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NOAA Sea Grant-funded research and work with coastal and Great Lakes communities across the nation are being highlighted in a special issue of “Oceanography,” the official journal of The Oceanography Society.
This special issue, published in April 2024, features 36 articles contributed by Sea Grant authors across 29 programs and the NOAA National Sea Grant Office.
Year-over-year, Sea Grant is committed to supporting aquaculture development across the nation, as a means of enhancing economic resilience and nutritional security in American communities. Sea Grant recently developed a five-year Aquaculture Investment Plan to guide its efforts in supporting aquaculture research, extension and education.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant announces $400,000 in funding for four new research projects focused on social and policy issues related to PFAS in the Great Lakes region.
In fiscal year 2023, Sea Grant invested $14 million in federal funding to support several new initiatives, including the Aquaculture Economics and Markets Collaborative, Aquaculture Technologies and Education Awards, Aquaculture Supplemental Awards and the previously announced Seafood Industry Workforce Development Awards. In addition, fiscal year 2023 investments supported the continuation of Early Stage Propagation Strategies for Aquaculture Species Awards, Marine Finfish Aquaculture Juvenile Production Technologies Awards, Advanced Aquaculture Collaboratives, and the Aquaculture Information Exchange.
Contaminants of emerging concern, like pharmaceuticals, cleaning products and microfibers, pose risks to the Nation’s drinking waters and aquatic life, but they are often excluded from monitoring programs and published water quality standards. Two new projects recently funded by Sea Grant aim to enhance research and monitoring efforts for this class of chemicals and materials while strengthening strategies to reduce their presence in aquatic environments.
Minnesota and Wisconsin Sea Grant programs team up to implement an annual mentor-mentee extended workshop called “Science, Sailing, and Shipwrecks” to increase participants’ abilities to improve the
The world’s largest source of fresh water, the Great Lakes, provides drinking water to more than 40 million people in the U.S. and Canada. In the first study of its kind, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering, funded by Wisconsin Sea Grant, have demonstrated that tributary rivers feeding Lake Michigan play an important role in bringing the human-made group of chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the Great Lakes system.
The Sea Grant Great Lakes Aquaculture Collaborative is hosting the first annual Sea Grant Great Lakes Aquaculture Day on October 10, 2020. Register now for this free, interactive, virtual event!
Revitalization breaks through in this photo essay from National Geographic photographer Peter Essick, in collaboration with the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network, demonstrating the renewed majesty of the Great Lakes.
Take a visual tour of the restoration and resurgence of Great Lakes tributaries that were designated as Areas of Concern under the 1987 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. These tributaries were pinpointed due to significant pollution and habitat problems, but with funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Areas of Concern are getting cleaned up and habitat is being restored.
An ecological investment is bringing life back to the aquatic environment. Tourism, recreation, and development are returning to the basin’s rivers, harbors, and lakes.
Sea Grant programs in the Great Lakes and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are teaming up to raise awareness about cost-sharing programs available through the Great Lakes Legacy Act for sediment cleanup efforts. A new video and social media campaign explain.
New Minnesota Sea Grant study suggests that using water clarity as an indicator of water quality may not necessarily work in all regions.
Wisconsin Sea Grant funded a two-year aquaculture research project designed to compare the production of walleye, a native Wisconsin fish, and saugeye, a natural hybrid of walleye and sauger, in a recirculating aquaculture system and a closed aquaponics system.
Wisconsin Sea Grant researcher quantifies the value of Lake Michigan sports fisheries
A group of fifth-grade students from Alpena, Michigan created a movie to help everyone understand why marine debris is a problem and to offer ideas about how they can contribute toward solutions.
Removal of polluted sediment from lake and river bottoms can be costly and time consuming. Ohio Sea Grant researchers are developing a new method using ultrasound and chemical agents, potentially making pollutant clean up faster and less costly.
In a groundbreaking project that empowers at-risk teens and pre-teens, student-driven exploration of aquatic environments through underwater photography and classroom experiences motivate those who may not otherwise feel inspired to participate in the sciences.
