SARP
Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership
The Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) is a regional collaboration of natural resource and science agencies, conservation organizations and private interests developed to strengthen the management and conservation of aquatic resources in the southeastern United States.
SARP’s approach:
- Support and facilitation of on-the-ground and in-the-water science-based action to improve and protect aquatic habitats and resources.
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Focused habitat assessments, restoration actions, monitoring and evaluation of some of the nation’s most economically and socially significant aquatic habitats.
SARP's mission:
SARP will, with partners, protect, conserve and restore aquatic resources including habitats throughout the Southeast for the continuing benefit, use and enjoyment of the American people.
Latest News
SARP Celebrates A Career Benefiting Aquatics
12.01.2011With a strong background in teaching and communications, and time spent on the water as the editor of Work Boat Magazine, Marilyn Barrett-O’Leary was a fitting addition to Louisiana State University’s Sea Grant Communications Department back in the 1990s. It was there that her expertise and experiences in the aquatic resources arena developed and grew. Hired initially to start a magazine focused on Sea Grant activities, regional and marine issues, her skills and talents soon lent themselves to teaching ecological tourism to groups conducting swamp tours in Louisiana and developing programs focused on exotic invasive species. At the height of the zebra mussel invasion in the Great Lakes, Sea Grant asked Marilyn to assist in the efforts to determine when zebra mussels might arrive in Louisiana. Her research and analysis of the zebra mussel invasion in the southeast led to work with the Gulf of Mexico Program, where she helped to start a regional invasive species program (the Gulf of Mexico Regional ANS Panel), and later joined a similar program developed in the Mississippi River Basin. Along the way, she helped Louisiana develop the first state ANS management plan in the region. In recognition of this work, Marilyn was awarded one of the early Gulf Guardian Awards. The Gulf of Mexico Program Partnership developed the Gulf Guardian awards as a way to recognize and honor the businesses, community groups, individuals, and agencies that are taking positive steps to keep the Gulf healthy, beautiful and productive. During this time, her experience with exotic invasive species also extended to educating non-traditional audiences, such as garden retail stores like WalMart and Home Depot about the dangers of selling invasive species, and working with ports to do surveys of imports, waters and vessels that may be harboring and introducing invasive species. She also developed signage and educational programs on aquatic nuisance species (ANS) and studied biodiversity and its effects on aquatic species, habitats and the water, and human environment.read more >
SARP Fosters Science and Connections at Fall Steering Committee Meeting
11.01.2011Photo caption: Harpeth River in Fall, Franklin, TN. Photo credit: Lindsay Gardner. On Tuesday, October 25th, representatives from prominent government agencies, universities, non-profit organizations, and private industry (including SARP, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), EPA Gulf of Mexico Program, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, Arkansas Game and Fish, South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), U.S. Geologic Survey, Oklahoma Game and Fish, Gulf Coast Plains and Ozarks LCC, Southeast Watershed Forum, South Atlantic LCC, Mississippi Dept. of Marine Resources, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, Georgia Power, University of Georgia, Auburn University, South Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources, and Georgia Department of Natural Resources) gathered for SARP’s fall Steering Committee meeting. Other guests included John Frampton, National Fish Habitat Partnership Board member from the SARP region, and Gary Myers, former Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Director, and the visionary behind SARP. This meeting, held in association with the Southeastern Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies’ 65th annual workshop, SEAFWA 2011 at the Sheraton Music City in Nashville, TN, afforded an excellent opportunity for Steering Committee Members, Partners, and other interested parties to learn more about the current work that SARP and its partners are doing in the region. read more >
