Oyster gardening initiative prompts memories from longtime supporter of Marine and Natural Sciences

Clark, Brian E.

English

DOCS@RWU

Roger Williams UniversityDOCS@RWUFeatured News Story The Week at Roger6-11-2013Checking in With… Marine Biology Alumnus BillGeraghty ’78Brian E. ClarkRoger Williams UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_newsPart of the Higher Education CommonsThis News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The Week at Roger at DOCS@RWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in FeaturedNews Story by an authorized administrator of DOCS@RWU. For more information, please contact mwu@rwu.edu.Recommended CitationClark, Brian E., "Checking in With… Marine Biology Alumnus Bill Geraghty ’78" (2013). Featured News Story. 138.https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_news/138Home News News Archive Checking in With… Marine Biology Alumnus Bill Geraghty ’78Checking in With… Marine BiologyAlumnus Bill Geraghty ’78Oyster gardening initiative prompts memories from longtimesupporter of Marine and Natural SciencesJune 11, 2013 Brian E. ClarkEven with a fruitful, decades-long investment banking career in New York demanding much of his time and energy,alumnus Bill Geraghty ’78 has never strayed far from his roots in marine biology.A longtime supporter of all things marine biology at Roger Williams, Geraghty spearheaded an e ort among his fellowalumni to create a memorial scholarship in honor of their beloved mentor – the late faculty member Mark Gould. In2010, Geraghty and his wife, Kathleen, helped to launch the Luther H. Blount Shell sh Hatchery at Roger Williams,complete with the Lobster Mortarboard Society Observation Room.He’s also stayed involved from his home on Long Island. In the late 1990s, Geraghty found himself collaborating withthe SPAT oyster restoration program at the nearby Cornell University Cooperative Extension. He introduced the idea toresearchers at Roger Williams, and a few years later, RWU was in a position to create the Rhode Island Oyster Gardeningfor Restoration and Enhancement program.The recent RWU Magazine feature – “The Oyster is Dead – Long Live the Oyster” – o ered the opportunity to check-inwith Geraghty, who shares his thoughts here on everything from the early days of marine biology at Roger Williams tothe long-term impact of oyster restoration.On marine biology at Roger Williams in the 1970s...Obviously we had a lot less as far as facilities go, but the faculty  lled any void that might have existed between whatwas available then and what’s available today. It was really exceptional. I had gone to Columbia University, but theexperience at Roger Williams was so much more face-to-face, personalized and hands-on. The faculty was totallyengaged. You really felt plugged in, and that was a big motivator to do the best you could do.On faculty member and mentor Mark Gould…He was a real thinker. When I say engaged, he really got inside my head. He was challenging. I would do somethingthinking I did a good job, and he would come back and tell me how to make it better. He expected a lot of people. Andhe had a pretty quirky personality – he made you feel like he was your buddy, but never so much that you didn’t respecthim as more than your buddy. He lived what he taught – he was totally passionate about the environment. He was agreat role model.On the applied, hands-on focus of marine biology at Roger Williams…We spent a lot of time in the  eld. We would go scour the shoreline right in front of the school. We’d go down toNewport, and go out on the rocks and collect. We had huge collections we had to put together and then identifyeverything we found in the lab. There was SCUBA diving involved for those who dove. My senior paper had meworking out in the  eld  ve days a week. It was great.On a memorable summer experience in marine biology…Because this was a focused program in marine (more than just a general biology curriculum), when I looked for summerinternships or jobs, it gave me a leg up. I worked on Martha’s Vineyard at the Westinghouse Ocean Research Lab at thestate lobster hatchery. That was a really cool experience. The program was working on a Bureau of Land Managementgrant, and we were dosing the  rst four stages of lobster larvae with various doses of hydrocarbons. The goal was todetermine whether they were going to lease land on the continental shelf for o shore drilling. I attribute the experienceto the background I had at Roger Williams.On the Lobster Mortarboard Society…When I contributed to the cost of the Marine and Natural Sciences building expansion, they told me I would get toname the room. It just seemed too weird to name a room a er myself, so I tried to think of a way to honor thecamaraderie that we felt with our classmates. In 1978, at our graduation, a bunch of us had attached plastic lobsters toour mortarboards to stand out as the marine biology class. We did it to get a chuckle out of our professors and tohighlight our marine biology program, which was young at the time. So that was why I named the room in the MNSbuilding the Lobster Mortarboard Society Observation Room.On oyster gardening in Long Island…I read an article in the local paper in the late ’90s about this Cornell program in Southold on Long Island. It was going tospawn oysters, teach people how to do it and set them up to be oyster gardeners. You would grow them out at yourown dock or in their facility in bags, and then at the end of the season you’d bring 50 percent back to Cornell, whichthey would use to restock areas where the oyster population had been diminished. That was fantastic! We got to learnabout the process, it put us out in the  eld, it was good for the environment and you got a bunch of oysters to eat. Awin-win-win. I’ve been a gardener every since. I just went a collected a bunch of oysters last night that I’m going to servetonight for dinner as an appetizer.On the decline of shell sh populations…The degradation of the local marine environment is pretty evident to anyone who lives near or along the water, due toso many di erent sources – over shing, runo , overdevelopment, bad septic systems. I de nitely saw a decline. Evenyears ago, with family members who were  shermen or clammers – you could see how much harder they had to work tocome up with the same catch. We watched the number of baymen in this area decline because it was becoming harderto make a living on the water. You could see eel grass decline, environmental habitat decline… We had a huge industryhere until the mid 1980s in scalloping. Then we got hit with brown tide and it wiped it out. So I’ve been very aware ofthe degradation of the marine environment.On the ultimate legacy of oyster gardening projects…When it comes to my oyster activities, the environment has always been my number one concern. What I have longrealized is that when it comes to doing what is right for the environment, you typically encounter two hurdles – the extratime it takes (inconvenience) and cost. As I see it, given the demographics we now have in the U.S., people will take thetime and spend the extra money to do what is right for the environment because the link between clean environment,better quality food and good health (longevity) has been made, and people want to live longer and be healthier. So in20 years, I hope the legacy of programs like oyster gardening will be that the grassroots environmental movement thatstarted in the ’60s ultimately saved the planet when people realized that the great food and beverages they enjoyedand needed for healthy diets were dependent on a clean environment.ACADEMICS ALUMNI FEINSTEIN SCHOOL OF SOCIAL AND NATURAL SCIENCESShare This: REQUEST INFO  VISIT CAMPUS  APPLY  MAKE A GIFTMap & DirectionsContact UsDirectoryNewsEventsAthleticsrwu.eduUndergraduate SiteGraduate SiteSchool of LawSchool of Continuing Studies    © 2018 Roger Williams University. All rights reserved.  GMAIL AT RWU BRIDGES MY RWU IT HELP SITE POLICIES WORK AT RWUOne Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI 028091-800-458-7144

Checking in With… Marine Biology Alumnus Bill Geraghty ’78

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Checking in With… Marine Biology Alumnus Bill Geraghty ’78

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