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CORVALLIS - Jay Rasmussen, long associated with coastal management programs on the Oregon coast, has been named associate director of Oregon Sea Grant and leader of the Extension Sea Grant program. The appointment is effective July 1.

Rasmussen, executive director of the Newport-based Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association since 1979, will lead a Sea Grant marine education and outreach team that includes eight Extension agents and 10 specialists in such fields as fisheries engineering, seafood, economics and marine mammals.

Extension Sea Grant agents, in communities up and down the coast, provide information and educational outreach to coastal residents, businesses and visitors, usually from home bases in offices of the Oregon State University Extension Service. These public outreach efforts are supported by about $1.3 million a year in federal and state funds.

Specialists include researchers and academics at OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center and at the main OSU campus in Corvallis.

Rasmussen, whose background includes college and secondary-level teaching positions in Oregon and Iowa, holds degrees from Utah State University. In 1977, he went to work for the OCZMA, an organization of elected officials representing coastal counties, cities, ports and soil and water districts. He became its executive director two years later.

He fills a vacancy created last year when program leader Bruce DeYoung shifted responsibilities to become Extension Sea Grant's marine trades and coastal recreation specialist. Edward R. Kolbe, an OSU professor of bioresource engineering and Extension Sea Grant fisheries engineering specialist, has filled the position in the interim.