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Sea Grant’s work addresses a range of coastal and marine challenges through four focus areas: healthy coastal ecosystems, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, environmental literacy and
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 Aquaculture Information Exchange (AIE) online community platform website is now live and open for new user registrations. The AIE represents a joint effort between NOAA’s National Sea Grant Office, NOAA’s Fisheries Office of Aquaculture, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), and Virginia Sea Grant.
NOAA Sea Grant is pleased to announce the selection of 10 projects through two competitions aimed at bolstering workforce development efforts in both the wild-caught fisheries and aquaculture sectors.
Sea Grant and NOAA Fisheries are pleased to announce the 2023 National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship recipients. Seven population and ecosystem dynamics fellowships and one marine resource economics fellowship will be awarded through this national program.
Today, the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) opened a competitive funding opportunity for the Climate Ready Workforce for Coastal States, Tribes, and Territories Initiative to connect people across the country to good-paying jobs, such as landscape technicians, heat health outreach specialists and climate equity officers, that tackle the climate crisis and boost local resilience. NOAA will invest $60 million total from the Inflation Reduction Act for the initiative — a $50 million competitive funding opportunity and $10 million for technical assistance to support applicants and grantees.
NOAA Sea Grant and NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture are pleased to announce the publication of an agency-wide Programmatic Environmental Assessment that analyzes the potential impacts on the natural and human environment from aquaculture research and development projects funded by federal financial assistance awards.
A new web-based StoryMap highlights research being conducted by scientists into the reproduction of the American lobster. The scientific studies and the work to communicate about them are part of the American Lobster Initiative of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.
Adding farmed seafood to your plate is a great way to go green! This Earth Week, Al Roker and NBC’s Today show profiled aquaculture, or seafood farming, as part of their climate solution coverage.
Ambulance chaser. Ruthless. Heartless. Greedy. Lawyers tend to be seen as villains, but the daily work of most lawyers is a far cry from what we see on television. Today, on International Be Kind to Lawyers Day, we want to take a moment to recognize the work of one of the most unique programs in the Sea Grant Network – the National Sea Grant Law Center.
NOAA is developing a Programmatic Environmental Assessment to analyze the potential impacts on the natural and human environment from aquaculture research and development projects funded by federal financial assistance awards. A public comment period for the draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment is open now through December 18, 2022.
Sea Grant announces $1.2 million in support of Sea Grant’s American Lobster Research Program to continue addressing emergent needs and priorities associated with this important fishery. Pursuant to congressional direction, this year’s funded projects shift focus on operational needs, specifically related to gear technology implementation, research and adoption.
NOAA Sea Grant today announced approximately $14 million in federal funding across four strategic areas for improving U.S. aquaculture. The competitively selected projects will advance early stage propagation strategies for various aquaculture species, marine finfish juvenile production technologies, aquaculture collaboratives and establishment of an aquaculture information exchange.
Sea Grant and NOAA Fisheries are pleased to announce the 2022 National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship recipients. Seven population and ecosystem dynamics fellowships and one marine resource economics fellowship will be awarded through this national program. Since 1999, the NMFS-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship program has trained the next generation of specialized experts in fisheries management.
Hurricanes. Flood events. Oil spills. When disaster strikes, communities come together to respond. NOAA Sea Grant and NOAA’s Disaster Preparedness Program are partnering to help communities respond to and recover from these occurrences through three projects that strengthen local preparedness measures.
The Northeast Sea Grant Consortium—in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office and Water Power Technologies Office, and NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center—today announced six projects to advance social science and technology research on offshore renewable energy in the Northeast United States. This funding opportunity, which awarded over $1.1 million in federal funds, seeks to catalyze research for the coexistence of marine energy—including wind, current, tidal, and wave energies—with Northeast fishing and coastal communities.
Sea run fish – fish that migrate between fresh and saltwater – hold meaning to many New England communities as food, as income, as history and as a key part of a functioning ecosystem. But many unknowns about these fish remain. Across New England, Sea Grant researchers are working to understand how these populations are changing, what habitats are most important to them and how to restore once vibrant runs of sea run fish.
