Maryland Sea Grant Wins Awards for Publication Excellence

For thirty years Maryland Sea Grant has provided citizens with in-depth, creditable information about Chesapeake Bay issues. In early July, the 2007 Awards for Publication Excellence (APEX) competition honored several of these efforts.

The writers and editors of Chesapeake Quarterly, Maryland Sea Grant’s signature publication, took home two prestigious APEX awards — one for excellence in the “magazines and journals” category for the issue devoted to the devastating oyster disease MSX, caused by a mysterious parasite that has plagued the Chesapeake Bay oyster population for more than fifty years (Vol. 5, No. 2); the other for a profile on Drew Koslow, the riverkeeper for Annapolis’s South River, whose job is to defend the river against pollution and to serve as its eyes, ears, and voice (Vol. 4, No. 4).

Maryland Sea Grant’s new field guide Underwater Grasses in Chesapeake Bay & Mid-Atlantic Coastal Waters picked up a prize in the book category. Produced in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Chesapeake Bay Office, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, this water-resistant guide features color photographs, line drawings, identification keys, and descriptions of submerged aquatic vegetation species commonly found in the Bay.

Now in its nineteenth year, the APEX competition received nearly 5,000 entries for 2007. “Competition was exceptionally intense” according to the editor of Writing That Works, a newsletter for professional writers, editors, and communicators. Judges evaluate submissions based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content, and overall

communications effectiveness.

This is the second year in a row that Maryland Sea Grant staff members have received APEX awards. In 2006 they won an Award of Excellence for Chesapeake Quarterly and a highly-coveted APEX Grand Award for the writing and design of four education display panels on Hurricane Isabel, a storm that had a powerful impact on the Bay region.

For more information on the competition visit www.apexawards.com

-- Jessica Smits