Director Named for National Marine Sanctuaries Dan Basta assumes leadership of NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries Systems. On January 10, 2001, Dr. James D. Baker, the NOAA's Administrator and Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere, named Daniel J. Basta as Director of the National Marine Sanctuary System. Both headquarters and field staff, who served under Basta in his role as acting sanctuary director for the past year, greeted the announcement with enthusiasm. "It's time for the National Marine Sanctuary System to have a strong leader like Dan Basta at the helm. He has tremendous leadership skills and is extremely capable of focusing the program on achieving the mission and goals we have established," said Billy Causey, Superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. "Dan's familiarity with NOAA and the various line offices will help build cooperation and establish partnerships within our agency as well as outside. We'll see an enormous amount of energy and focus on helping site operations improve and meet our resource management goals," Causey said. Basta outlined a variety of innovations and approaches to further the system's success through community-based management, increased partnerships, monitoring, education and outreach, monitoring and ocean exploration. "The National Marine Sanctuary System is the world leader in demonstrating the effectiveness of marine protected areas," said Basta. "As director, I'm committed to see the system remain as a leader through a stronger emphasis on protection of both living marine resources and our submerged cultural resources from important shipwrecks to pre-historic settlements." Trained as an environmental engineer, Basta joined NOS in 1979 as the founding chief of the Strategic Assessments Branch (later the Strategic Environmental Assessments Division). He later served as Director of NOAA's National Ocean Service Special Projects Office. Over the last two decades, Basta specialized in environmental quality and natural resources management throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, Mexico, China, and Canada. He co-authored more than 50 publications in his field including textbooks on environmental modeling, atlases of U.S. coastal and ocean regions, reports and books on national and international environmental problems. Before joining NOAA, Dan Basta held positions at Resources for the Future in Washington, DC, the Environmental Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences, and John Hopkins University. The National Marine Sanctuary System, under his direction, includes 13 protected areas in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the Great Lakes. A 14th sanctuary has been proposed for in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.   (top)

Revised August 15, 2001 by Sanctuaries Web Group Many links leave the National Marine Sanctuary Web Site - please view our Link Disclaimer for more information National Ocean Service | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | U.S. Department of Commerce | NOAA Library | Privacy Policy Contact Us | http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/features/news010201.html