Sea Grant head stepping up work with R.I. businesses

GREENER PASTURES: Dennis Nixon, new director of the Rhode Island Sea Grant program, said that the marine trades industry is “trying to be as green as possible.” / COURTESY URI/ MICHAEL SALERNO PHOTOGRAPHY
GREENER PASTURES: Dennis Nixon, new director of the Rhode Island Sea Grant program, said that the marine trades industry is “trying to be as green as possible.” / COURTESY URI/ MICHAEL SALERNO PHOTOGRAPHY

Dennis Nixon, the new director of Rhode Island’s Sea Grant program, has long been involved in the environmental, legal and social currents of the waterways of the Ocean State.
In the leadership position for Sea Grant since July 1, he now finds himself guiding a program he began working with in 1975 as a graduate student at the University of Rhode Island.
Nixon’s expertise is in maritime law. He takes the helm of Sea Grant, a $3.2 million-per-year program, at a critical time, as nations around the world confront the impacts of climate change, with sea-level rise and increasing occurrences of extreme weather. In the Ocean State, Sea Grant’s mission of providing quality research helps to create a foundation for political, social and governmental decision-making.

PBN: Businesses in the state are increasingly dealing with the impacts of sea-level rise, flooding, coastal erosion and storm damage. What’s your vision for the interaction between Sea Grant work and businesses in the state?
NIXON: This is one of the subtle changes I’m making in my role as director of Sea Grant, probably because of my background in law. I see the impact on businesses acutely. One of the first things I did as director was to arrange a meeting with the head of the Rhode Island Marine Trades Association. I wanted to find out what issues marinas and boatyards and others in the marine trades are facing, to see if there is science or engineering that can help them in their work.
PBN: What kind of issues did you find the marine trades facing?
NIXON: A couple of boat manufacturers, for example, said the disposal of fiberglass boats is an issue. The industry is trying to be as green as possible, but there’s no really good, environmentally approved way to get rid of these boats. They’re clogging up valuable shoreline acreage. So we’re trying to find innovative techniques to dispose of used fiberglass.

PBN: Rhode Island has several state and regional agencies working with environmental issues, including the Coastal Resources Management Council and the state Department of Environmental Management. Where exactly does the Sea Grant program fit in?
NIXON: Sea Grant does the research to support other agencies that have the legislative mandate to manage and make decisions. We don’t make decisions. We tell them, for instance, what the erosion rate is going to be. We tell them the impact seawalls might have on a particular ocean-facing beach. And it’s up to them to decide what to do with that information. Basically, Sea Grant delivers the science to support Narragansett Bay. Unfortunately, the way the organizations have grown historically is very confusing and we wouldn’t design the system this way if we did it now.

PBN: What kinds of projects does the Sea Grant program participate in?
NIXON: Our mission has three parts – research, education and outreach. Here at URI, we use the staff of the Coastal Resources Center and they’re out there leading the discussions on the Shellfish Management Plan. They’re leading the discussions and doing the writing of the Ocean Special Area Management Program for the wind farm. Now they’re leading the very difficult discussions of what we’re calling the Beach SAMP, the Shoreline Change Special Area Management Plan, trying to help communities up and down the coast … come up with strategies to help them cope with the combined impacts of sea-level rise, the increasing intensity of coastal storms and in some cases subsidence, where the land is actually just gradually sinking.

PBN: Considering the sluggish economy nationwide and the even-slower economic recovery in Rhode Island, are there financial stresses facing the Sea Grant program?
NIXON: Our program has received level funding from NOAA for at least the past decade. With normal inflationary costs in doing business, we have seen a significant reduction in our “buying power” when it comes to research grant awards.

PBN: Do you still teach, along with your position as director of Sea Grant?
NIXON: Yes, I teach an undergraduate survey class with about 90 students called “Introduction to Marine and Coastal Law.” I’ve been a professor of marine affairs for 38 years. Teaching is about 20 percent of what I do.

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PBN: How much of your work is with Sea Grant?
NIXON: My Sea Grant job keeps me more than half busy, in running the program and developing relationships around the state, connecting what we do at URI with our partners.

PBN: Then you have another portion of your work that’s national, right?
NIXON: My third job is with UNOLS, The University National Oceanographic Laboratory System, where I serve as the attorney for all of the academic research vessels in the United States. I recently helped with a new charter agreement for one of the ships. •

INTERVIEW
Dennis Nixon
POSITION: Director of Rhode Island Sea Grant program
BACKGROUND: Nixon is a maritime attorney and a professor of marine affairs at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. He is co-founder of a joint-degree program in marine affairs and law with Rogers Williams University Law School. He arrived in Rhode Island in 1975 to attend the URI Graduate School of Oceanography.
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in history from Xavier University, 1972; law degree from University of Cincinnati Law School, 1975; master’s degree in marine affairs from URI, 1976
FIRST JOB: Caddy at golf course in Michigan at age 14
RESIDENCE: Jamestown
AGE: 63

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