He is credited for saving Lowcountry seafood. And he just won Hilton Head’s top award

Waddell Mariculture Center manager Al Stokes was awarded with Hilton Head Island’s most prestigious honor — the Alice Glenn Doughtie Good Citizenship Award — during the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce ball Saturday night.

Stokes has worked to keep waterways pristine and stocked with a diversity of sea life while supporting the state’s fishing industry as a manager of the Waddell Mariculture Center, according to a chamber news release.

“I moved down here and never seen it before and thought — wow, what a place,” Stokes said. “And I built a career here with some great people.”

The center is the country’s largest mariculture research facility. It has overseen production experiments of hundreds of sea life species, including cobia, red drum, striped bass, clams, oysters, flounder, sea horses and more.

Stokes started leading the facility in the 1980s. Early experiments focused on shrimp production, which peaked at 25,000 pounds per acre — five times higher than any other facility in the world.

Other species, such as redfish, cobia and saltwater striped bass, have been replenished through Stokes’ efforts, the release states. The facility has used DNA sampling and satellite tracking to monitor the health of local population through the release of sea life.

“Stokes has taken his knowledge far beyond the gates of the Waddell Center in an attempt to preserve this area’s waterways, by far our most precious resource,” Collins Doughtie, a local fishing guide and columnist, said in the release. “If it were not for his selfless personality and willingness to give of his time and knowledge no matter how long a day he may have already had, the waters around Hilton Head and Bluffton might not enjoy the classification for being the gold standard that it now touts.”

Through the research facility, Stokes has worked to educate students locally and throughout the world. Facility biologists also run the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, which helps free stranded dolphins, whales, manatees, turtles and birds.

A Camden native, Stokes graduated from Clemson University with a degree in biology. He started working with the South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Division (now the Department of Natural Resources) in 1978.

“I am so grateful to be able to work in a community like this and receive the support we do from the community,” Stokes said. “We couldn’t do it without you.”

The Alice Glenn Doughtie Good Citizenship Award was first presented in 1971.

Other awards given during the ball include:

▪  Tom Reilley — John Curry Tourism Award

▪  Second Helpings & Palmetto Breeze — Outstanding Organization of the Year Award

▪  Don Ryan Center for Innovation — Bluffton Regional Business Council Member of the Year Award

▪  Aunt Laurie’s — Small Business of the Year

▪  Kate Clark, Hilton Head Preparatory School Upper School math teacher — Educator of the Year

▪  Alex Jospeh — Zonta Woman of the Year Award

▪  Emory Campbell — Hilton Head St. Patrick’s Day Parade Grand Marshal

This story was originally published January 27, 2018 at 10:30 PM with the headline "He is credited for saving Lowcountry seafood. And he just won Hilton Head’s top award."