Impacts

Search impacts of Sea Grant’s work, browse current projects, and explore any of the Sea Grant Colleges.

Sea Grant utilizes its network of professionals throughout the U.S. coastal and Great Lakes states as well as in Puerto Rico and Guam to accomplish its mission of enhancing the practical use and conservation of coastal, marine and Great Lakes resources in order to create a sustainable economy and environment. Sea Grant accomplishes its mission through research, extension and education. Sea Grant’s current strategic focus areas include healthy coastal ecosystems, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, resilient coastal economies, and environmental literacy and workforce management.

Click to download the National Sea Grant Briefing Package 2022.

In 2021, a federal investment in Sea Grant
of $87 million resulted in

$ 300 M

Economic Benefit

As a result of Sea Grant’s work in 2021, 6,431 resource managers used ecosystem-based approaches to management.

As a result of Sea Grant's work in 2021, 2,330 undergraduate and graduate students were supported and 833,327 people engaged in educational programs.

As a result of Sea Grant's work in 2021, 1,619 businesses and 8,369 jobs were created or sustained.

As a result of Sea Grant's work in 2021, 684 communities implemented sustainable practices.

As a result of Sea Grant's work in 2021, 12,471 people modified practices based on knowledge of fisheries sustainability and seafood safety gained in Sea Grant activities.

As a result of Sea Grant training in 2021, 1,505 people completed Seafood Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points (HACCP) safety certifications.

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Sea Grant by the Numbers

Download our by-the-numbers PDFs from 2015-2021

Search Sea Grant Databases

The following two search features allow users to search Sea Grant’s database. Impacts are societal benefits and broader outcomes of Sea Grant’s work. Accomplishments included major projects and tasks completed by Sea Grant. Projects include scopes of work and descriptions of past and current work.

Tip: These search features work best if used one at a time. For example, users can search the Impacts and Accomplishments database for a particular region, date range, or category. Before searching projects, users should clear the previous Impacts and Accomplishments search results.

