Rich Cailteux Award Past Recipients
Rich Cailteux Award Past Recipients
2023
Bob Heagey (FWC) view nomination
2022
Lew Bullock view nomination
2021
Eric Sawyers (FWC) was instrumental in developing and implementing FWC’s statewide freshwater fisheries long-term monitoring (LTM) program and served as the LTM project leader for over a decade. As project leader, he managed a team of up to eight fisheries biologists, who performed year-round field sampling for the LTM program. He organized and coordinated their field support among more than a dozen offices that sample over 60 lakes and rivers annually. Not only was Eric an excellent leader and mentor, he also played a critical role in the development, implementation, and maintenance of FWC’s LTM database. The LTM database currently stores 1.6 million rows of fish data collected from over 52,000 sites, all easily searchable and retrievable. Eric was not only an exemplary fisheries professional, but also genuinely outstanding person, mentor, and friend. His career exemplifies “a distinct contribution to the fisheries profession”. view citation
2020
Not awarded
2019
Ed Matheson (FWC) is an accomplished research scientist at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI). Over his 30+ year career, his research has focused on fishes associated with seagrasses, tidal-river estuaries, the West Florida shelf, and Tampa Bay. He provides critical insight and a “big-picture” approach to the applied science of how FWRI approaches fisheries objectives. view citation
2018
Chuck Cichra (UF) has excelled in his career as an educator and scientist. He has produced successful academic and extension programs. He has taught and mentored a wide range of students, many of whom now hold professional positions in agencies, academia, and industry. He has been active in the Florida Chapter since 1986 and was part of the original effort to establish the Roger Rottmann Memorial Scholarship. view citation
2016
Mike Murphy (FWC) is an accomplished fisheries biologist who has devoted a large part of his 35+ year career to advancing our knowledge of fish population dynamics of the many important estuarine and coast species in the Southeast region. view nomination
2015
Larry Connor (FWC) began his career working with grass carp and finished it working on exotic species eradication. In between, he built database systems, created a creel data analysis program, and consulted fisheries biologists with sampling design and statistics. He has long been active in the FLAFS and SDAFS in various officer and committee roles, to include creating and maintaining the FLAFS membership database. view nomination
2014
Bob Wattendorf (FWC/DFFM) devoted his career to freshwater fisheries management and promoting freshwater fishing in Florida. Additionally, he has played a significant part in the FL Chapter AFS since its first meeting in 1981. view nomination
2013
Wes Porak (FWC/FWRI) spent his career in Freshwater Fisheries Management and Research and is renowned as a black bass scientist. view citation
2011
Alan Collins (NOAA/NMFS) spent the majority of his 35 year career working on the early life history of fish and the reproductive biology of reef fish. view nomination
2010
Ron Taylor (FWC/FWRI) spent the majority of his 30+ year career enhancing our knowledge on the biology & ecology of snook species and is considered an international expert in his field. view nomination