Captain Richard Otterstedt of DEC’s Division of Law Enforcement introduced to the Council Major Peter Fanelli, Southern District Major for DEC Regions 1, 2 and 3. Mr. Fanelli stated that he was from Tarrytown and although he was at the meeting as an observer he would be available to the Council at any time should it need his input or assistance.

Chairman Wise introduced Dr. David Conover, the new Dean and Director of the Marine Sciences Research Center (MSRC) at Stony Brook University. As Dean, Dr. Conover is the statutory chairman of the Marine Resources Advisory Council. Mr. Wise has served as Council chairman in a designee capacity under several MSRC Deans. Dr. Conover informed the Council of several projects related to New York’s marine fisheries that MSRC is now pursuing or plans to pursue in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Conservation. These include environmental monitoring under the National Coastal Assessment Program and the establishment of a Marine Pathology and Disease Laboratory under the Marine Disease Research and Pathology Consortium created several years ago by the New York State Legislature. Dr. Conover spoke of the possibility of DEC using MSRC’s research vessel, R/V SEAWOLF, for trawl surveys in state waters and MSRC’s attempts to convince the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to establish a laboratory in New York. New York is the only state in the region that does not have such a facility. A NMFS laboratory in New York would help bring about collaborative research between NMFS, DEC, and MSRC. A program featuring such collaborative research is the NMFS CMER (Coastal Marine and Educational Research Center) program. Dr. Conover related to the Council his efforts to establish a CMER program and office at MSRC.