Dr. Dwayne Meadows is a conservation biologist and educator. Currently he is the Species of Concern Program Coordinator for NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service in Silver Spring, MD. This program aims to prevent species from further declines that would require them to be put on the Endangered Species List.
Dwayne has been a SCUBA diver and award-winning underwater photographer since age 15. He is from Northeastern Ohio where he learned to dive in freshwater lakes and quarries and then went on to teach SCUBA diving. He then majored in Zoology at the University of California at Berkeley where he studied burrowing shrimp ecology and spent an exchange year in Australia working on coral reef fish feeding ecology. After graduation Dwayne studied American lobster in Maine and salmon smolt migration patterns for California Fish and Game. Dwayne went on to get his Ph.D. at Oregon State University for work on the behavioral ecology of eyespots in the foureye butterflyfish and the effects of grouping and habitat fragmentation in the threespot damselfish in the Caribbean.
Next Dwayne began an academic career doing research and conservation projects involving foureye butterflyfish and their parasites in Puerto Rico, conservation assessments and planning for a candidate endangered snail, and the effects of bison trampling on freshwater ecosystems. He later moved to Hawaii as Director of Research for an NGO leading conservation projects on reef ecosystems, sea turtles, and marine mammals in Hawaii, Australia, and Ecuador. He served as secretary of the Hawaii American Fisheries Society chapter and as a Hawaii ecosystems representative to the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council. Dwayne then began working with NOAAs Pacific Islands Fishery Science Center on coral reef monitoring and marine debris removal projects in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
After surviving the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Thailand, Dwayne led the development of the Aquatic Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy for Hawaii while working on tsunami reef recovery and marine debris removal projects in Thailand. Dwayne currently serves on the board of 4Kali.org, a non-profit created in memory of a 15 year old victim of the tsunami and dedicated to helping the people of Thailand affected by the tsunami. He is also a member of the Hawaii State Civil Defense Tsunami Technical Review Committee and the Tsunami Risk Assessment Project and speaks widely about his experiences and about natural disaster preparedness. In his spare time Dwayne enjoys working with his hands, athletic activities, and exploring the outdoors on land and under the sea, and tries to keep up his childhood unicycling skills. Dwayne is pleased to be able to share his photos through the NOAA photo library.