The National Sea Grant Office announced funding for the Recirculating Aquaculture Salmon Network (RAS-N) in 2019. While that three-year grant is now winding down, the collaborative network it helped build is not going away. Rather, it is entering an exciting new phase with $10 million in funding from a U.S. Department Agriculture program designed to enhance sustainability in agriculture.
Sea Grant announces $2 million in support of the Sea Grant American Lobster Initiative to address scientific and stakeholder needs associated with this important fishery. This is Sea Grant’s third year of research and extension funding to address critical gaps in knowledge about how American lobster is being impacted by environmental change in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and southern New England.
NOAA Sea Grant and the Ocean Acidification Program awarded more than $2.4 million to support projects that will address the impacts of multiple stressors on and increase resilience in shellfish aquaculture through research and industry partnerships. These projects will expand collaborations between researchers and the shellfish aquaculture industry throughout all aspects of the scientific process.
Just offshore of New Castle, New Hampshire, Sea Grant researchers are teaming up with local fishermen and farmers to create a new model for sustainable, small-scale finfish aquaculture: The AquaFort.
The National Sea Grant College Program and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement have awarded over $795 thousand to Texas Sea Grant and a team of researchers from Texas A&M University and LGL Ecological Research Services to produce information that could lead to the development of a decision-support tool modeling the ecological and economic effects of changing the composition of oil rigs in the gulf.
The National Sea Grant College Program has announced that a regional collaborative of Sea Grant fisheries extension specialists, university scientists and fisheries managers will receive $2.4 million to develop and implement extension and outreach programming related to data and information from three large research projects focused on estimating the number of reef fish in the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program and Office of Sustainable Fisheries awarded approximately $900,000 of FY21 federal funds to support projects that will initiate “Food from the Sea'' career development programs. With these funds, Sea Grant programs and partners will work collaboratively with members of the fishing industry to identify training needs and develop updated and/or new resources and programming to address those needs.
NOAA Sea Grant, in collaboration with U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey, announces six new partnership positions. The Sea Grant Federal Partnership Liaisons will integrate Sea Grant extension expertise with science, products and services from NOAA labs and other publicly supported scientific research programs. These jointly-funded positions expand on a key component of Sea Grant’s work, extending science to end users and doing so through collaborative partnerships.
NOAA Sea Grant today announced $3.5 million in federal funding to support two efforts aiding sustainable growth of U.S. seafood, one focused on improving coordination for marine aquaculture development and another that addresses COVID-19 impacts to seafood resources.
A team of scientists, selected through a peer-review process organized by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, will conduct an independent study to estimate the number of Greater Amberjack in the U.S. waters of the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico regions. The team will also investigate the fish’s movement and how it is distributed by habitat, including artificial, natural and uncharacterized habitats.
Sea Grant and NOAA Fisheries are pleased to announce the 2021 National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship recipients. Five population and ecosystem dynamics fellowships and two marine resource economics fellowships were awarded through this national program. The fellowships offered within this program are aimed at training the next generation of specialized experts in fisheries management. The program addresses the critical need for future fisheries scientists with expertise in stock assessment and related fields.
Sea Grant is partnering with Swift Engineering on the development of a buoy like none before. Check out this multimedia feature to learn more about Sea Grant and Swift’s partnership on Kelp.
Sea Grant and its research partners announced two updates on efforts to better understand red snapper populations in U.S. coastal waters today. These complementary projects, which are interdisciplinary and connected to multiple partners and stakeholders are being conducted by external, university-based teams and administered by Sea Grant.
Research is an essential component of Sea Grant’s work in coastal and Great Lakes communities, supporting scientists from hundreds of institutions. Here are just a few of Sea Grant’s recent research publications that are making a splash.
Sea Grant today announced $4.7 million in federal funding to support 12 research projects to advance the understanding of the economics of aquaculture businesses and provide the industry with important market information to aid sustainable growth in the U.S.
