By Sydney MaHan, Student Correspondent
Next week, five Virginia graduate students will begin Knauss Fellowships. The Fellows will spend a year in Washington, DC, serving in executive or legislative offices.
Steve Manley will spend his Knauss Fellowship as the new Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Fellow for the National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Protected Resources.
“I’m very excited to have the opportunity to help with several projects, such as planning the 2016 national meeting on marine mammal health and developing new regulations to address public viewing of stranded animals,” Manley says. He is also looking forward to working with marine mammal experts across the country.
Manley will play an integral role in the planning and execution of the national meeting on marine mammal health in 2016. This meeting will serve as a forum for training, networking, and sharing information between national stranding network responders, scientists, and managers and selected international participants.
Manley will also work with the International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee on mass strandings, pollution, and emerging diseases.
Manley, who has a BS in marine science and biology with a minor in chemistry from the University of Miami, received an MS in biological oceanography from VIMS in 2014.
The Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship program places students with host offices in the legislative or executive branches of government in Washington, DC. Fellows learn about the national policy decisions that affect ocean, coastal, and the Great Lakes resources while getting the opportunity to contribute their knowledge to current issues facing the nation. The National Sea Grant College Program established the program in 1979.
