Meet the Marine Team: Steve Tettelbach

This week, let’s take a few minutes to meet another member of the CCE Marine Team, Dr. Stephen Tettelbach!

“...we average about 100 divers per year in the Peconics.”

Dr. Tettlebach officially came on board with CCE a few years ago, though we’ve been working closely with Steve for many years through our collaboration with Long Island University and Suffolk County on the Peconic Bay Scallop Restoration Program. The work of Dr. Tettlebach and his team has helped advance our understanding of the challenges facing local bay scallop populations while ensuring our restoration efforts are successful as possible.

To learn more about Steve, check out this mini-interview we had with him recently!

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1. How long have you been with CCE Marine Program? 
   3 years

2. What's your position title?
   Shellfish Ecologist

3. What’s your favorite part of your job? 
   Scuba diving

4. What part of your job would people find most surprising?
   we average ~100 divers per year in the Peconics

5. What is something you wish more people knew about shellfish?
   diversity of their biology and ecology

6. What are some potential reasons why scallop populations may experience a die-off?
   High water temperature/low dissolved oxygen/disease in conjunction with scallop spawning; predation by cownose rays

7. What is the most exciting thing you've seen while diving?
   [very hard to pick just one!]

   locally: walking clams

   overall: manta rays doing barrel rolls 

8. What do you do for fun outside of work? 
   visit family and friends, travel, golf, collect shells, write

9. What’s your favorite local seafood dish?
   bay scallops!

10. If you could be any marine species what would you be?
    octopus

11. Why?
    get to experience the world in a totally different way

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Thank you for all that you do, Steve!

We’ll be back next week with another staff spotlight from the CCE Marine Team!

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