The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (MASGC) is accepting proposal submissions to estimate the abundance of greater amberjack in the U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico (GoMEX) and South Atlantic (SA) regions. A letter of intent is required to submit a full proposal and is due on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021.
Several Sea Grant projects purchased farm fresh seafood originally intended for local restaurants and repurposed it to restore aquatic and marine environments. Not only did this creative solution aid in local restoration efforts but it also provided immediate relief to aquaculture producers whose sales were impacted by the pandemic.
As 2020 draws to a close, Sea Grant is reflecting on its best moments of what has been an especially challenging year. Several Sea Grant projects and people were recently recognized by the Sea Grant Association (SGA) for their exceptional work.
In 2020, Sea Grant continued to engage in hundreds of aquaculture-related projects and ongoing efforts, leveraging federal dollars well beyond the federal investment with partnerships and collaborative efforts. This year, several established projects selected in previous years received continued funding, and many new initiatives were launched.
The Sea Grant American Lobster Initiative, created in 2019, works to understand ecosystem changes affecting American lobster and share findings with regional stakeholders who can use the information to influence lobster management. This National Lobster Day (September 25) take a look at the extension and research strides made by Sea Grant’s American Lobster Initiative in its first year.
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!
While red abalone were once abundant throughout California, they have long been in decline due to overfishing and environmental changes. California Sea Grant-funded researchers identified conditions that promote consistent recruitment, but also found that prolonged heat stress can cause red abalone recruitment to fail, in a new study published in the Journal of Shellfish Research last month.
As the country adapts to changes necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, coastal and Great Lakes communities, too, are rethinking how to resume what were once normal activities. Sea Grant programs are leading efforts to provide relief to the communities they serve. Read about a few of the initiatives Sea Grant created or enhanced in recent months.
Sea Grant announces $2 million in support of the Sea Grant American Lobster Initiative to address scientific and stakeholder needs associated with this important fishery. The funded research will address critical gaps in knowledge about how American lobster is being impacted by environmental change in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and southern New England.
Sea Grant and the National Marine Fisheries Service (Fisheries) are pleased to announce the 2020 Fisheries-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship recipients. Nine population and ecosystem dynamics fellowships and one marine resource economics fellowship were awarded through this national program. The two fellowships offered within this program are aimed at training the next generation of specialized experts in fisheries management. The program addresses the critical need for future fisheries scientists with expertise in stock assessment and related fields.
Oysters play an important role in coastal communities. Celebrate the small but mighty oyster this National Oyster Day, Sea Grant-style, with one or more of these ways.
In a new report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), California Sea Grant and Alaska Sea Grant contributed a case study to highlight the approach Sea Grant extension personnel take in working with fishing communities and the seafood direct marketing information products they have created since the mid 1990s.
Large-scale offshore aquaculture may have much less environmental impact from nutrient pollution than people suspect, according to a recent study funded by Florida Sea Grant and NOAA Fisheries.
Offshore aquaculture is poised to grow in the coming years to help offset the U.S. seafood trade deficit, but concerns have been raised about the potential for fish waste to pollute surrounding waters by introducing unnaturally high nutrient levels. In this new study, researchers found little evidence of nutrient pollution from a commercial cobia aquaculture farm located offshore the Republic of Panama.
Three awards totaling $2 million in federal funding were recently awarded through the 2019 Sea Grant Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Research Initiative, a competitive research process.
New research and innovative collaborative efforts aim to advance domestic aquaculture. Forty two new projects funded by Sea Grant in three programs will work to increase understanding and transfer knowledge to end users for different topics and geographies across the U.S.
Sea Grant is funding new research aimed at understanding physical and chemical changes affecting American lobster (Homarus americanus) in the Gulf of Maine as well as a regional lobster extension program.
