Program Coordinator and Recreation/ Tourism Specialist at New York Sea Grant
David White is the Recreation/Tourism Specialist and Great Lakes Program Coordinator for the New York Sea Grant Extension Program. Dave has been with Sea Grant since November of 1984 and is located at the State University of New York College at Oswego.
It’s Safe Boating Week, what is the one thing everyone needs to know about being safe while out on the water?
That’s an easy question “Wear It!”, wear a life jacket!
What is something cool you learned while working with recreational boaters?
How committed they are to conserving their boating resource for their continued use and that of their children.
What drove you to work on outreach within the boating community?
As an extension agent, this is an area of concern/need identified in many of our research efforts.
How did you get involved with Sea Grant? When did you join Sea Grant?
I have been with NY Sea Grant for 30 years. I learned about Sea Grant during my graduate work from a fellow student who worked for NY Sea Grant.
What is your favorite part about being a Sea Grant Extension agent?
Working with those that live, work, and play along NY’s Great Lakes, the issues are as diverse as our resources and each day can bring a new opportunity-challenge for extension education programming.
When did you know you wanted to pursue a career in science?
I started working towards my career in “conservation” as a student in a Natural Resources Program in high school and as member of the FFA.
Do you have an outside hobby?
Spending time with my family traveling and enjoying the wonderful natural resources of upstate NY…and across the country.
Currently in it’s seventh season, the New York Sea Grant-initiated “Discover Clean & Safe Boating” project has become a model industry-partnered educational effort that has expanded from Great Lakes’ venues to sites statewide. The exhibit has now been seen by more than 500,000 boaters and potential boaters … and counting in all of New York state’s coastal regions. Here—replete with a series of informative television and radio clips and boating safety tips—we offer a snapshot of where the campaign has been since its inception in 2008 and where it’s headed in 2014: “On YouTube, On Air: Sea Grant Partners to Discover a Bigger, Better Boating Education Program,” http://www.seagrant.
And for an archive of our boating tips, videos, radio clips and related news items, see NYSG’s “NYSG Great Lakes Boating & Marine Trades” News available via the “News/Topics” link in the left-hand sidebar at www.nyseagrant.org/marina.
Meet other Sea Grant Extension Agents working to help people be safe and sustainable boaters:
Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program Agent Torie Baker
Louisiana Sea Grant Extension Agent Lauren Land
