Knauss Blog
Showcasing Academic Excellence for Coastal Management
Sea Grant supports coastal marine and Great Lakes communities through research, extension and education.


Capacity Building in the Caribbean: Resilience Against Ocean Acidification
As the Capacity Building and Stakeholder Engagement Fellow in the NOAA Ocean Acidification Office, the overarching goal of my position is to help the program support our community members to effectively reach their goals. Part of my portfolio this year is capacity-building for ocean acidification research and monitoring in the Caribbean region.


Cross-Country Fish Passage
When people talk about the Knauss Fellowship they always mention how Fellows have the opportunity to go to places they never imagined. But as a marine ecologist, I didn’t expect my destinations to include Utah, Missouri, and Indiana. These were just some of my stops on a cross-country road trip from the West to East Coast, visiting project sites and meeting with partners.


Introducing the Ocean Decade Game!
Have you heard of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development? Wondering what that means and how you can get involved? Take some time to learn about it now through the Ocean Decade Game!


Overcoming Imposter Syndrome at Sea
When you’re a birder at sea, there’s a host of charismatic, winged dinosaurs you expect to spot as you navigate away from the coast and into the open ocean. On departure from port, you listen for whistling pigeon guillemots and keep an eye out for rhinoceros auklets disguised as blurry blobs bobbing in the waves. A black-footed albatross soaring overhead is a good indicator that you’ve left the coast behind. Far into the Pacific Ocean, northern fulmars appear as regularly as robins and jays back on land.


Life is like a box of… oysters
By: Kaitlyn Theberge. To honor the wonderful time I spent working on an oyster farm prior to being a Knauss Fellow, I tell my story by presenting four “life lessons from oysters,” which I learned by interacting with these amazing animals day after day working on the oyster farm.


Running Up That Hill: A View from the Capitol
By: Spring Gaines. Recently, I had the unique opportunity to take a winding tour of one of the most symbolic sites in Washington, D.C.—The Capitol Dome. While climbing the almost 300 steps leading up to an eye-level view of Brumidi and Cox’s work with the Rotunda frieze, the Apotheosis of George Washington and beyond, I was reminded of something I told my best friend when she asked what it is like as a Gulf Coast girl walking around this city, “It’s not the distance; it’s the incline.”