For more information regarding the NRL outreach program, please contact the outreach manager Sunny Brogan at sjbrogan@uno.edu, or the NRL director, Dr. Martin O'Connell at moconnel@uno.edu

The Nekton Research Lab runs an outreach program that targets middle school, junior high and high school aged students. The program involves a multifacted approach to interacting with students including; faculty and grad students going to local schools and teaching special classes on shark comparative anatomy, estuarine ecology, etc., as well as members of the NRL participating in community awareness by attending events like Back to the Beach and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Fishing Rodeo, both sponsored by the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. The NRL has also participated in the annual City Park Big Bass Rodeo for the past 7 years by setting up a display booth with both native and non-native fishes that are present in City Park to promote public awareness about the invasive Rio Grande' cichlid.

Recently, the faculty and grad students from the NRL participated in the Wetland Watchers program by setting up hands-on displays containing organisms from Lake Pontchartrain like; native estuarine fish species, bluecrabs, clams and other invertebrate species. The Wetland Watchers outreach program took place at the Bonnet Carrie spillway with the floodgates as the backdrop for the festivities. Here are some photos from that event: