Thank you for your interest in NSUOC's Marine Mammal Management course

Hello, this is Professor Ronald,

You and many others have expressed an interest in the distance education course offered by Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center, Marine Mammal Management (MMM).

The following will introduce you to Marine Mammal Management.

First, let me tell you a bit about myself. I was born in Wales, Great Britain and as my father was in the fishing business I soon got to sea and started collecting various bits and pieces brought up in the trawls. Later I joined the British Army -their idea not mine and ended up a few years later as an instructor. Emigrated to Canada and took three degrees at McGill in Montreal while working for first provincial then federal fisheries. At this point I became addicted to working with marine mammals, and ended up directing a unique laboratory facility with a very active research group. This led to about 120 papers in scientific journals and 5 books mainly on seals and manatees.

Later in Florida, I was invited to join Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center teaching two environmental distance education courses, and Fish and Wildlife Management and Marine Mammal Management all in the classroom.

We decided to take the latter course -totally rewritten on the road and we are very excited about the response by people such as you.

The outline on the MMM web page http://www.nova.edu/ocean/marmam/marmam.html is pretty self explanatory and shows that we are very interested in the various marine mammals and their interaction with all other species including the human. You will a also find a great deal of information on Nova Southeastern University and the Oceanographic Center on the associated web page http://www.nova.edu/ocean/.

If you do sign up for the course, you will be asked to keep in contact by e-mail as often as you wish. You will be sent a CD-ROM containing 18 chapters, which give general and controversial details, as well as case studies for selected marine mammal species. You are asked to write two essays, the topics are included in the Information for the Current Term. The first essay is worth 30% of the mark, and usually will be returned to you within two weeks of the submission due date. In this way you would know what suggestions there were for improvement etc. and your evaluation. The last essay is the equivalent of final exam, and counts for 60% of your overall mark and is not returned. The remaining 10% is held for Interaction evaluation - how well you participate within any class e-mail discussion and reply to requests.

The course is considered as one for those who wish to take it for personal interest, professional advancement (e.g. those in educational programs, government positions, NGO's, and business professionals professionals who are awarded a diploma upon successful completion of the course) and those who wish to get 3 university credits at the undergraduate or graduate level, that is you make use of it as you wish, but it is an accredited Nova Southeastern University offering.

I hope you will give serious consideration to participating in this unique offering.

Professor Keith Ronald, B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.,
Dip.Rad.Biol.,F.I.Biol.,FRGS.
Professor Emeritus and Fellow of the University of Guelph
Adjunct Professor, Marine Mammals, Nova Southeastern University
Email: "Keith Ronald" <kronald barney nova fred edu>