Northeast Region
CT | MA [MIT, Woods Hole] | ME | NH | NY | RI
Connecticut Sea Grant
Education/Water Quality: Sea Grant Develops “Clean Waters”
Fact Sheets for Homeowners
• Connecticut Sea Grant and the Nonpoint Education for Municipal
Officials (NEMO) Project have developed a "Clean Waters: Starting
in your Home and Yard" fact sheet series.
• The 11 fact sheets cover activities that impact water quality—household
cleaners, native landscaping, water conservation, pet waste, responsible
boating, etc.
• The fact sheets are part of a broader “Clean Waters”
educational program. View the worksheets
MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sea Grant
Digital Ocean: Sea Grant Goes Wireless, Underwater
• MIT Sea Grant has designed and implemented a wireless communication
system allowing multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) to
operate together.
• This will dramatically increase the scientific community's
ability to gather information from deep-sea surveys.
MA: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant
Fisheries/Lobster: Sea Grant Uses Genetic Markers to Identify Lobster
Connectivity for Management Plans
• Sea Grant research is pinpointing the connectivity between
near shore and offshore populations of the American lobster—information
that is vital to management plans for a fishery valued at approximately
$278 million in New England.
• If shifts in fishing from near shore to offshore waters
occur, managers can use this research to better understand the consequences
of such shifts in fishing effort to lobster populations.
Maine Sea Grant
Water Quality: Maine Beaches Are Safer As Water Quality Monitoring
Improves
• Maine Sea Grant and partners are making significant progress monitoring the safety of the state's beaches, with 47 beaches now regularly tested for water quality.
• In 2001, only three Maine beaches performed monitoring.
• As monitoring increases, so do the number of beach closures. According to the most recent Healthy Coastal Beaches Program data, there were 37 days that advisories were issued at coastal beaches statewide in 2005 because of elevated bacteria
samples. Environmental conditions such as extreme high tides also influenced the number of advisories.
• “Maine has had the unique opportunity to observe
the other states in the northeast to learn from their programs
in the development and implementation of the Maine Healthy
Beaches Program,” says Sue Inches, Deputy Director of
the State Planning Office. “The Maine State Planning
Office's partnership with the University of Maine/Sea Grant
and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services has
developed a successful grassroots approach to safe swimming
in Maine.”
New Hampshire Sea Grant
Fisheries/Oyster: Sea Grant Uses Remote Sensing to Develop a Protocol
for Evaluating Oyster Reefs
• Eastern oyster populations have been declining in many areas
for years, and there is no means to effectively and economically
obtain information on oyster distribution and abundance.
• New Hampshire researchers are assessing the effectiveness
of newly developed acoustic and other technologies for characterizing
oyster reef habitat and developing a noninvasive protocol for habitat
evaluation.
New York Sea Grant
Coastal Hazards/Flooding: Researchers Develop Models to Protect
NYC from Flooding
• New York is at risk for large, damaging storms such as hurricanes
that can produce large storm surges resulting in severe flooding.
• New York Sea Grant research reveals that storm surge barriers
could protect valuable real estate and infrastructure and reduce
the need for a costly and dangerous evacuation.
• The research team has developed a sophisticated modeling
system called the Stony Brook Storm Surge System that simulates
the impacts of surges from major storms and shows how effectively
barriers would protect the metropolitan area from flooding.
Rhode Island Sea Grant
Turtle Entanglement: Find A Sea Turtle in Trouble? Call the Hotline
• The Rhode Island Sea Turtle Disentanglement Hotline,
(401) 633-4116, is staffed 24/7 and has a corps of experienced
staff and boats ready to respond to turtle entanglement calls.
• Launched this summer, the disentanglement program is run
by Rhode Island Sea Grant and NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS).
“Since all sea turtles are listed as either threatened or
endangered under the Endangered Species Act, our being able to respond
to and disentangle any sea turtle becomes critically important,”
says co-founder Malia Schwartz of Rhode Island Sea Grant.
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