As part of the Future Earth Coasts workshop in Cork, Ireland, I ended each day of the two and a half day workshop with a song. At the end of Day 1, the song I adapted was “Danny Boy,” a classic Irish folk song. I substituted the names of the co-chairs of Future Earth Coasts, Valerie Cummins from University College Cork and Bruce Glavovic from Massey University, New Zealand, for Danny Boy. The reference to Glenn is Glenn Page from SustainaMetrix.

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On April 6th-7th, 2018, I attended the Atlantic Estuarine Research Society (AERS) annual spring conference in Rehoboth Beach, DE. AERs was the first estuarine scientific society created, and this conference marked the 70th anniversary of its founding. Citing a need for communication among associates in the coastal regions of the Chesapeake and Carolinas, the first AERS meeting was held in April 1949 in Morehead City, NC.

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The 8th World Water Forum was held in Brasilia, the capitol of Brazil. It was the largest conference I ever attended, with extremely large delegations from Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Africa.

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Today, at 17:44:26 GMT, Soyuz MS-08 lifted off from the Biakonar Cosmosdrome in Kazakhstan. Ricky Arnold, another American astronaut, and one cosmonaut are now aboard en route to the International Space Station for a six month stint. Ricky was a Marine Estuarine and Environmental Science (MEES) graduate student and has been the plenary speaker at two MEES student colloquia, inspiring the current students to literally reach for the stars. Ricky Arnold. Image credit:

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As part of a report card project that we recently initiated with our partner organization, OARS for the Assabet, Sudbury and Concord Rivers, we reviewed the essential features and major issues associated with these rivers. They are presented as seven environmental literacy principles: • The Assabet, Sudbury and Concord Rivers (SuAsCo sub-basin) are tributaries to the Merrimack River in the metropolitan fringe of Boston, Massachusetts.

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Our Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper entitled “Long-term nutrient reductions lead to the unprecedented recovery of a temperate coastal region” was published online on March 5th, 2018. Coinciding with the paper publication, 4 of the 14 co-authors joined Mike Smith from GreenSmith at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. for a series of interviews with the media.

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The title of this blog, adapted from Julius Caesar’s quote “I came, I saw, I conquered,” is based on a trip that Brianne Walsh and I made to Concord, Massachusetts from from February 26th – March 3rd. Brianne and I traveled to Concord to initiate a report card for the Assabet, Sudbury and Concord Rivers. We are working with OARS, an organization that is focused on these 3 rivers, based in Concord.

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As part of our Submerged Aquatic Vegetation synthesis effort (SAV SYN), the paper “Long-term nutrient reductions lead to the unprecedented recovery of a temperate coastal region” was published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). Jon Lefcheck from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, formerly at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, was the first author, with our entire SAV SYN team as co-authors:

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On March 1, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam presented Dr. Bob “JJ” Orth the Virginia Outstanding Scientist Award. This award is for a scientist who has made globally significant contributions to their field. I am so glad that Bob is being recognized in this manner. I have worked with Bob for 30 years. Over that period, I have co-authored proposals, papers and various reports with him.

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One of my favorite quotes is by Wilbur Wright, from Dayton, Ohio. He said “If I were giving a young man advice as to how he might succeed in life, I would say to him, pick out a good father and mother, and begin life in Ohio.” I was incredibly fortunate to do exactly that.

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