Retired Coast Guard Academy captain will oversee Project Oceanology
Groton — A retired commandant of cadets at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy has taken over administration of the popular marine science education organization Project Oceanology.
Capt. James McCauley, who retired last year, started as executive director of Project Oceanology on April 4.
He replaces interim Directors Lynn Lynch and Michael Lovetere, who had held the post jointly since October 2015.
“It’s pretty exciting to be involved in something that reaches across the community,” McCauley said Thursday.
Project Oceanology, founded by a group of teachers and administrators in southeastern Connecticut in 1972, provides marine science education to students across the region and to the public.
About 25,000 people take part in its programs annually.
The program leases space at the University of Connecticut at Avery Point, and provides instruction in labs, along the shoreline and aboard vessels.
McCauley said he first learned about the program through the marine science community, and was drawn by its broad appeal.
“It’s in the marine environment. Whether they’re learning navigation, science or engineering, while they’re in that marine environment, they get excited. It’s energizing,” he said.
McCauley may spend some time running the vessels that serve as “floating classrooms,” but his real role will be to administer the program and manage its partnerships with other organizations.
He also will be involved in fundraising and discussion of a strategic plan for the future.
“Jim brings his years of management and on the water experience to move Project Oceanology forward,” Seth Yarish, board chairman, said in a news release. “The board is confident that Project O is on the right course for a bright future."
McCauley, of Salem, began as a cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in the early 1980s, earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, and launched his career in the Coast Guard with an initial shipboard assignment in Florida.
He served on six afloat assignments through the years and commanded four cutters in Florida, Alaska and Hawaii.
His last command was aboard a cutter engaged in marine resource enforcement from the western Pacific Ocean to the Bering Sea.
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