A Great Lakes Sea Grant Research Project Leads to Bigger Questions and NSF Funding
While looking toward the next 50 years, Sea Grant is revisiting its roots.
“Shipboard Science” provides educators in the Great Lakes basin the opportunity to conduct scientific research activities alongside aquatic scientists and learn strategies to integrate Great Lakes science into their curriculum.
Rich in healthy omega-3 fatty acid, Wisconsin commercial fishers are interested in hauling in greater numbers of lake whitefish via trawl nets, leading to higher income. Wisconsin Sea Grant is leading a study on the idea.
Wisconsin Sea Grant has worked with partners for more than 30 years to bring back a chain of barrier islands in Green Bay, Lake Michigan. It’s paying off. Rare birds are now making the emerging islands a home.
You might say that Tony Murphy’s career took him around the GLOBE and back.
Wisconsin Sea Grant kicks off an initiative to prepare students for careers after academia. Students will explore strategies to engage with a wider community and demonstrate the value of science in decision making.
The mainland sea caves in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin are a big tourism draw, but they also can be dangerous. A real-time wave observation system project funded by Sea Grant is making the experience safer.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is helping place more Indiana-farm-raised fish on menus in the Midwest through events like the Aquaculture Industry Tour for Culinary Professionals.
Sea Grant has extension agents at multiple NOAA laboratories across the country. Rochelle Sturtevant is Sea Grant's Great Lakes Regional Extension Specialist and is based at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Michigan.
Within a span of three days, Wisconsin Sea Grant-funded researchers found three shipwrecks in an area of Lake Michigan currently under consideration to become a NOAA National Marine Sanctuary.
New York Sea Grant’s Great Lakes Coastal Processes and Erosion homepage provides information focused on the educational needs of New York’s Great Lake’s shoreline property owners, resource users and decision makers, marine contractors, and recreational boaters.
Working with Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and local anglers, Pennsylvania Sea Grant involves high school students from Central Career and Technical School in building structures to improve fish habitat in Lake Erie.
Harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie impact drinking water, wildlife, and tourism. Ohio Sea Grant and Ohio State's Stone Lab are working with a wide range of partners to protect the health and well-being of lakeshore residents and the ecosystem.
NOAA’s Coastal Storms Program is collaborating with Sea Grant and others to improve safety for Great Lakes beach-goers.
" I get to work with some of the most passionate, smart, and genuine people I have ever met, helping them to manage and protect some of the most beautiful and unique places in the country. "
Great Lakes Sea Grant programs and a network of Great Lakes-region partners are promoting a new water safety campaign, Be Current Smart.
” Everyone needs to be informed about weather and consequently wave dynamics on the lake and in the nearshore zone.”
Federal, state, and local partners come together to discuss the forecasting and communication of rip currents and other coastal hazards on the eve of beach season.
As Hurricane Season begins, Sea Grant continues to prepare coastal communities for hurricanes and coastal storms. Learning from past events, Sea Grant aims to strengthen the resilience of infrastructure and empower coastal residents.
Ohio Sea Grant and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources will expand the Ohio Clean Marinas and Clean Boater programs statewide in 2015.
It's Safe Boating Week. Recreational anglers are also boaters. On Lake Michigan, those recreational anglers need to be aware of safety concerns surrounding commercial fishing trap nets. That's where Wisconsin Sea Grant steps in, sharing maps showing net locations.
By incorporating social science into the equation, Great Lakes Sea Grant programs are helping to meet societal needs.
David Hart is Assistant Director for Extension with the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute and a Senior Scientist with the UW Aquatic Sciences Center. His research and outreach spans geographic information science, urban planning, and coastal management.
Microbeads have drawn a lot of public and political attention since 2012, when researchers from New York and Wisconsin discovered millions of the tiny particles in several Great Lakes. But this new study suggests microfibers may be an even larger concern in at least a few areas.
