Sea Grant’s 2007
3rd Quarter Highlights
(Archive of SG Highlights)

Sea Grant E-Currents Newsletter now available!

Ohio Sea Grant researcher invents technologies to mass produce anti-toxins and gauge infections Ohio Sea Grant researcher Dr. Richard Sayre of Ohio State University has invented two new technologies. One will harvest a human antidote to counter bioterrorism. As a result of this research, Dr. Sayre was recently funded by NIH to use his engineered Chlamydomonas algae to mass produce a human anti-toxin to protect the U.S. military from nerve gas exposure. Another of Sayre's technologies detects deadly pathogens like salmonella, E. coli, and cholera. Sayre’s patent-pending biosensor process can detect the state of more than 50 pathogens within minutes. Pathogens include food poisoning pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli, along with Vibrio harveyi, a pathogen in fish and aquatic animals and Helicobacter pylori, an ulcer-causing bacterium.

Beachcombers examine the impact of bird mortality on ecosystem The California Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) is a resident-based science project through California Sea Grant with the University of Washington, in which volunteers assist in monitoring dead birds that wash ashore along beaches. Currently, the group monitors around 300 beaches in California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. COASST has operated in Humboldt County for about eight months. COASST then collects and compiles the volunteer-gathered data into a database from which scientists can assess changes within the ecosystem, such as potential climate changes or deviations in migration and breeding patterns.

Lab confirms deadly fish virus spreading to new species A lethal fish virus in the Great Lakes and neighboring waterways is approaching epidemic proportions. The viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV), which causes anemia and hemorrhaging in fish, has now been identified in 19 species and poses a potential threat to New York's $1.2 billion sport-fishing industry. Earlier this year, Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine received a two-year, $181,000 grant from the New York Sea Grant Program to advance a rapid technique for detecting the deadly virus. Current tests take a month, while the Cornell test yields results within 24 hours. Researchers hope to have the new technique validated by the end of 2007 and all fieldwork completed by the end of 2008.

Sea Grant report addresses coastal access head on A new Maine Sea Grant report, "Access to the Waterfront: Issues and Solutions Across the Nation," contains the results of a survey of over 140 coastal managers and extension agents. The survey found that access to and from the ocean is a challenge in many communities. Recreational, commercial, and industrial users of the coast are competing for access, placing pressure on America’s shorelines as a tide of demographic and economic change sweeps through coastal towns, harbors and communities. Respondents to the survey cited multiple reasons for these changes, including increasing population and development, rising coastal property values, declines in fishing and other industries and shifting land ownership patterns. The full report is available at http://www.seagrant.umaine.edu/index.htm

Landscape architects show New Orleans how to rebuild lakefront With support from Louisiana Sea Grant, Louisiana State University (LSU) landscape architecture professor, Bruce Sharky had his students develop a comprehensive plan for rebuilding a more flood-resistant New Orleans. The project has resulted in a formal plan for rebuilding the Jefferson Parish lakefront—a plan so impressive that parish leaders have formally adopted it as the blueprint they will use to seek state and federal funds for reconstruction along Lake Pontchartrain. The plan proposes rebuilding the wetlands and coastal marshes that once lined the lakefront as a way of providing a natural barrier to the levee system and the inland areas it was designed to protect.

Lake Superior warming faster than the air around it A Minnesota Sea Grant scientist noted that Lake Superior's surface water temperature last summer reached a peak of 74 degrees (until recently, the lake rarely climbed above 60 degrees). Global warming could be a factor because the winters are shorter and less ice forms on the lake. The lake warms up sooner and earlier than in past years, and does so rapidly. Scientists are worried about the lake’s vulnerability to exotic species since frigid waters act as a natural barrier.

Business leaders form Alabama Working Waterfront Coalition A new group will attempt to inventory the Alabama Gulf Coast's "working waterfronts" in support of seafood and fishing industries concerned about their economic future. Organizers have signed up 39 representatives from businesses from Orange Beach to Bayou La Batre as members of the Alabama Working Waterfront Coalition. Sea Grant funded the project with a $90,000 grant. The coalition aims to protect the economy and historical and cultural assets of traditional fishing by protecting waterfront access and community education.

Sea Grant investigates the "Canaries" under the Sound Microscopic shells shed by single-celled creatures lie deep within the Long Island Sound's sediment. Researchers believe they have much to say about climate change. A Connecticut Sea Grant researcher is studying the chemistry of the shells to reveal the source of the carbon, and the water's salinity, oxygen content and temperature when the forams lived. Through forams, the researcher can see natural climate variations such as a warming period in the Middle Ages and the Little Ice Age that followed it. She can also see the effect of global warming in the past 150 years—coinciding with a decrease in salinity and a decline in oxygen in the Long Island Sound—all tied to human activity. This work is helping scientists understand how ocean life responded to climate changes of the past, and perhaps how it will respond to the climate change ahead.

Sea Grant crab research program prepares for egg hatch More than one million king crabs hatched at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Seward Marine Center. The hatch marks an important milestone in efforts aimed at rebuilding wild king crab stocks around Kodiak and the Pribilof Islands. The newly hatched crab will help scientists understand what is needed to succeed in large-scale hatchery restoration of red and blue king crab stocks in parts of Alaska where their numbers are low. The Alaska King Crab Research and Rehabilitation Program was born out of a grassroots effort by fishermen and coastal communities to reverse a decades-long slump in wild king crab production.

Sea Grant develops storm surge vulnerability maps The University of Puerto Rico Sea Grant Program developed a storm surge flood model that assesses individual and community vulnerability on the coasts of Puerto Rico. The maps incorporate current coastal flood maps with satellite images and census data (socio-economic and demographic information). The data from this research was also used to develop the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, which led to Mayaguez, the third largest city in Puerto Rico, being certified as the first tsunami-ready city on the Island. These maps will greatly benefit the approximately 1.4 million people in Puerto Rico who live in flood-sensitive zones.

Chesapeake Bay shellfish aquaculture planning project underway A collaborative effort is underway to explore shellfish aquaculture development in the Chesapeake Bay region. In cooperation with NOAA's National Sea Grant College Program, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office has funded Maryland Sea Grant to facilitate a Chesapeake Bay Shellfish Aquaculture Planning Project to guide future efforts and investments in the Chesapeake Bay region. The project will engage a broad group of stakeholders in both Maryland and Virginia.

MIT works to replenish eelgrass in harbors A project led by MIT Sea Grant to bring a special plant back to Boston-area harbors is also giving students in Massachusetts and Rhode Island a hands-on education in the importance of healthy marine ecosystems. Eelgrass is a primary source of food for many plants and animals, a filter for pollutants, and a critical nursery and shelter for shellfish and finfish. For decades, coastal development and pollution made the restoration of these grasses all but impossible. However, improved water quality in Massachusetts' coastal waters is now giving eelgrass a second chance. MIT Sea Grant has been engaging public school students in hands-on learning, with classes growing eelgrass in recirculating aquaculture systems.

Virginia Sea Grant oyster and sturgeon researchers featured on National Geographic website Dr. Juli Harding of VIMS and Dr. Chris Hager of the Virginia Sea Grant program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences are using the remains of oysters and sturgeon from the archeological excavation of Jamestown Fort as "time capsules" to better understand the ecohistory of Chesapeake Bay and the impacts of the English colonists. Access their National Geographic interviews at http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/jamestown/ (Choose Jamestown/Impact of Colonization).