New Director of California Sea Grant Extension

June 7, 2004

Contact: Marsha Gear, Communications Director, mgear@ucsd.edu, 858-534-0581

California Sea Grant and University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources are pleased to announce that Dr. Paul Olin has accepted a position as Director of California Sea Grant Extension Program and Associate Director of California Sea Grant. Olin succeeds Dr. Christopher Dewees, who resigned in 2002 to focus on fisheries research and outreach programs he directs as Sea Grant's Marine Fisheries Specialist.

Paul Olin

"The selection of Dr. Paul Olin as Director of California Sea Grant Extension is a wonderful event for our program," said California Sea Grant Director Dr. Russell Moll. "He brings a wealth of knowledge and skills to the position from his extensive involvement with Sea Grant over the past decade. I am delighted he has accepted the director position and cannot think of a better person to guide California Sea Grant Extension through the very exciting times that lie ahead."

Olin comes to the directorship having served as interim director. Prior to this, he was a Marine Advisor for Sea Grant and the UC Cooperative Extension in Sonoma and Marin counties, a position he has held, and continues to hold, since 1994.

Olin takes the helm at a particularly dynamic time, as California Sea Grant is currently expanding its Extension Program by recruiting four new Marine Advisors, three in fisheries extension and one in coastal community development – a joint position with University of Southern California Sea Grant. With the addition of four new field advisors, the Extension Program will have a total of eleven Marine Advisors located in the state's coastal counties, as well as a Marine Fisheries Specialist and a Program Manager in Seafood Technology, both of whom are housed at the University of California, Davis.

Besides overseeing the expanding Extension Program, Olin will continue to participate in a variety of research projects related to aquaculture, water quality and fisheries.

He is currently a co-investigator with the California Department of Fish and Game, NOAA Fisheries and other organizations on a project to restore coho salmon runs in tributaries of the Russian River system. Olin and colleagues are also testing inexpensive land-management practices for reducing sources of water-born bacteria in shellfish-growing areas of Tomales Bay. In addition, he is active in native oyster restoration and is cooperating with the California Department of Fish and Game in a halibut-tagging program to tally the fish’s abundance and distribution in Bodega Bay and surrounding waters.

Olin received his master’s degree in animal science and aquaculture from the University of California, Davis in 1983 and a doctorate degree in zoology from the University of Hawaii in 1994. During this time, he also worked as an Aquaculture Training Specialist at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and was an Aquaculture Specialist for Hawaii Sea Grant at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

NOAA's California Sea Grant is a statewide, multi-university program of marine research, extension services, and education activities. It is the largest of the nation's 30 Sea Grant programs and is headquartered at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. The National Sea Grant College Program is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce.

CALIFORNIA SEA GRANT COLLEGE PROGRAM
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
9500 GILMAN DRIVE
LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA 92093-0232
(858) 534-4446
www-csgc.ucsd.edu

June 7, 2004
Contact: Christina S. Johnson, 858-822-5334
Science Writer, California Sea Grant
(Note: Reporters, editors and public information officers, photos of Dr. Paul Olin available)