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.
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WKRG Your Hometown spotlights the Dauphin Island Sea Lab programs that allow students to make discoveries while learning about local marine biology
Click the videos below to watch
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Alabama Power celebrated Earth Day on April 22, 2024 with a donation to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Foundation request funds to assist its fisheries research program in expanding and maintaining the Coastal Alabama Acoustic Monitoring Program (CAMP). The network tracks important fisheries species through out Mobile Bay, Mississippi Sound, the Mobile Tensaw River Delta to provide critical information needed for conservation and restoration planning as well as fisheries management. Tracking species such as juvenile red drum, speckled sea trout, flounder and triple tail.
Thank you so much to Alabama Power!
The Alabama Dermatology Society (ADS) generously sponsored new shades for two locations on the DISL Campus. The new shades allow students and teachers to be out of doors to learn about Marine Science in a safe comfortable environment. THANK YOU ADS!!
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"The course style influenced me in the college that I eventually attended. I am very thankful for the Marine Science Course and the Sea Lab. It was my first step into a field of study which I still find very interesting."
- Autumn, Marine Science Course
for High School Students.
"The diversity of these experiences and being exposed to different lab techniques and a variety of field work has really helped me as a young scientist."
- Ph.D. Student Jesse Gwinn
"I wanted to come to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab because of the researchers and the resources", Rodriguez explained. "It's a close environment with easy access to faculty and everyone is excited to help you."
- Masters Graduate, Alex Rodriguez
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