Jon is a marine biologist with more than 40 years of ecological experience working in Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, and the Tropical Atlantic and Eastern Tropical Pacific. Dr. Staiger was the Natural Resources Manager for the City of Naples from 1986 to 2005. In that position, he provided environmental policy guidance and advice to all City Departments as well as to the Mayor and City Council and to their appointed advisory boards. In addition, he was involved in the stormwater management program, which is focused on reducing pollution loading to Naples Bay and other City lagoon/wetland systems.
A 1960 graduate of the University of Michigan, he received his M.A. from Boston University in 1962 and his doctorate from the University of Miami in 1970. From 1966 to 1979 he was a staff and faculty member at Miami, where he was responsible for coordinating and conducting field operations for biological oceanographic projects, while carrying out research on the ecology of deep-sea fishes.