Florida Sea Grant augments the state’s artificial reef efforts, worth $3.1 billion annually, by developing and disseminating science-based information about improvements to artificial reef technology for the state’s coastal communities and a worldwide audience. Reef development in Florida began in the late 1970s in response to fisheries depletion and habitat degradation. Today, approximately 70-100 public artificial reefs are deployed annually off Florida with federal, state and local government and private funds.

The State's artificial reef coordinator recently communicated that "Sea Grant's contribution to Florida's Artificial Reef Program continues to be significant state-wide." The state’s recent economic analysis shows that fishing and diving activity on artificial reefs annually provides 39,118 jobs for Floridians, generates $3.1 billion of economic activity, accrues $1.3 billion in income to Floridians, and produces $250 million in state revenues.

FEMA requires local governments who wish to participate in the federal flood insurance program to enact a floodplain ordinance that keeps structures off the floodplain. In the working waterfront community of Cedar Key the base flood elevation is 15 feet, requiring all structures to be elevated above that height. This is impossible for the local clam industry, however, because the equipment they use, and the structures that contain it, must be accessible at the waterfront.

The Florida Sea Grant legal specialist drafted a new floodplain ordinance based on the state model, but tailored to the concerns of Cedar Key. The ordinance creates a variance procedure for aquaculture activities that by that nature must be at grade along the waterfront, allowing Cedar Key to be considered for the federal flood insurance program and maintain its economically important clam aquaculture industry.

Florida Sea Grant provides mandatory training to seafood processors, with a resulting economic value of 78 jobs and $1,560,000 of income. In 2014 the State of Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) developed a new rule requiring people who harvest shellfish to undergo a training program about safe handling of seafood products before they could obtain a license to work in the industry.

In its second year of the program, Florida Sea Grant extension agents trained 18 seafood harvesters in Santa Rosa County, 25 in Bay County and 35 in Franklin County, for a total of 78 people trained and licensed.