Mid-Atlantic Region

Delaware Sea Grant
Sea Grant develops new micro-electrode for use in long-term observing systems

• A new type of gold-amalgam, solid-state microelectrode has been developed as part of a Delaware Sea Grant project. 
• The electrode is resistant to biofouling and can measure the major reactants, or products from the decomposition of organic matter. 
• The electrode has been used by state resource managers to assess mitigation techniques for anoxia. 
• The electrode has also been used in commercial applications involving four different companies.

Maryland Sea Grant
Sea Grant leads regional project focused on blue crab larvae that could aid conservation efforts

• Maryland Sea Grant is leading a Sea Grant Regional Project (with funding from the MD, DE and VA Sea Grant Programs) studying how currents, salinity and nutrient affect the movement of billions of drifting blue crab larvae.
• Crabs are spawned in estuaries, but spend weeks in the saltier ocean before returning to more brackish waters. Since baby crabs have a 95 percent mortality rate, predicting their welfare based on water conditions that could be measured, would aid conservation efforts.
• The researchers hypothesize that the crab larvae smell the lower salinity in the bay, then ride a high tide in from the ocean. In order to prove this theory, they are using an underwater device called a Scan Fish that transmits data about the number of larvae at various depths to a bank of computers in a shipboard laboratory.

North Carolina Sea Grant
Sea Grant discovers source of antibiotics in striped bass

• A North Carolina Sea Grant researcher discovered antibiotic peptides, known as piscidins, in hybrid striped bass.
• Piscidins, isolated from mast cells, are common immune cells found in a number of tissues, including the skin, gill, and gut of fish, and in the tissue of other vertebrates, including humans. 
• The research shows piscidins demonstrate potent, broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, including the ability to kill pathogens in antibiotic-resistant fish and in humans.
• The peptides are of particular interest to researchers looking to protect aquacultured fish from infection and parasites.
• The team is credited as the first set of researchers to isolate a peptide antibiotic from mast cells of any animal.
• With leveraged funds from the N.C. Fishery Resource Grant Program, administered by North Carolina Sea Grant, and from the United States-Israel Bi-National Agricultural Research and Development Fund, the project fostered a partnership between the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine and the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research’s National Center for Mariculture.

New Jersey Sea Grant
New Jersey Sea Grant Program receives Governor's Environmental Excellence Award

• During a special ceremony in November, the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium (NJMSC) and its New Jersey Sea Grant College Program were recently honored with the 2006 Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award.
• The award, established in 2000 by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, recognizes outstanding environmental performance, programs and projects in the state.
• NJMSC was selected as the winner of the Healthy Ecosystem Award category for its Habitat Initiative.
• The project includes significant research, education and outreach that advance the science and practice of restoration ecology, and link habitat restoration to the secondary production of managed species and their forage base. 
• The Initiative’s goals have helped make New Jersey a leader in restoration ecology, and contributed science-based policy for wetland management throughout the coastal United States.
• More than two dozen participating agencies and organizations contributed to the success of the project.

Virginia Sea Grant
Sea Grant and NOAA partners reduce turtle mortality associated with lucrative commercial fishery

• Research on the impacts of gear modifications and a rotational closure management strategy has significantly improved the economic outlook for the sea scallop fishery in the U.S.
• Worth $230 million a year, this fishery is one of the most lucrative sectors of commercial fishing in the nation and in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
• Prior to gear modifications, up to 750 loggerhead turtles were taken annually in the mid-Atlantic scallop dredge fishery.
• Most recently, Virginia and NOAA partners have taken a lead role in researching gear changes to reduce interactions between scallop dredge vessels and threatened sea turtles.
• In field trials, sea turtle interactions were cut dramatically as a result of these gear modifications.
• Cards explaining turtle resuscitation techniques and the rigging of gear modifications have now been placed aboard some 150 commercial vessels operating along the Atlantic Coast.