Maryland Sea Grant Extension Helps Shellfish Growers Produce Oyster Seed

A blog written by and about fellows funded by Maryland Sea Grant provides valuable experience in communicating about science. 

When Rita Colwell, a pioneering marine microbiologist, became the first director of Maryland Sea Grant in 1977, she launched the new program as a major player in Chesapeake Bay science by supporting basic research and applying its findings to real-world problems. 

Scientists in Maryland have published numerous studies on the impacts of climate change on the Mid-Atlantic region, but communicating the results of that research has proved difficult. Many residents in the state’s coastal communities lack a good understanding of the risks that climate change and sea level rise in particular pose to their way of life. In 2012, Maryland Sea Grant held a statewide climate change forum to inform efforts to share and discuss the findings of climate science with these communities.

Along much of the Mid-Atlantic coast, sea levels are rising faster than the global average. This trend has already been linked to intensifying storm surges, shoreline erosion, and the loss of wetlands in the Chesapeake Bay region. To educate residents of Maryland about the impacts of sea level rise and climate change in the Chesapeake region, Maryland Sea Grant formed a unique partnership with the regional news magazine, Bay Journal. This partnership resulted in a special issue of Maryland Sea Grant’s magazine, Chesapeake Quarterly, that was published in October 2014 and titled “Come High Water: Sea Level Rise and Chesapeake Bay.”