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Updegraffs donate to marine science studies

Dr. Stephen Updegraff discovered the sad state of Weedon Island marine life at a very young age and vowed to change it.

By MARY JANE PARK
Published July 16, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Dr. Stephen and Betsy Updegraff have made a lead gift of $100,000 to help establish a marine studies program for the Canterbury School of Florida.

The couple are outdoors enthusiasts and their daughters, Emily, Hannah and Julia, are students at the school.

Canterbury's upper campus, at 901 58th Ave. NE, has direct access to Weedon Island and its wildlife refuge, one of the school's best assets, Dr. Updegraff said.

An internationally recognized surgeon and ophthalmology consultant, he grew up in the bay area and attended elementary school at Canterbury.

When he was a younger fisherman, an older angler suggested that he look for birds diving into the water. That's usually where the mackerel are, the man said.

The 13-year-old saw waterfowl and headed their way, only to find "seagulls diving on raw sewage that's bubbling off this pipe off of Weedon Island."

Until the late 1980s, before the dumping of untreated waste ceased, he said, Tampa Bay "was not a very healthy place. The grass flats off of Weedon Island were not that healthy."

Updegraff earned a degree in biology from Eckerd College, where he said marine science professors were instrumental in his training.

He later went to medical school at Penn State, did his internship and residency at Louisiana State University medical school in New Orleans and had a yearlong fellowship at the University of Texas medical school. Mrs. Updegraff has a degree in chemistry and biology, has done postgraduate studies in law and education and has served on Canterbury's board of trustees for the past seven years.

Family connections and a passion for Tampa Bay helped lure them back to St. Petersburg.

"I was away 20 years, almost, and I come back home, and the bay is alive," Dr. Updegraff said. "We've got sea grasses where there were none, schools of mackerel where there were none, bait fish where there weren't any. It was totally barren when I was little.

"In my lifetime, I've seen a significant improvement."

Canterbury's marine studies committee, composed of faculty, professors from the University of South Florida and Eckerd and community members who have expertise in marine life, has organized a curriculum that will be used at all grade levels, school spokeswoman Daryl DeBerry said in a press release. Community service will be a requirement.

Dan Otis, a doctoral candidate in marine science at USF, will direct the program; he worked with middle and high school students during the immediate past school year.

The new program will be housed in a temporary building near the bay inlet. It will contain a marine studies lab, technological equipment and a touch tank to be used by students of all levels.

Last summer, Dr. Updegraff said, he planned to take one of the couple's daughters tarpon fishing. They went into the bay, where he said they saw "miles and miles of, not just small fish, but bull sharks and Goliath grouper, all dead. When you see big species like that, apex predators like that, it's got to be serious."

He called numerous marine officials to ask about what was killing the fish. "Acres and acres of bait fish were dying," and monitoring devices were not showing the problem. "It made me aware of how little we know.

"The potential is just phenomenal," he said. "For Betsy and me to be able to help kick that off and be part of that dream, on so many levels, it's what Betsy and I are all about."

[Last modified July 15, 2006, 23:26:55]