Marine Environmental Awards Lunch at the Battle House Hotel on Tuesday October 28th 2025

Our speaker this year will be Mr. Chris Blakenship - Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and National Resources

Chris Blankenship is the Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), appointed by Governor Kay Ivey in May of 2017. He has been with DCNR since 1994, when he joined the Department as a Conservation Enforcement Officer in the Marine Resources Division. Chris is Chairman of the Forever Wild Land Trust Board, Chair of the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program’s Executive Committee, past Chairman of the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, and Program Administrator of the Alabama Seafood Marketing and Testing Commission. Chris also served as a member of the Board of Control of the Employees Retirement System of Alabama. Having been integrally involved in the State’s response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill from the beginning, Chris has a solid background for the oil spill recovery and restoration work he handles as Governor Ivey’s appointed designee to the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council. Chris also coordinates the Department’s role as Administrator for the Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council, which was established to oversee certain funds allocated directly to the State of Alabama. Chris further serves as Lead Trustee for the State of Alabama in overseeing administrative and technical aspects of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), and he assists on behalf of the Governor’s Office with implementing coastal restoration projects funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund. He has been happily married to Allyson Blankenship for 32 years and has three adult children. He is a native of Dauphin Island, Alabama, and currently resides in Montgomery, Alabama.

Attendees at the luncheon

MEAL Luncheon

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

 This year's recipient is Chris Blankenship - Commissioner of the Alabama DCNR

This award was created in 2023 by DISL in the honor of Alabama Senator David Sessions and Representative Chip Brown in recognition of their advocacy for the conservation of the land and waters in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and Alabama watershed.

Recognizing that conservation efforts intended to restore Alabama's natural resources from the headwaters of the Alabama watershed to the open waters of the Northern Gulf of Mexico, this award will be given to individuals from across the State of Alabama in recognition of delivering transformational advances in conservation theory and practice, along with innovation and application, that harmoniously balance the State of Alabama's economic, cultural, and historical interests.

 Dr Mimi Fearn - Gulf Coast Marine Environmental Excellence Award

Dr. Fearn (Mimi) is a native Mobilian who grew up boating on the rivers and bays of south Alabama during the 1950s. She graduated from Murphy High School in 1962 and attended Birmingham Southern College for three years where she majored in chemistry and math. For the next 17 years, she was a full-time wife and mother residing mostly in Austin, Texas. She has one grandson in Bozeman, MT, and an “adopted” family here in Mobile.

In 1982, Mimi returned to Mobile and resumed her college education at the University of South Alabama. She completed her degree in physical geography in 1987 and received a Ph.D. fellowship to Louisiana State University. She completed her Ph.D. in 1995 and joined the University of South Alabama faculty. From 2006 until 2014, she served as chair of the Earth Sciences Department. Mimi officially retired from USA in 2015.

Mimi served as president of Dog River Clearwater Revival (DRCR) from 1999-2005, and she became involved with Alabama Water Watch during that time. In retirement, she stays busy as an AWW trainer and as the water monitoring coordinator for DRCR. She enjoys walking, bicycling, kayaking, paddleboarding, and puttering with plants. She has almost an acre of wetland on her Halls Mill Creek property that she has enhanced with native vegetation and a living shoreline.

Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuaries - Gulf Coast Marine Environmental Leadership Award

DIBS initiated their conservation program for neotropical migrant stopover habitat in 2000 with a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). Since that time, with the continued support of NFWF, other foundations, and thousands of private donors, DIBS has acquired 55 individual parcels comprising approximately 16.5 acres of critical habitat.

DIBS mission is to preserve ecologically valuable stopover habitat on Dauphin Island for neotropical migrant birds​ with the support of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and countless generous donors, DIBS has protected the western boundary of the Shell Mounds Park, acquired the grove of ancient live oaks known as the Goat Trees, the lot providing the new exit road from the Audubon Sanctuary, a number of wet lots in the Gorgas and Tupelo Gum Swamps, and several other parcels of prime bird habitat. Wherever you see a DIBS sign, you are viewing habitat protected forever.