Tony Chatwin: scientist/editor/ boy explorer. (Four for the Outdoors).

CLF Staff Scientist Anthony (Tony) Chatwin, editor of our new web-based newsletter, NEON -- New England Ocean News -- grew up in a rural area of Sao Paulo, Brazil, on the shores of a large lake an hour's drive from where the rain forest meets the sea. Piranhas and poisonous snakes were part of his childhood fascination for waters and their inhabitants. His regular pastimes included exploring the lake shore, and snorkeling its murky depths -- carefully. "And I was always fascinated with the sea," Chatwin recalls. "It was a bigger lake, with bigger mysteries. I felt positive energy being near it. The variety of marine life I saw among the rocks, the fish brought in by the fishermen -- I couldn't get enough of it all."

He still can't. A CLFer since 1998, he's still Tony, boy explorer, only now he has a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography, his first issue of the quarterly NEON is on CLF's website (www.clf.org/neon), and he has a nearly endless variety of marine subjects to explore -- and write about. In NEON's first issue, September 2001, Chatwin says that growing human populations will increasingly stress New England's marine environment, which calls for changes in how we manage it.

Explore the new NEON. Read about the latest developments in fisheries management, what's happening with New England's groundfish and scallop fisheries, the scientific consensus on Marine Reserves, and the current status of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. We promise: No piranhas or poisonous snakes.