Scroll down to view posts
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.
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.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Sea Grant College Program (Sea Grant) is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2024 class of the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship program. The 85 early-career professionals selected will be placed in federal government offices throughout Washington, D.C., and join the over 1,600 individuals who have participated in the program since its inception in 1979.
Sea level rates in the Chesapeake and coastal bays are rising at about twice the national average. Climate change is making storms more intense. This
Acting NOAA Administrator RDML Timothy Gallaudet visited Maryland Sea Grant and IMET in May 2018 for a discussion focused on aquaculture research and how the partners are advancing diversity in the marine sciences.
The Mid-Atlantic Sea Grant Programs (MASGP), in partnership with the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program (OAP), are pleased to announce the availability of Ocean Acidification (OA) Graduate Research Fellowships for the two-year period covering the 2018 and 2019 academic years.
Atlantic menhaden have been called the most important fish in the sea, with good reason.
Sea Grant together with the National Marine Fisheries Service are pleased to announce the 2017 NMFS-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship recipients. Six population and ecosystem dynamics
A blog written by and about fellows funded by Maryland Sea Grant provides valuable experience in communicating about science.
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.”
Many leaders in Maryland have highlighted the importance of developing oyster aquaculture in the state: this industry supports local working waterfronts and also helps the state’s struggling seafood industry. Maryland Sea Grant Extension helped to bring about changes in state policy to make it easier for residents to obtain leases for aquaculture operations in Chesapeake Bay, creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs. To help them pursue those opportunities, Maryland Sea Grant Extension and its partners have developed a number of programs that help shellfish growers to obtain start-up funding for these ventures and to build and operate them successfully.
Maryland Sea Grant supported a research project to develop a Nutrient Loading Model for the Delmarva Peninsula. Other collaborators and funders on the effort included Sea Grant programs in Delaware and Virginia.
Maryland’s coastal wetlands provide diverse ecosystem services for the Chesapeake Bay region, reduce flooding risks, and help to improve local water quality. These natural communities, however, also face threats from rising sea levels and invasive species. Of particular concern is the non-native reed Phragmites australis, which has displaced native marsh grasses in many Mid-Atlantic wetlands in recent decades. To inform the management of this invasive reed, Maryland Sea Grant funded research to better understand how climate change might affect the growth of Phragmites populations around Chesapeake Bay.
Maryland Sea Grant produced a nine-minute online video documentary that describes scientific research about the causes of rising seas in the Chesapeake Bay region.
The introduction of aquatic invasive species to Chesapeake Bay, transported through the ballast water of cargo ships or by live animal and plant trades, can bring ecologically harmful consequences. To safeguard local ecosystems, Maryland Sea Grant supports programs that seek to prevent the establishment of new invasive species in the region.
Maryland and other states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are currently engaged in a multi-billion dollar effort to improve water quality by meeting Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) targets for nutrients and sediments. To accomplish this, municipalities around the region need help from trained and dedicated volunteers who can implement watershed restoration practices. Such practices include stormwater management tools like rain gardens and barrels.
With support and training from Texas Sea Grant, Maryland Sea Grant Extension employs the weTable tool to facilitate decision-making processes in a range of communities.
In May 2014, Maryland Sea Grant, in partnership with the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), held a workshop to explore the use of remote sensing for detecting harmful algal blooms in the Chesapeake Bay region.
” Since I didn't have a marine science or oceanography background, the Sea Grant Knauss fellowship opened the door for me at NOAA and within policy. It can also do this for others.”
To reduce the spread of aquatic invasive species, a project led by Maryland Sea Grant educated fishers to properly dispose of the seaweed packaging used to ship blood worms.
The Chesapeake Bay’s renowned blue crab fishery could support a larger harvest and higher revenues for fishermen if regulators extended protections for mature female crabs, a new study funded by Maryland Sea Grant says.
Maryland Sea Grant researchers identify and map previously unrecorded Maryland streams. The additional detail is expected to inform conservation and development projects statewide.
Scientists release new projections for future sea level rise for the Chesapeake Bay and for Maryland, Virginia and nearby Mid-Atlantic coastal areas. In these, regions sea levels are rising faster than the global average, the result of subsiding lands, a slowing Gulf Stream and melting land ice in Antarctica.
For more information on this study see Maryland Sea Grant