Scientist Advises Egyptian Ministry on Coral Reef Conservation

Stacey A. Tighe
USAID Consultant, Red Sea Marine Park, Egypt

Stacey Tighe earned a BA (1977), an MS (1980), an MMA (1992), and a PhD (1997). Stacey takes advantage of her travels to dive all over the world including Alaska, Asia, the Caribbean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean.

An early choice brought me to the Graduate School of Oceanography. I attended a summer school for high school students in oceanography, taught almost exclusively by GSO graduate students. Although a confirmed marine biologist-to-be and a newly certified Scuba diver, I chose to muck about in sulfur-scented peat, defining the geological history of a salt marsh in the Pettaquamscutt River using diatoms, which earned me a citation in a GSO geological dissertation and a 1973 Westinghouse Science Talent Search award. This early entry into multidisciplinary work might have created an identity crisis in some, but I soon learned that I thrived in the melange.
     During the next 25 years, I worked as a scientist and a manager on marine biological and geophysical surveys in various oceans, earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College in Earth Sciences, an M.S. in Biology (coral reef ecology) from Fairleigh Dickinson University, a Masters of Marine Affairs from URI and a Ph.D. in Geological Oceanography from GSO. I spent one year on a fellowship in the recreational and scientific diving community, working with resorts, underwater film makers, and diving trainers. I cherish the professional network I discovered then, and it is invaluable to me in my present position. This experience was followed a decade later by a diplomacy fellowship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., which gave me exposure to the marine resource issues in the developing world. I chose to leave scientific research to my more academically gifted colleagues and to work primarily in the government and private sectors on marine resource management issues in threatened coastal and marine areas. This led to the work I do now in Egypt as the Red Sea Marine Park Advisor.
     I am a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) which supports the coral reef and coastal conservation efforts of the Egyptian Ministry of Environment's Nature Conservation Department. The program is helping Egypt expand its definition, declaration, and management of marine protected areas. The Red Sea encompasses one of the world's largest and most precious coral reef systems and includes premiere scuba diving, rare populations of dugongs (sea cows), tame dolphins, nesting turtles, and mangroves. I work on-site at the new Red Sea Marine Park headquarters in Hurghada with up to a dozen rangers, designing and implementing their training and technical assistance activities, and advising various governmental and non-governmental counterparts on policies for the new protectorates. My day might include going on patrol with the rangers, overseeing the installation of a mooring, writing a press release, running a workshop, discussing user fees with the Red Sea Governor (all of these with an Egyptian counterpart), or, at home during the evening, writing policy recommendations or field reports. I even find time for an occasional scuba dive. Some describe my assignment as a "dream job," one of those careers you want as a preteen when, as an idealist, you start making choices for your future. I would have to agree.