Sea Grant and the National Marine Fisheries Service (Fisheries) are pleased to announce the 2019 Fisheries-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship recipients. Eight population and ecosystem dynamics fellowships were awarded through a competitive selection process. The Fisheries-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship program supports students pursuing doctoral degrees in population and ecosystem dynamics as well as marine resources economics. The program is a focused workforce development effort to train highly qualified professionals in areas of critical need for NOAA’s science-based approach to fisheries management.
NOAA recently awarded New Jersey Sea Grant funding to plan and host an event focused on workforce development for the field of fisheries population and ecosystem dynamics. The program is a partnership effort supported by Sea Grant, NOAA’s Office of Education and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) aimed at engaging undergraduate students in the specialized field of population and ecosystem dynamics, which combines science with mathematics for science-based management of U.S. fisheries.
The sun is shining and the water is calm: what better way to spend a warm summer day than dropping anchor, kicking back and casting a line? Every year, tens of millions of people flock to U.S. coasts to enjoy recreational fishing and boating. Sea Grant supports the recreational fishing and boating enthusiasts and industries by providing resources that teach people learn how to fish and boat, help boaters and anglers determine when and where to go on the water, how to get the most out of their excursions while staying safe, and how to protect the environment so future generations can enjoy the same experiences.
In Puget Sound, The Nature Conservancy in Washington wants to learn more about shellfish aquaculture structures and how they impact the marine environment for specific organisms or life stages. They partner with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Washington Sea Grant, as well as the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe and shellfish farms, to study which fish and crab species use shellfish aquaculture habitats.
Sea Grant is announcing a Federal Funding Opportunity focused on research of HMS species, including the interactions between yellow-fin tuna and oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, to address critical gaps in knowledge about HMS in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean regions. Letters of intent are due May 15, 2019, and full proposals are due June 19, 2019.
A Sea Grant team of legal and aquaculture experts has released a report detailing eight case studies that identify challenges to the shellfish aquaculture industry in the United States. The project was funded through Sea Grant’s 2017 national investment in aquaculture.
NMFS-Sea Grant Population and Ecosystem Dynamics Fellow Chris Free and colleagues published a study in the March 2019 edition of Science that “used historical ocean temperature and fisheries data to determine how ocean warming affects the amount of fish that can be harvested sustainably from wild-populations.” Free’s dissertation adviser, Olaf Jensen, says that the NMFS-Sea Grant Fellowship was instrumental in allowing Free to pursue this groundbreaking work. “This fellowship gave him the freedom to really devote himself to this research rather than [teaching] or applying for small grants,” said Jensen.
Sea Grant professionals from across the country will attend the triennial aquaculture conference in March 2019. The conference is a joint meeting of the World Aquaculture Society, National Shellfisheries Association, Fish Culture Section of the American Fisheries Society, and the National Aquaculture Association.
Sea Grant’s 2019 national aquaculture program includes three federal funding opportunities to advance priority project types.
A new online aquaculture siting tool called MA-ShellfAST simplifies the process of selecting and establishing a shellfish farm for Massachusetts-based farmers using funding from the NOAA Sea Grant 2016 Aquaculture Extension and Technology Transfer program.
New year, same great Sea Grant work! Here’s a look back at some of Sea Grant highlights you may have missed from January.
In this installment of our continuing #SeafoodMonth festivities, we look at how Sea Grant investments in research have advanced the domestic aquaculture industry.
NOAA Sea Grant announces the award of $11 million in grants for 22 projects to further advance the development of a sustainable marine and coastal aquaculture industry in the U.S.
Sea Grant Celebrates Aquaculture Week October is Seafood Month, and Sea Grant is celebrating all month long by telling some of the inspiring (and tasty!)
During the second week of National Seafood Month, Sea Grant looks at efforts across the country to keep seafood, and the individuals who harvest it, safe.
Washington’s Bellingham SeaFeast (not “fest”, as I learned) was truly a feast of the ocean’s bounty.
All month Sea Grant is celebrating with inspiring and tasty stories from around the country focused on sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.
The National Marine Fisheries Service-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship program supports students pursuing doctoral degrees in population and ecosystem dynamics as well as marine resource economics. The program is a focused workforce development effort to train highly qualified professionals in areas of critical need for NOAA’s science-based approach to fisheries management.