Tipping Points and Indicators, a research and extension program for Great Lakes coastal communities, helps local decision makers identify impacts of land-based activities that threaten the sustainability of ecosystems in their watershed. This program includes a web-based decision support syst​em (tippingpointplanner.org) and facilitated forum to explore policy and management interventions necessary to keep coastal ecosystems from reaching critical tipping points and moving to unstable conditions.
The purpose of this assessment tool is to provide community leaders, administrators, planners, engineers, public work directors, and natural resource managers with a simple method in the form of a checklist divided into nine different categories to review their community's particular vulnerabilities to climate trends and to identify priority areas to focus on through planning and projects. The goal of this tool is to help communities in the Great Lakes region identify and address vulnerabilities through education and planning to help reduce the impacts and costs of climate change-related damage through adaptation policies and procedures.
The Watershed Game is an interactive tool that helps community leaders understand the connections between land use, clean water and their community. Participants learn how a variety of land uses impact water and natural resources and learn how their choices can prevent adverse impacts.
Lake sturgeon have been on the planet for 150 million years. Despite that long residency, scientists are still learning about these fish, the largest found in North America. An enduring question is what contributes to their survival skills. Answer: Sound. As one factor anyway.
The Port Asset Matrix helps communities appraise the current value of their navigational and port infrastructure, allowing them to project the potential costs of maintaining or replacing these resources in the face of changing water levels and storm conditions caused by climate variation.
This checklist of climate-related decision points can help coastal communities smoothly integrate climate change data into their ongoing planning processes.
Wisconsin Sea Grant, in conjunction with the NOAA Great Lakes Coastal Storms Program, conducted a survey to learn the planning and implementation needs of Great Lakes coastal planners and managers to mitigate and adapt to coastal storm hazards.
This project integrates animation, aerial photography, pictures, charts, and text to help the public better understand: (1) the natural process of coastal erosion; (2) how local land development decisions impact coastal erosion; and (3) the case for scientifically-based coastal development setbacks
This Wisconsin Sea Grant fact sheet offers some adaptation strategies for adapting to the impacts of climate change on shipping and boating infrastructure.
Wisconsin Sea Grant hosts the Great Lakes Coastal Storms Program website which provides resources, program updates and information related to the four primary goals of the program.
Wisconsin Sea Grant worked with the National Weather Service to evaluate a new tornado risk communication tool.
Wisconsin Sea Grant helped with design and development recommendations for the Lake Level Viewer.
The Chester Climate Adaptation Team, including Pennsylvania Sea Grant, has the capacity to assist with community engagement to assess climate vulnerabilities, consider solutions, and to plan steps for a more resilient community.
The project created, tested and applied models to forecast how anthropogenic (land use, invasive species) and natural (climatic variability) stresses influence hypoxia formation and ecology, with an emphasis on fish production.
Decision-support tools to help make decisions on managing a key fishery by incorporating information, accounting for uncertainties, or evaluating trade-offs between alternative choices.
Four fact sheets addressing distinction between weather and climate, preparing for extreme conditions, variable lake levels, and climate variability
Climate Ready Great Lakes consists of three modules designed to help create a Great Lakes region that is “climate ready”.
The Climate and Water Quality diagram is used for public outreach to show interaction of climate, water quality, land use and invasive species.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant has a climatologist on staff who conducts workshops and interacts with local resource managers along southern Lake Michigan to help the region become more resilient. We have produced or participated in the creation of number tools to help communities.
An integrated assessment research project and deliverables to support Clinton River watershed decision-makers in water resources management.
The Great Lakes Beach, Tributary, and Nearshore Water Quality: Hydrologic and Hydrodynamic Data and Model Assimilation website hosts a water quality forecasting system for use at targeted beaches throughout the Great Lakes.
Michigan Sea Grant has created a customized user interface for the NOAA CoastWatch data reporting system, evolving as a cooperative project between the NOAA CoastWatch Great Lakes Regional Node (NOAA GLERL) and the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network.
