I read with dismay the March 7 article about the attempt to deprive University of Alaska professor Rick Steiner of his Sea Grant funding. I have known and worked with Steiner for 20 years and have personally witnessed his commitment to science and the protection of the environment.

To give just a few examples:

In April 1989 he was one of the first people (outside of the oil industry) to figure out that if Alaska had enjoyed the environmental safeguards funded by the same oil companies at Sullom Voe in the Shetland Islands, the Exxon Valdez spill would probably not have happened -- because the ship's deviation from her track would have been detected automatically from shore and alarms would have gone off.

Steiner immediately organized a trip to Shetland and returned with a detailed plan based on global best practice and best available technology for vessel traffic systems. He then became a leading force in setting up the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council, whose achievements are justifiably famous worldwide.

When the Braer, a passing tanker unconnected with Sullom Voe, broke down off the Shetland coast in 1993 and spilled twice as much oil as the Exxon Valdez, Steiner was on the next plane over here to offer our local authorities his practical assistance and expert advice. This was greatly appreciated. He later did similar volunteer work for oil spill-affected communities in Japan, Korea and the Baltic, among other places.

In 1999 I had the great pleasure of working with Steiner and Dan Lawn of Valdez on a review of environmental protection plans for the new offshore oil fields in Sakhalin on the coast of the Russian Far East. Steiner's meticulous approach to research ensured that our recommendations were based on facts and were of practical use to the fishermen and coastal communities in that impoverished region. He has since carried out many similarly useful projects for citizens' groups and fishermen's organizations in other parts of the world including Indonesia and West Africa.

His partnership with Alaska fishermen and environmental agencies is well known in your country, not just during the protracted oil spill crisis but also during three decades of work to promote sustainable fishing techniques.

Now, it's true that Steiner is a man of strong opinions. In his published papers and lectures he takes a stance on issues. He has no time for the pretence of academic "objectivity" -- all too often a cloak for timidity and conformism.

What he says may not be welcome or popular with the high and mighty but it's always fair. When the oil industry get it right he's usually among the first to compliment them.

In my experience his positions are invariably argued in forensic detail, from a clear and unbiased examination of the evidence. That, of course, is what professors are supposed to do. It may not make them easy colleagues for the bean counters and paper shufflers to work alongside, but it's what we pay them for: to examine, to challenge and to provoke discussion.

I know how well Steiner is regarded in the state of Alaska by the many, many people whose lives he has enriched by his commitment to social and environmental responsibility, his intelligence, practical help and his wonderful gift of humor in adversity. What Alaskans may not realize is what a great ambassador Steiner has been in the wider world -- for his university, his home state and the U.S., whose finest academic traditions he exemplifies. I do hope the authorities will realize their folly and abandon this crude attempt at stifling academic freedom before they make complete donkeys of themselves.

---

Jonathan Wills lives in Scotland, where he is independent councillor for Lerwick South, Shetland Islands Council. He made the 1990 British TV documentary "Slick Operators" about the Exxon Valdez oil spill and later worked with professor Steiner as an environmental consultant.

ADVERTISEMENT

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@