View Comments A new superintendent has been named to oversee operations at Gulf Islands National Seashore about six months after the previous superintendent retired. Darrell Echols will take over as the park's superintendent on July 18, according to a news release issued Tuesday by the National Park Service. Echols worked most recently as regional chief of science and natural resources management for the park service's South-Atlantic Gulf region, which is based in Atlanta. For the past three months, he has been serving as the "acting superintendent" at Gulf Islands, which spans 160 miles from Cat Island, Mississippi, to the Okaloosa Area east of Fort Walton Beach in Florida.