 |
Nancy Foster | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Died | 27 June 2000 (age 59) |
| Other names | Nancy Foster Geraci |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Oceanographer |
| Awards |  Department of Commerce Gold Medal |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | 'On the Spionidae (Polychaeta) of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea' (1969) |
Nancy Marie Foster was the director of the National Ocean Service. She is known for her work in protecting marine environments, linking conservation groups and fisherman, and expanding research in marine environments.
Nancy Foster was born in Electra, Texas, received her undergraduate degree from Texas Woman's College, and went on to earn a master's degree in marine biology from Texas Christian University. [1] [2] She earned her Ph.D. in marine biology from George Washington University in 1969. [1] [2] [3] A Smithsonian associate in the late 1960s while at George Washington, she conducted a portion of her dissertation research with Meredith Leam Jones [2] [4] and Marian H. Pettibone at the Smithsonian Institution. [2] She wrote several papers on polychaetes at George Washington. [2]
Foster worked at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service [1] In 1969, while still associated with the Smithsonian Institution [2] she became chair of the biology department at Dunbarton College of the Holy Cross, a position she held into the 1970s. [1] [5] [6] Her students included Cynthia Ahearn. [2]
Foster joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1977, working in its Research and Development Office. [1] [5] She was the director of the Office of Protected Resources in NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) from 1986 until 1993, [1] subsequently advancing to the position of deputy assistant administrator of the NMFS by 1997. [1] While at the NMFS, she established NOAA's Chesapeake Bay Office in Annapolis, Maryland, and NOAA's Office of Habitat Conservation. [1]
After leaving the NMFS, Foster was the director of NOAA's National Ocean Service from 1997 until her death in 2000. [1] [5] [7] As director, she led a reorganization of the NMFS and to make it into a more efficient, responsive, and scientifically rigorous agency and also created the NOAA Habitat Restoration Center and the National Marine Mammal Tissue Bank. [2]
Foster is known for her work in the protection of fish habitats and coastal environments, [5] and spoke to the United States Congress about research conducted in [United States National Marine Sanctuaries. [8]
Foster died of a brain tumor at her home in Baltimore, Maryland, on June 27, 2000, at the age of 59. [1] [5] Upon her death Senator Fritz Hollings published a tribute in the Congressional Record to honor Foster's contributions to marine science. [9]
In 1993, Foster received a Department of Commerce Gold Medal. [1] [5] In 1997, Foster was the first recipient of the Dr. Nancy Foster Award for Habitat Conservation, given to her in recognition of her work in establishing the Office of Habitat Conservation. [1] In 1999, she received a Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service. [1] [10]
In 2000, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) honored Foster by creating a scholarship program in her name for women and members of minority groups. [11] The Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program was signed into law on November 13, 2000. [12] [13] In the spring of 2000, [1] NOAA's Dr. Nancy Foster Florida Keys Environmental Center was named in Foster's honor [1] and funded through the U.S. Department of Commerce, [14] and she received the Fred M. Packard Award in 2000 to recognize her work in establishing marine protected areas. [15]
NOAAS Nancy Foster (R 352), a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel, was commissioned on May 10, 2004. [16] The Nancy Foster was originally built as a Navy yard torpedo test craft, Agate Pass (YTT 12), at McDermott Shipyards in Amelia, Louisiana, and launched in September 1990. [17] In 2001, the Navy transferred the vessel to NOAA, outfitted to conduct coastal research along the United States East and Gulf Coasts and in the Caribbean. [16]
While a Smithsonian associate in the 1960s, Foster met and married Roger Cressey. [2] They later divorced. Foster's later marriage to Jerry Cramer also ended in divorce. [1] She married Joseph R. Geraci in May 2000. [1]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a Washington, D.C.-based scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce, a United States federal government department. The agency is charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep sea exploration, and managing fishing and protection of marine mammals and endangered species in the U.S. exclusive economic zone.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people."
The Atlantic wolffish, also known as the seawolf, Atlantic catfish, ocean catfish, devil fish, wolf eel, woof or sea cat, is a marine fish of the wolffish family Anarhichadidae, native to the North Atlantic Ocean. The numbers of the Atlantic wolffish in US waters are rapidly being depleted, most likely due to overfishing and bycatch, and it is currently a Species of Concern according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service.
The Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSFCMA), commonly referred to as the Magnuson–Stevens Act (MSA), is the legislation providing for the management of marine fisheries in U.S. waters. Originally enacted in 1976 to assert control of foreign fisheries that were operating within 200 nautical miles off the U.S. coast, the legislation has since been amended, in 1996 and 2007, to better address the twin problems of overfishing and overcapacity. These ecological and economic problems arose in the domestic fishing industry as it grew to fill the vacuum left by departing foreign fishing fleets.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the stewardship of U.S. national marine resources. It conserves and manages fisheries to promote sustainability and prevent lost economic potential associated with overfishing, declining species, and degraded habitats.
A turtle excluder device (TED) is a specialized device that allows a captured sea turtle to escape when caught in a fisherman's net.
The United States Fish Commission, formally known as the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, was an agency of the United States government created in 1871 to investigate, promote, and preserve the fisheries of the United States. In 1903, it was reorganized as the United States Bureau of Fisheries, sometimes referred to as the United States Fisheries Service, which operated until 1940. In 1940, the Bureau of Fisheries was abolished when its personnel and facilities became part of the newly created Fish and Wildlife Service, under the United States Department of the Interior.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) was the first act of the United States Congress to call specifically for an ecosystem approach to wildlife management.
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The NOAA Ship Delaware II is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fisheries research vessel that was in commission from 1970 to 2012. Prior to her NOAA career, she was in commission in the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries from 1968 to 1970 as BCF Delaware II.
The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) is a World Heritage listed U.S. National Monument encompassing 583,000 square miles (1,510,000 km2) of ocean waters, including ten islands and atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It was created in June 2006 with 140,000 square miles (360,000 km2) and expanded in August 2016 by moving its border to the limit of the exclusive economic zone, making it one of the world's largest protected areas. It is internationally known for its cultural and natural values as follows:
The area has deep cosmological and traditional significance for living Native Hawaiian culture, as an ancestral environment, as an embodiment of the Hawaiian concept of kinship between people and the natural world, and as the place where it is believed that life originates and to where the spirits return after death. On two of the islands, Nihoa and Mokumanamana, there are archaeological remains relating to pre-European settlement and use. Much of the monument is made up of pelagic and deepwater habitats, with notable features such as seamounts and submerged banks, extensive coral reefs and lagoons.
The NOAA Ship Nancy Foster is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel. The ship is named for Dr. Nancy Foster, who was the director of the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Office of Protected Resources from 1986 until 1993, and the director of the National Ocean Service from 1997 until her death in 2000.
Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) was defined by the U.S. Congress in the 1996 amendments to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, or Magnuson-Stevens Act, as "those waters and substrate necessary to fish for spawning, breeding, feeding or growth to maturity." Implementing regulations clarified that waters include all aquatic areas and their physical, chemical, and biological properties; substrate includes the associated biological communities that make these areas suitable for fish habitats, and the description and identification of EFH should include habitats used at any time during the species' life cycle. EFH includes all types of aquatic habitat, such as wetlands, coral reefs, sand, seagrasses, and rivers.
NOAAS Chapman was an American fisheries research vessel that was in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet from 1980 to 1998. After the conclusion of her NOAA career, she spent several years operating as the University of Puerto Rico marine research vessel R/V Chapman. More recently, she has become the Curaçao-based mothership for the deep-diving submarine Curasub.
The Alabama shad is an anadromous species of clupeid fish endemic to the United States where it breeds in medium to large flowing rivers from the Mississippi River drainage to the Suwannee River, Florida, as well as some other Gulf coast drainages. The biology of this fish is little known but it has become increasingly rare. The International Union for Conservation of Nature rated it "near threatened" in 2020 and the United States National Marine Fisheries Service has listed it as a Species of Concern. A principal reason for its decline is thought to be the many locks and dams blocking access for the fish to up-river spawning grounds.
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NOAAS Murre II, previously NOAAS Murre II, was an American research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet from 1970 to 1989. Prior to her NOAA career, she operated under the United States Department of the Interior′s Fish and Wildlife Service from 1949 to 1956 and under the United States Fish and Wildlife Service′s Bureau of Commercial Fisheries from 1956 to 1970 as Murre II.
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Jeanette Davis is a marine microbiologist, Policy Analyst for NOAA and children's book author.
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