Lake Michigan provides a reliable supply of drinking water for a large population in the greater Chicago area of northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana, but is being tapped to its legal limit. Water supply planning can increase preparedness for droughts and climate change, reduce regional conflicts, and promote conservation. Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant has tools to help communities with sustainable water pricing, outdoor conservation, sample ordinances, etc.
With funding from the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments center, Michigan Sea Grant led a team in developing a new unit for the Clean Marina Classroom (an online training tool for marina, harbor and boatyard operators in pursuing Clean Marina certification).
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant maintains a buoy off the coast of Lake Michigan in Indiana and will soon be installing a second buoy in waters on the Illinois side. The buoys are equipped with sensitive scientific instruments that help scientists, managers, and local community members understand how the lake works, how things look today, and how things will look in the future.
Michigan Sea Grant website to host Great Lakes Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) tool, an online mapping tool for coastal pollution cleanup, restoration, and response efforts in the Great Lakes Basin, from Minnesota to New York in the United States and from Ontario to Quebec in Canada.
This congressional act provides matching funds to communities to speed up the pace of cleanup of contaminated sediments within Great Lakes Areas of Concern. Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant conducts workshops, provides local community support, and has developed numerous products including curricula, economic development strategies, and fact sheets.
This beach manager’s manual provides the latest information and management strategies for harmful algal blooms, type E botulism outbreaks, and other topics in the future.
Lawn and garden chemicals applied in the Lake Michigan basin can wind up in the water, polluting the lakes with pesticides and excess fertilizer. The program promotes healthy landscape practices, offering communities, landscapers, residents, and others, tips for maintaining healthy lawns and landscapes without over-relying on chemicals.
This web-based GIS decision system is designed to improve comprehensive land use planning so that economic, ecological, social, and cultural resources are integrated with future development in a sustainable way.
Since 2001, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant has hosted workshops pertaining to various aspects of river and stream restoration, including dam removal. The River Restoration: Practices and Concepts workshops provide the opportunity to hear about the latest restoration projects from experts nationally as well as from the region, and communicate with other professionals with similar interests.
The Chester Climate Adaptation Team produced this series of 11 interactive Google Maps to assess the risk to the City's population, infrastructure, and environment from varying levels of flooding.
Pennsylvania Sea Grant helped students at Mercyhusrt University complete a year long social change campaign to educate their college community about the issues involved in pharmaceutical and personal care product use and disposal.
With funding from the 2012 National Sea Grant Climate Adaptation Competition, Chester was selected as a model coastal community for integrating climate change adaptation planning into economic revitalization efforts. Here are recommendations from the Chester Climate Task Force adopted as an addendum to the Vision 2020 comprehensive plan for the City by Chester City Council on June 25, 2014. (PDF, 80 pages).
Through the The Bay Watershed Education or B-WET program Pennsylvania Sea Grant and Ohio Sea Grant provide critical support for formal and in-formal educators through an extensive three-day teacher education workshop on the importance of the natural resources in the Great Lakes.
Jane is Wisconsin Sea Grant’s first social scientist, reflecting a new emphasis by Sea Grant to factor humans into its research program. She joined the Advisory Services team in October of 2012.
Katie Williams was the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Funded graduate student on the Impact Based Warning System assessment working with Extension Agent Dr. Jane Harrison.
Caitie McCoy is Illinois Indiana Sea Grant's environmental social scientist. Caitie is focused on communities interested or involved with the Great Lakes Legacy Act, which provides resources to clean up U.S. EPA Areas of Concern.
With funding from Sea Grant and other agencies, Euan Reavie, Senior Research Associate with the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Natural Resource Research Institute, and his colleagues have been examining sediment cores to reveal the extent to which they have captured the story of Great Lakes water quality over the past several centuries.
The Green Marina Education and Outreach Project has resulted in 69 Clean Marina certifications, approximately 5,000 best management practices implemented, and more than 2,200 individuals participating in Clean Marina workshops. Michigan Sea Grant coordinated the project in partnership with Wisconsin and Ohio Sea Grant programs.
