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UD Mariners community seeks to connect communities with research

Two UD Coast Day participants in blue t-shirts hold up plush stuffed fish as they talk.

The University of Delaware's Mariners program seeks to bring together people interested in preserving the state’s coastal areas.

The university announced the initiative at its annual Coast Day event in October. UD’s Robin Wray says the university’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment wants to connect people interested in advocating for a healthier coast and oceans with advocacy opportunities and UD research.

“Mariners is a Southern Delaware community of people who care about the environment," Wray said. "The UD campus in Lewes has been working for over 50 years in marine science, but we haven't been very good about integrating with the community, so Mariners intentionally will change all that.”

Wray says the Mariners program is built around UD’s dedication to research.

“Higher education's purpose is not only to build our workforce and to educate our population, it's also to do research and share that knowledge," she said. "And that knowledge belongs to you, to society, to the public.”

As part of the program, UD will host a variety of public events featuring their researchers in and around Lewes in the coming months.

Since its announcement on Coast Day in October, the Mariners community has continued to grow, Wray says.

“We had 219 people sign up on Coast Day and then about another 50 or 60 have signed up since then," he said.

She says the university plans to ramp up its outreach to bring in new members in the new year. Membership in the Mariners community is free and open to anyone interested in learning more and advocating for the First State’s coastal areas.

Martin Matheny comes to Delaware Public Media from WUGA in Athens, GA. Over his 12 years there, he served as a classical music host, program director, and the lead reporter on state and local government. In 2022, he took over as WUGA's local host of Morning Edition, where he discovered the joy of waking up very early in the morning.