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Title	Region/ State	Impact/ Accomplishment	Year	Recap	Relevance & Response	National Focus Area	Program Focus Area	Impact	ImpactFlag	Name	ProgramNumber	ProgramFocusAreaID	NFA	NationalFocusAreaID	Status	FeatureLive
Researcher predicts harmful algal bloom	Texas Sea Grant	Accomplishment	2010	Continued operation of the Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB) deployed in Port Aransas allowed for successful prediction of the Dinophysis bloom in March/April 2010 and supports the use of plankton cell abundance as a predictor of HAB incidence.	Relevance: Harmful algal blooms are a growing concern, but the mechanism of bloom initiation is not well understood. Response: Patterns in microzooplankton abundance are being studied to determine if changes in grazing pressure can be linked with harmful algal bloom (HAB) occurrences. Plankton cell abundance is being monitored with the Imaging FlowCytobot, a new instrument that was deployed beginning in September 2007 at the UT Marine Science Institute's Pier Laboratory as part of the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (MANERR). Texas Sea Grant is providing continued funding support of the Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB) through a research project beginning in 2010. Results: Data from the Imaging FlowCytobot during the period funded by Texas Sea Grant allowed for successful prediction of a Dinophysis bloom in March/April 2010.	Healthy Coastal Ecosystems	HEALTHY COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS	6,122	2	TX	29	132	HCE	1	PO Review Complete	0
Researcher identifies chemical distinctiveness of tributaries to two major bay systems in Texas	Texas Sea Grant	Accomplishment	2010	Research demonstrates that the different tributaries to the Aransas-Copano and San Antonio bay systems in Texas are chemically distinct from other habitats, providing a platform to quantify movement of juvenile fishes, including southern flounder, into freshwater habitat based on chemical composition of their otoliths.	Relevance: Southern flounder is a broadly distributed and economically valuable species in the Gulf of Mexico. Population sizes in Texas have declined dramatically, leaving the long-term sustainability of the fish at risk. Response: It is uncertain the degree to which juvenile southern flounder require low-salinity habitats for successful recruitment. This research project is assessing freshwater residency patterns during juvenile life history stages using stable isotope and trace element ratios in otoliths from southern flounder from coastal habitats in central Texas. This requires a spatial map of tributary-specific chemical signatures for distinguishing residency among locations. The project is also comparing tributary outflow rates with freshwater residency patterns to determine if freshwater outflow has an effect on residency patterns. Results: Water samples collected in summer 2010 from the major tributaries to the Aransas-Copano and San Antonio bay systems were analyzed and found to be chemically distinct from marine habitats and generally distinct from one another.	Healthy Coastal Ecosystems	HEALTHY COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS	6,140	2	TX	29	132	HCE	1	PO Review Complete	0
Cross-shelf larval migrations in marine reserves	California Sea Grant	Accomplishment	2010		This project explores the degree to which ocean currents can be viewed as a forcing mechanism for larval transport and settlement. To date, findings suggest advection does not drive larval transport and settlement for nearshore crustaceans, including Dungeness and rock crabs. Instead, crustacean larvae appear to exert considerable control over their distance from shore and water depth, not just as a group but on a species-by-species basis. The results, which run counter to the prevailing view that larvae can be viewed as passive floats, are based on surveys along two transects, one through an intense upwelling center and the other through a quiet zone. Along these two transects, larval distributions were unrelated to the strength of offshore flows and recruitment success was unrelated to upwelling intensity. Results are of relevance to understanding the population connectivity of marine reserves and were shared with California's MLPA Science Advisory Team. In the last months of the project, scientists hope to complete a new conceptual model of larval transport, recruitment and connectivity across upwelling cells. Such a model may help explain the highly variable and cyclical nature of several of California's commercial fisheries, particularly the Dungeness crab, which is consistently one of the top five species landed in California by value. The results were used by the state's Science Advisory Team to address the population connectivity issue in spacing marine protected areas in the southern and northern regions for California's MLPA process.	Healthy Coastal Ecosystems	HEALTHY COASTAL AND MARINE ECOSYSTEMS	6,178	2	CA	2	6	HCE	1	Approved	0
The sustainability and fine-scale management of a sea urchin fishery and the ecology of exploitation in a Southern California kelp forest	California Sea Grant	Accomplishment	2010		R/FISH-209 A small group of commercial urchin divers has long expressed interest in developing community-based, co-management of the red sea urchin fishery, which is worth about $7 million a year ex-vessel in California. As part of this plan, urchin divers have been voluntarily taxing themselves to support the collection of urchin data that might help maintain the fishery's sustainability and ultimately help craft a co-management plan. This project was funded as a collaborative fishery research project to gather spatially explicit data within the Point Loma kelp bed off San Diego that might both further the fishermen's goals and contribute to basic ecological understanding of a key kelp forest herbivore. In the first year of the project, biologists acoustically mapped bottom elevations in the kelp forest at horizontal resolutions of 10 to 15 meters and tagged urchins so as to be able to map their movement patterns and habitat usage within the fishing grounds. Fishermen, meanwhile, continue to collect and share detailed (usually proprietary) information on where they are gathering urchins. In the coming year, biologists will combine the acoustic and fishermen's data to estimate local rates of movement and growth.	Healthy Coastal Ecosystems	HEALTHY COASTAL AND MARINE ECOSYSTEMS	6,183	2	CA	2	6	HCE	1	Approved	0
Adaptive Management of Marine Protected Areas: Predicting Responses to MPA Implementation for Comparison to Monitoring Data	California Sea Grant	Accomplishment	2010		R/FISH-211 The state of California has begun monitoring its newly established networks of marine protected areas. The first step in this process has been to inventory the plants and animals within and around the new protected areas. The scientists leading this project are developing a set of criteria for translating the huge amount of survey data into what can effectively be considered an MPA scorecard tailored to fishermen's interests. The scoring will rank MPA performance on increases (or not) of target fish biomasses and increases (or not) of catches in open areas, among other things. In the first year of the project, scientists ran sensitivity studies of their framework models. These quantified the effects of uncertainties in poorly known parameters (e.g., larval dispersal distance and home range size) on estimates of fish biomass and fish age and size distributions.	Healthy Coastal Ecosystems	HEALTHY COASTAL AND MARINE ECOSYSTEMS	6,185	2	CA	2	6	HCE	1	Approved	0
