NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries mourns the passing of Billy Causey, the first superintendent of FKNMS who died last week at the age of 81.
“Billy was a pioneer in ocean protection and a global voice for coral conservation,” said Matt Stout, acting superintendent of Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. “His leadership in the Florida Keys spanned three decades, and he was a champion for balanced conservation to support and sustain recreation for generations that follow.”
Causey found his voice as a conservationist after first leveraging the ecosystem for his saltwater aquarium business in Tampa, where he was pursuing a Ph.D. in marine science. “He came to understand the importance of the marine environment and decided to dedicate himself to protecting instead of harvesting,” said Sarah Fangman, West Coast Regional Director for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. “Yet, he understood that perspective of depending upon the marine resources for livelihood. That made him unique.”
Causey’s NOAA career began in 1983 when he was appointed manager of Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary, and in 1991 assumed the role of superintendent when the larger Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was established. Causey spearheaded efforts to establish a comprehensive marine zoning plan for the Florida Keys, including the nation’s largest network of fully-protected areas. His sense of urgency about challenges facing the Keys was often in conflict with the laborious pace of bureaucracy, which ruffled some feathers. In Marathon, some commercial fisherman hung him in effigy.
Later, Causey was instrumental in the establishment of the sanctuary’s mooring buoy program, and designating the Tortugas Ecological Reserve, which today protects over 200 square nautical miles of coral reefs in the extreme western end of the sanctuary. In 2006, he was promoted to Southeast Regional Director for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, and retired in that role in 2019.
Equally-important was Causey’s impact as a mentor to younger colleagues, including John Armor, who now heads the sanctuary system. “Your support for the professional development of a younger generation of conservation leaders has created benefits that will ripple out into the future,” Armor wrote on the occasion of Causey’s retirement. “I consider myself among the many that—as a new ONMS employee—benefited tremendously from the wisdom you shared freely and selflessly.”
Funeral details are pending.
