific journal CORAL REEFS, the newsletter REEF ENCOUNTER, and
holds an international meeting each year.  Every four years the
Society co-sponsors the International Coral Reef Symposium.  The last
Symposium, organized by the University of Panama and the Smithsonian
Institution, was held in Panama last June and attracted
over 1300 participants from all over the world.  The next one will
be held in Indonesia in the year 2000.

For additional information contact:

Dr. Steven Miller
NOAA Nat. Undersea Res. Prog.
514 Caribbean Drive
Key Largo, FL 33037
Tel: 305-451-0233
Email: smiller at gate.net

        OR

John C. Ogden        Director        Phone:  813/893-9100
Florida Institute of Oceanography    Fax:    813/893-9109
830 First Street South               St. Petersburg, Florida 33701