Oregon Sea Grant and NOAA programs partner to offer professional development opportunities for undergraduate students
Even small amounts of running water—less than a gallon per second—could mean the difference between life or death for juvenile coho salmon in coastal California streams, according to a new study published in the journal Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.
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.
Hurricane Irma displaced more than 150,000 spiny lobster traps in the Florida Keys last year, sometimes miles away from their original locations. But a novel eyes-in-the-sky solution developed with support from Florida Sea Grant has saved the industry nearly $4 million.
Maryland Sea Grant is working to increase environmental literacy by partnering with teachers to bring aquaculture into the classroom.
The event, organized by Alaska Sea Grant and partners, aims to train the next generation of commercial fishermen to help turn the tide on Alaska’s graying fleet, where the average age of a boat captain is now 50.
Originally posted by Connecticut Sea Grant About 25 federal and state regulators met with current and aspiring kelp farmers at UConn’s Avery Point campus in
“There’s a worm on my oyster!” Louisiana Sea Grant explains why this happens and why it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Atlantic menhaden have been called the most important fish in the sea, with good reason.
A team of university and government scientists, selected by an expert review panel convened by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, will conduct an independent study to estimate the number of red snapper in the U.S. waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
“By training the next generation of fishers through a hands-on mentorship program, scientists and fishers hope to feed the world for many lifetimes.”
NOAA Sea Grant announces the award of $9.3 million in grants for 32 projects to advance the development of a sustainable marine and coastal aquaculture
In a collaborative effort, North Carolina Sea Grant developed a series of graphics to help the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries present fisheries statistics to various audiences.
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.
The day started with a typical greeting one would expect when meeting someone for the first time. As we walked towards Paul’s aging truck, which I could only describe as “having lots of character,” I knew I was about to embark on an entertaining adventure.
Oregon Sea Grant supported researchers place bags of oysters on different amounts of empty shells to see if the shells help the oysters grow better in acidified waters.
A survey funded by Oregon Sea Grant found that more than 80 percent of respondents from the west coast shellfish industry agree that ocean acidification is having negative consequences on production.
Louisiana Sea Grant extension agent Thu Bui translates Sea Grant resources for Vietnamese fishermen in Louisiana.
Sea Grant supports the advancement of sustainable aquaculture development through research, extension and education.
Sea Grant support enhances extension and technology transfer to advance aquaculture production in New Hampshire and Maine.
Sea Grant supported research, education and workforce development to help make it possible
Florida Sea Grant compiled seafood recipes from around the Sea Grant network to celebrate 50 years of supporting Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture.
With a greater ecological understanding, Washington Sea Grant works to increase understanding of social perspectives of geoduck clam aquaculture.
Sea Grant programs are pushing to make invasive green crabs attractive as a menu item.
The award winning product aims to create a new market for the tons of fish skin that goes to waste in processing.
Wisconsin Sea Grant researcher quantifies the value of Lake Michigan sports fisheries
Georgia Sea Grant funded the development and testing of a turtle excluder device (TED) to help jellyfish trawl fishermen operate more efficiently.
Alaska Sea Grant is getting the word out about a technique that could enhance farmed oyster and kelp productivity.
A new paper in the journal Nature by researchers at Duke University provides strong evidence that catch share management slows the race to fish in U.S. fisheries on average. Some counterexamples in multispecies settings motivate ongoing work.
West Coast crabbers and faculty with Oregon State University and Sea Grant programs in Oregon and Washington have been exploring ways to reduce injuries at sea.
A strong partnership between Louisiana and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant programs fosters the exchange of information and problem solving for successful oyster larvae production; supports growing off-bottom aquaculture industry in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (MASGC) is accepting proposal submissions to estimate the abundance of red snapper in the U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
S.C. Sea Grant-funded scientist now working with marine industry to develop new paint coating to deter biofouling on boat hulls and underwater surfaces, such as cables, fishing gear and pipes.