Six new geocaches are now located in Superior. Geocaching is a high-tech version of orienteering that relies on a hand-held Global Position System unit instead of a compass. These geocaches are part of a Wisconsin Sea Grant-funded project designed to highlight the history of the state’s shipping industry.
Water conservation has moved center stage in the Chicago suburbs. Summer shortages are a major concern here, and communities are looking to tackle the problem at its source: inefficient outdoor water use.
Sea Grant greats were honored with Sunset Career Awards at the Great Lakes Regional Sea Grant Meeting in Erie, PA June 16-18, 2014. They all plan to retire before the next Great Lakes Regional Meeting so they were asked to each share some words of wisdom.
Elizabeth LaPorte works with colleagues at U-M and MSU to ensure the alignment of Sea Grant’s activities with the mission of the National Sea Grant College Program and the needs of Michigan’s stakeholders. She identifies opportunities to leverage research through public outreach and education.
Sarah Orlando is an Extension Educator based in the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Coastal Management in Sandusky. She is the coordinator for the Ohio Clean Marinas and Clean Boaters programs, voluntary, incentive-based programs to help maintain and improve coastal and Lake Erie
A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have discovered key factors in predicting how and at what levels metals such as copper and cadmium harm Great Lakes shoreline environments and what protective measures coastal organisms adopt in response.
This hands on training program for teachers gives them the confidence and the resources to engage students in the Great Lakes ecosystem.
Dredging shipping channels is an unavoidable part of harbor maintenance across the Great Lakes. But once the sediment is removed from the shipping channel, where does it go? Funded by Ohio Sea Grant Dr. Elizabeth Dayton, Research Scientist in Ohio State University’s School of Environment & Natural Resources, is working to reuse of up to 100,000 cubic yards of dredge material per year.
Dredging shipping channels is an unavoidable part of harbor maintenance across the Great Lakes. But once the sediment is removed from the shipping channel, where does it go? Funded by Ohio Sea Grant Dr. Elizabeth Dayton, Research Scientist in Ohio State University’s School of Environment & Natural Resources, is working to reuse of up to 100,000 cubic yards of dredge material per year.
Backed by University of Wisconsin Sea Grant, a grad student will use a concept called storm transposition to show Wisconsin communities why they may want to invest in climate change resilience.
Backed by Minnesota Sea Grant’s commitment to research Dr. Michael Sadowsky and his colleagues have shown that Escherichia coli and enterococci, the bacteria responsible for "Water Contact Not Recommended" beach advisories, can often be traced back to waterfowl and other animals. Water sullied by waterfowl might be nasty, but it is not a serious human health concern.
Fourteen Lake Sturgeon were transported to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, IL where they will increase public awareness about the fascinating history behind Sturgeon and the importance of the species to the Great Lakes ecosystem.
If you were to pour a bucket of water in your yard, where would the water end up? Great Lakes FieldScope is a new interactive mapping tool that will help explore what happens to that water. Students, teachers, and nature enthusiasts can share and analyze real-world data, including observations they took themselves!
The Great Lakes, a vital asset to 35 million residents, have a legacy of pollution due to our nation's industrial past. The Great Lakes Legacy Act revitalizes rivers, lakes, and harbors, helping to restore lost benefits. This video outlines the Great Lakes Legacy Act and highlights benefits it brings to communities.
A partnership between Sea Grant, the National Weather Service, and the United States Lifesaving Association will facilitate the collection of real-time data by lifeguards to improve rip current forecasts
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is leading the effort to develop an online tool that allows community planners to make informed decisions regarding land use by identifying how watershed ecosystems will look in the future if current land use practices continue or are ramped up.
UW Sea Grant funds a team of maritime archaeologists and students surveying the wreck of the Great Lakes' first self-unloading wooden schooner, abandoned in Sturgeon Bay.
The Great Lakes may span eight states and two provinces, but the threat of new aquatic invasive species is a constant reminder that the region is connected in more than name alone.
University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute has released the Great Lakes Coastal Community Climate Adaptation Checklist. This resources was created by Outreach Specialist David Hart and Grad Student Evan Murdock.