Southeast/Gulf/Caribbean Region

To learn about Sea Grant’s Hurricane Relief Efforts, visit: http://www.seagrant.noaa.gov/other/admininfo.html

Florida Sea Grant
Clean Marinas: Florida Designates 106 “Clean Marinas”
• Florida Sea Grant and partners are working to enlist even more of the state’s 2,000 marinas in the Clean Marina Program, which seeks to improve the health and cleanliness of Florida’s waterways through voluntary implementation of environmental best management practices among Florida marinas.
• With more than 100 additional marinas in the pipeline, and over 20 Designated Clean Boatyards, the program is making an impact. Through this partnership approach, opportunities have been developed for public and private entities to work together, as well as, provide incentives and remove institutional roadblocks to wise resource stewardship of Florida’s waterways.

Georgia Sea Grant
Boating: Sea Grant Develops and Distributes Bilge Kits to Boaters to Reduce Fuel Leakage
• Georgia Sea Grant Extension agents developed, produced and distributed boater bilge sock kits to commercial and recreational boat owners.
• Bilge socks are used to capture leaking engine and crank case oil or small fuel spills.
• At least 80% of Georgia’s 590 commercial inboard vessels will be supplied with a bilge sock kit containing three to four bilge socks and appropriate educational materials. For most boaters, a single bilge sock should last an entire boating season. The bilge sock is expected to reduce the oil and fuel sheen sometimes evident on the water around mooring areas and marinas.

Louisiana Sea Grant
Ports and Harbors: New Specialist to Address Pressing Coastal Ports Issues in Louisiana
• Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana ranked first in the nation in total shipping tonnage, handling more than 450 million tons of cargo per year through its eight deep-draft ports.
• To address growing ports-related issues, Louisiana Sea Grant and NOAA’s Coastal Services Center partnered to hire a coastal ports specialist who will focus on critical environmental issues affecting the state's costal ports, including water and air quality. Specialist Justin Farrell began last summer.

Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant
Aquaculture: Sea Grant Boosts the Feasibility of Building Aquaculture Systems for Sea Urchins
• Sea Grant researchers formulated 44 diets for sea urchins based on commercial diets for other invertebrates and sea urchin feeding ecology.
• This and other Sea Grant studies lays the groundwork for boosting the feasibility of a land-based aquaculture system for edible sea urchins.
• The promise of sea urchin farming would not only help to alleviate the over-fished sea urchin population and bolster the seafood industry, but has important biomedical applications and the ability for global economic impact.

Puerto Rico Sea Grant
Marine Protected Areas: Puerto Rico Sea Grant Announces New Marine Protected Areas Website
• Puerto Rico Sea Grant and partners have created a website (with English and Spanish text) designed to be a forum for discussion and information exchange on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Puerto Rico and the wider Caribbean.
• The site will serve as an information clearinghouse, and a link to different sources of information related to the design and implementation of MPAs. The blog discusses and updates documents (either published or posted on the internet) on the progress of the knowledge and design of MPAs in a diversity of fields, including fisheries management, ecology, fisheries biology, anthropology, sociology and economics. Visit the MPA website

South Carolina Sea Grant
Ecosystems and Habitats: Mercury Accumulation in Diamondback Terrapins Provides “Measuring Stick” of Estuarine Health
• South Carolina Sea Grant researchers are developing techniques to measure mercury levels in this long-lived species, which could be a barometer of the relative health of estuaries.
• Mercury exposure can cause behavioral and neurological abnormalities, reduced reproductive success, liver and kidney damage and toxicity. Mercury contamination has been documented in a wide variety of aquatic animals.

Texas Sea Grant
Marine Debris: Texas Sea Grant's March 'Trash Bash' Removes Dangerous Debris
• While collecting unsightly and dangerous debris along the shorelines of local waterways in Houston and Galveston, volunteers also collected used fishing line to deposit in special recycling bins.
• Monofilament line, used by most anglers, is a strong, flexible plastic line that is manufactured as a single strand. Birds and other animals become entangled in it and may drown or lose a limb, or swallow it and starve to death. The line also can wrap around boat propellers, causing damage by blocking water intakes and creating excessive wear on lower units.
• Recycling bins for monofilament line are also available at many boat ramps, fishing piers, parks, tackle shops and marinas during the rest of the year - a list is available at http://mrrp.tamu.edu