A Tribute to James A. “Buddy” Powell, Ph.D.

We lost a wonderful friend and colleague, and the world has lost a conservation hero with the death of Buddy Powell early on July 19 from cancer. Buddy was a pioneer in manatee research and conservation, whose work led to protected spaces for manatees in Florida and around the world.

Buddy began his work as a 14-year-old research assistant on a seminal project in Crystal River, Florida, in the 1960s, which led him to undertake projects in West Africa, the Caribbean, and Central and South America, with ongoing work in Florida, Cuba and Belize. His work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) led to the creation of the USFWS Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge and Blue Springs State Park for the protection of manatees.

Not only did he perform conservation magic with manatees, he also worked with North Atlantic right whales and other creatures through a variety of organizations and agencies, including, among others, Wildlife Conservation Society, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Wildlife Trust, Sea to Shore Alliance, and most recently, as Chief Zoological Officer at Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

He was perhaps best known for his research and conservation action, either directly or through wildlife agency management roles, but conservation capacity building was a high priority for Buddy. Through the selection and mentoring of promising young people, he nurtured the next generation of conservationists in a number of countries. His expertise and dedicated efforts were widely recognized, and in 2000 he received the Pew Fellowship Award in Marine Conservation, which he applied to further his capacity-building efforts.

I met Buddy in 1975, when he was a USFWS research assistant working with SDRP founder Blair Irvine. He joined Blair, Michael Scott, and me in Sarasota to help put early radio tags on bottlenose dolphins. I came to appreciate his sincere dedication to conservation, and his dry sense of humor while we shared an office at the University of Florida over the next several years. Through the decades, we continued to work together on various government-sponsored groups and panels.

Our research paths crossed once again in the late 1990s as the SDRP became engaged in research on how manatees responded to approaching boats. Buddy led the FWC section responsible for funding this work, and we collaborated directly on a related project at his field site in Belize, including working together to buy his research vessel.

Buddy introduced me to his colleagues at meetings in Cuba, leading to the development of training opportunities for Cuban scientists in Sarasota, and to their collaboration with our Gulf of Mexico Dolphin Identification System. In 2003, while with Wildlife Trust, Buddy introduced me to Pablo Bordino and his Argentinian dolphin research team, setting the stage for decades of SDRP collaborative franciscana dolphin research and outreach efforts, including the first-ever tagging and tracking of this species.

Many others are sharing similar stories of their experiences with Buddy and are testament to how his work leveraged positive conservation outcomes for manatees and other species around the world. He truly did make a difference, and his passion for making the wild world a better place is a loss we will all feel.

Thank you, Buddy. I miss you, as a colleague and a friend.

—Randy Wells, Director, Sarasota Dolphin Research Program

  • On Nov. 16, 2025, family and friends will hold a celebration of life for Buddy. Learn more here.