After serving as Director for eight years, David W. Yeager will step down from the position at the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (MBNEP) on July 1, 2008. Yeager began his tenure in early 2000 after a highly successful 30-year career with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps. A committee has been created to conduct a national search to identify candidates and recommend a selection for a new head of this important program.

Yeager has been active in numerous local organizations during his tenure as Director, including: Associate Director, Coastal Policy Center, Dauphin Island Sea Lab; Board of Directors, Baldwin County United; Mobile United; Past Chair, Southeast and Gulf Regional Panel on Aquatic Nuisance Species; Member, Habitat Protection Advisory Panel of the Gulf of Mexico Regional Fisheries Management Council; Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium Advisory Council; Scientific Advisory Committee for the Alabama Center for Estuarine Studies; Board Member, Association of National Estuary Programs; and 2004 graduate of the Leadership Coastal Alabama program. He was recently honored by the Partners for Environmental Progress with their 2008 Community Partner Award.

Captain David W. Yeager

Yeager will continue to be associated with the MBNEP on a contractual basis for the near term to manage certain specific tasks and to provide support during the transition. He cites the need to focus on other interests as a reason for stepping down and says, "As Chaucer put it, 'time and tide wait for no man' and I'd reckon it's about full flood coming on to slack water for me at this point." The National Estuary Program was created by the U.S. Congress under amendments to the Clean Water Act of 1987. It exists to help protect and restore important coastal ecosystems associated with "Estuaries of National Significance" through a unique, voluntary, collaborative, and community-based approach. The program develops and facilitates partnerships among a variety of stakeholders including governments, agencies, conservation and environmental interests, business and industry, and the academic community in order to achieve local environmental results. The MBNEP was established in 1995 at the request of then Governor Fob James. It is one of 28 such national programs.