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Ruskin's Jim Igler Is A 'Champion' For Environment

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 27, 2008

RUSKIN - Jim Igler is retired - sort of.

His sailboat sits behind his coastal home, snuggled against the red mangroves and rocky shoreline that replaced his environmentally unfriendly sea wall. Most of the time, though, the sailboat sits idle, unused. There just isn't time.

When Igler isn't working part time as a volunteer dive coordinator at The Florida Aquarium or volunteering for its Green Team, he's filling mesh bags with oyster shells to create new underwater habitat in Tampa Bay.

Or he's helping to conduct sea turtle research with The Ocean Conservancy on Florida's east coast.

Or he's scouring the rocky shoreline off the Sunshine Skyway fishing piers, removing scads of discarded fishing line that might otherwise entangle wildlife.

For his efforts, Igler recently received the Individual Community Award from Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful, a nonprofit group that promotes conservation, recycling and environmental cleanups. The award identified him as a "champion for clean oceans and beaches."

"Jim is one of those wonderful people who will really do whatever needs to be done," said Jessica Koelsch, Florida Marine Wildlife program manager with The Ocean Conservancy.

"If I could get a fraction of the residents in the Tampa Bay area to emulate Jim and put in 10 percent of what he does, I'd have an army," Koelsch said. "He's absolutely a great volunteer."

The conservancy nominated Igler for the award, which he received during a recent luncheon sponsored by Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful.

For Igler, the volunteer work is a labor of love.

"You like to think you're giving something back," Igler said from his home, noting that his greatest reward is a new assignment meant to better the Earth.

"All my family has always been environmentally active," Igler said. "It's just who we are. I've always been a firm believer we are here to manage this Earth."

Igler moved here from Kansas in 1987 after his job there folded. He got a transfer and also became a volunteer at the aquarium soon after it opened in 1995, putting to work scuba-diving skills that he had learned in preparation for a trip to the Bahamas.

One of his biggest environmental efforts has been his work with the conservancy on a project to promote better fishing practices on the Sunshine Skyway piers.

Igler helped Koelsch and his fellow volunteers survey anglers and install some 40 bins along the piers where fishers can discard line safely.

He's also at the piers several times a week working to educate anglers and others on how they can make a difference.

Igler also volunteers with the Egmont Key Alliance and Tampa Bay Watch. He has worked on projects to fill and place bags of oyster shells in Tampa Bay so live oysters will attach to them, creating new habitat. More oysters mean a cleaner Bay because they siphon silt from the water they take in.

"When we started all this, the Bay was brown," he said. "It's not anymore. I'd like to think we're making a difference. Plaques and awards are fine, but I'd rather know I'm making a contribution."

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or

yhammett@tampatrib.com.

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