Exploiting marine actinomycete diversity for natural product discovery	California Sea Grant	Accomplishment	2010		R/NMP-100 Significant progress has been made in understanding the evolution of secondary metabolite genes associated with a group of pharmaceutically promising marine bacteria known as MAR4, collected off the coast of California. Scientists have also, notably, described the biosynthesis of hybrid isoprenoids (including the promising anti-inflammatory compound cyclomarin) and characterized novel biosynthetic enzymes associated with producing them. In experiments with halogenated meroterpenoids, enzymes that add chlorine to molecules, chemists discovered three new chloroperoxidases. These compounds are of pharmacological interest because of their ability to enhance the bioactivity of molecules, meaning they can enhance the efficacy of medicines. Current efforts are centering on their in vivo and in vitro characterizations, with the goal being to apply novel marine enzymes as biocatalysts. Such work opens the door to being able to engineer, literally build, new antibiotics or anticancer therapies.	Sustainable Coastal Development	NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND PRODUCTS	6,187	2	CA	2	10	SCD	2	Approved	0
Beaches as threatened ecosystems: an evaluation of status and trends in the ecology of California's sandy beaches	California Sea Grant	Accomplishment	2010		R/ENV-210 Preliminary field surveys suggest that beach grooming and other human activities may be extirpating some wrack-associated invertebrates, which are often prime food for shorebirds. There is also evidence that dune plants and strand habitat are being pushed to the brink and that the loss of native plants has implications for sand transport on beaches. This project compiles new, recent and historic datasets on beach wildlife to, among other things, identify species in decline that may need greater protection. The biologists are also gathering information on the physical attributes of beaches beach width, slope and sand dynamics to search for patterns that might explain sand loss or beach narrowing and/or accretion. The wildlife study focuses on documenting trends in intertidal macroinvertebrate communities; however, a handful of beaches will also be surveyed for shorebirds and wrack abundance. All this is of relevance to the state's efforts to prepare for climate change and maintain the ecosystem services of sandy beaches. Groomed (mechanically raked) beaches have less biodiversity and abundance of living things and fewer sand dunes than ungroomed beaches. A series of five flyers describing the ecological benefits of beach wrack have been developed and distributed in So. Cal. counties and also shared with people in the Great Lakes, Florida and the international beach ecology community. See http://www.csgc.ucsd.edu/BOOKSTORE/Resources/PP2011/R-CZ-174-Dugan_SD.pdf	Healthy Coastal Ecosystems	HEALTHY COASTAL AND MARINE ECOSYSTEMS	6,189	2	CA	2	6	HCE	1	Approved	0
Public Education: Seafood Safety, Quality & Regulations	California Sea Grant	Accomplishment	2010		Published articles by the CA Sea Grant extension advisor include: two in Global Aquaculture Alliance magazine (15,000 minimal bimonthly distribution); seven in Culinarian magazine (335 minimal monthly distribution); and one in UC Delivers. The CA Sea Grant extension advisor participated in the planning, implementing and performance evaluation of 65 participants in sensory decomposition workshops in cooperation with NOAA-SIP, FDA, National Fisheries Institute, and Seafood Products Association. The advisor also served on the Seafood HACCP Alliance, developed and critiqued drafts of the “HACCP Training Curriculum” (5th ed.), authored a curriculum chapter, co-authored the Train-the-Trainer’s guide, and planned new curriculum for three train-the-trainer domestic and international courses. Contributed to the development of three seafood benefits and risks guides (for health educators and consumers) and one website by writing and reviewing content. On behalf of CA Sea Grant extension, advisor attended the meetings of the California Salmon Council and Pacific Fisheries Management Council (Highly Migratory Species Advisory Subpanel).	Safe and Sustainable Seafood Supply	SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD SUPPLY	6,195	2	CA	2	8	SSSS	3	Approved	0
Understanding the Influence of a Variable Ocean Environment on Chinook Salmon	California Sea Grant	Accomplishment	2010		E/PD-6 Along the West Coast, chinook salmon returns are highly variable and extremely difficult to predict. The goal of this project is to identify primary oceanographic drivers of salmon survival and their spatial extent. This is being done through a retrospective study of more than three-decades worth of coded wire-tag data (available from the Regional Mark Processing Center at http://www.rmpc.org), analyzed in relation to physical oceanographic data over the same periodi.e., sea-surface temperature (SST), upwelling intensity, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO). The fellow reports that survival is most strongly correlated with the NPGO (postively) and PDO (negatively) for runs between southern Oregon and West Vancouver Island in British Columbia. There is, however, no obvious link between average annual ocean conditions and salmon survival in the Central Valley, CA. In the coming months, the fellow will refine his analysis to better quantify these patterns. Findings should help managers better understand the link between certain ocean conditions and salmon survival.	Safe and Sustainable Seafood Supply	SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD SUPPLY	6,201	2	CA	2	8	SSSS	3	Approved	0
Spreading Non-Native Species through the Live-Bait Trade?	California Sea Grant	Accomplishment	2010		Many hundreds of thousands of ghost shrimp are imported live into California from the Pacific Northwest yearly for the live-bait trade. Genetic studies conducted during this project show that the species is homogenous across its range on the West Coast, alleviating managers' concerns that that bait-bucket escapees might breed with and genetically pollute local ghost shrimp stocks. Biologists report, however, that the shrimp could introduce new species, as specimens from the Northwest were found to harbor parasites not seen in Southern California. Laboratory experiments also suggest that other common live-bait species (e.g., lugworms, bloodworms and pileworms) can survive temperature regimes characteristic of California's diverse marine environments. These worms, imported from as far away as Korea, are often packed in wads of non-native marine algae. Scientists believe that at least two species of exotic marine algae were introduced to the West Coast via the live-bait trade. Findings underscore the need for greater oversight of the live-bait trade and are relevant to sustaining the region's multi-million dollar marine recreational fishing industry, which NOAA estimates employs about 14,000 annually in California alone.	Healthy Coastal Ecosystems	HEALTHY COASTAL AND MARINE ECOSYSTEMS	6,206	2	CA	2	6	HCE	1	Approved	0
	Region/ State	Impact/ Accomplishment	Year			National Focus Area