BEAUFORT, N.C. – 91 President Richard Brodhead visited the 91 Marine Lab in Beaufort on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 16 and 17, meeting with faculty and students, touring the lab’s newest teaching facility, and assisting with the release of 10 rescued loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings back into the wild.

“We were honored to have President Brodhead take two days out of his schedule to visit Beaufort and learn about the exciting research and teaching we do here,” says Cindy Van Dover, director of the Marine Lab and professor of marine biology.

Among other activities, Brodhead and his wife, Cynthia, joined Van Dover and Nicholas School Dean William L. Chameides on a three-hour “Marine Megafauna” field trip led by faculty members Andy Read and Dave Johnston aboard the research vessel Susan Hudson. 

A highlight of the field trip was when Brodhead helped Read, Johnston and their students and staff – Kim Urian, Anna Marie Laura, Catherine McClellan, Lynne Williams and Danielle Waples – release the 10 loggerhead hatchlings back into the wild. The hatchlings had been rescued in early September by volunteers in Kure Beach after Tropical Storm Hanna washed away the sand that had protected them, leaving them exposed and vulnerable to predators two weeks before they were due to emerge. The hatchlings, which had exposed yolk sacs and soft shells, were housed at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, and then the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, until they were deemed strong enough to be released back into the wild by the Marine Lab crew.

Brodhead’s visit to the Marine Lab also included:

  • A presentation by faculty members Richard Forward, Dan Rittschof, Tom Schultz, Jens Carlsson and Lisa Campbell, and students Zack Darnell, Megan Hall and Josh Osterberg, on their research project, “Blue Crab Studies: Basic Biology to Policy;”
  • A presentation by faculty members Larry Crowder, Lisa Campbell, Rafe Sagarin and Mike Orbach on “Integrated Studies and Global Fellow;”
  • Lunch with students in the Marine Lab’s Rachel Carson Scholars and A.B. Duke Scholar program;
  • A tour of the 5,600-square-foot Marguerite Kent Repass Ocean Conservation Center, the first new academic building constructed at the Marine Lab in 30 years and the lab’s first “green” building. The lab houses a state-of-the-art classroom and teaching laboratory;
  • A presentation by faculty members Pat Halpin, Andy Read, Dave Johnston and Larry Crowder on their OBIS-SEAMAP marine census and mapping project; and
  • An informal meeting with Marine Lab PhD and Master of Environmental Management graduate students.