William Stickle

I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and spent my academic career as a faculty member at Louisiana State University from 1972 to 2024. I went to Alaska often for research and teaching, including an LSU Marine Biology Program in Juneau. Throughout that time period I have collaborated with my Alaskan friend Stanley (Jeep) Rice, who served as a coauthor on scientific papers, mentored my graduate students on research projects on the effects of oil pollution on marine animals at the National Marine Fisheries Service Lab in Auke Bay, and gave lectures to the LSU Marine Biology in Alaska Program on welcome to Alaska and on the effects of oil pollution on marine animals in Prince William Sound as a result of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in comparison to the BP Macondo oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

I have also taught an Alaska course twice as an LSU Osher Lifelong Learning course: “North to Alaska,” in 2021 and “A Fascination with Alaska” in the Spring of 2025. Both courses included general features of Alaska. An important feature of the Marine Communities course in the LSU Marine Biology in Alaska Program compared aspects of the Fertile Fisheries Crescent in the Gulf of Mexico with those of Alaska. Three hundred twenty-five students have completed the LSU Marine Biology in Alaska Program over 14 years.

My earlier book, A Guide to the Fertile Fisheries Crescent with an Emphasis on Louisiana (2023), discussed coastal Louisiana, including the role of the Mississippi River drainage system in producing the Fertile Fisheries Crescent, geology of the coastal plain, bays, barrier islands estuaries and salt marshes, the economic value of the Fertile Fisheries Crescent, biota of the Fertile Fisheries Crescent, and remediating Louisiana’s current coastline. The Alaskan ecosystems challenge everyone to understand them. This book, A Fascination with Alaska, Beyond the Alaskan Cruise Naturalist, includes information on the geography, volcanic activity and glaciation, climate change, National Parks, Forests and Monuments, native people groups, economic activity, terrestrial and marine biological resources, and pollution in Alaska.

I have been married to Versa Stickle for 58 years and we have three children and six grandchildren.