National Sea Grant Office (NSGO)
NOAA has awarded funding to eight regions for the National Sea Grant College Program’s Regional Research, Information Planning, and Coordination competition.  The following regions received awards with a start date of June 1, 2006:  Alaska, Pacific Northwest, Southwest, Insular Pacific, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, South Atlantic, and Gulf of Maine.  A total of $250,000 of federal Sea Grant funds was made available for each region over two years to cover completion of the plans.  Each of the eight recipients will provide an additional $125,000 in matching funds.

Each region will: 1) Establish a regional coordination group to oversee the planning and implementation of the research and information strategy; 2) Conduct a bottom-up needs assessment with broad user and stakeholder input; 3) Identify research and information gaps; 4) Develop a research and information plan for the region that prioritizes actions according to management-critical needs; 5) Develop coordination mechanisms to ensure the transfer of technology and information to the appropriate end users; and, 6) Provide an ongoing platform for coordination, collaboration, and resource sharing among participants.

National Sea Grant Review Panel
National Research Council (NRC) Report/Strategic Planning Meeting
The National Academies/Ocean Studies Board Report:  Evaluation of the Sea Grant Program Review Process was released this summer.  The study assessed procedures adopted by the National Sea Grant Program since the publication of the 1994 National Academies report, A Review of NOAA National Sea Grant College Program, to determine their impacts.  During the current study, the committee addressed the impact of the new procedures and evaluation process on the National Sea Grant College Program as a whole, identifying constructive changes and value added to overall institutional effectiveness, responsiveness, quality of management, leadership, and reputation.   

On July 24th, NSGO, Sea Grant Review Panel and Sea Grant Association (SGA) leadership met in Washington, DC.  The group discussed a proposed structure for the development of implementation strategies for the NRC Program Assessment Report.  Although the details are still being formulated, each party will have a role in this process.  A key part of the process will include strategic planning.  NSGO is reviewing state strategic plans in order to identify focus areas and regional themes.  This process will help inform the development of a national strategic plan which will include up to five focus areas.  This national plan (due by winter 2006) will help inform development of new state Sea Grant program strategic plans. 

Fellowships  
Knauss Fellowship
The 2006 Knauss Fellows Class traveled to Seattle, WA August 13-18 for their annual class trip.  The fellows met with representatives from federal and state agencies, as well as local and tribal stakeholders, to discuss a variety of marine resource issues.  They stopped at the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary and the Friday Harbor Laboratory, conducted a volunteer activity at Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and visited with representatives from the Macaw Tribe, local NGOs, NOAA's Fisheries Science Centers, the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, and of course, Washington Sea Grant.  The annual Knauss Class Trip began in 2003 and is designed to engage the fellows in aquatic resource management and policy issues at the regional, state and local levels.

NOAA Fisheries Service (NMFS) and Sea Grant Jointly Announce Four Ph.D. Fellowship Awards in Population Dynamics and Marine Resource Economics
The fellowships provide three years of support for Ph.D. students studying Population Dynamics (related to the assessment of fish and marine mammal populations) and two years of support for Ph.D. students in Marine Resource Economics (economic behavior and resource valuation).  The students are provided with an annual stipend of $38,000.  The fellowship program has awarded a total of 35 fellowships over its six year duration.
The four fellows selected in this year's competition are:
Population Dynamics:  Amanda Bradford, University of Washington; Robert Leaf, Virginia Tech University
Marine Resource Economics:  Cameron Speir, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Matthew Freeman, University of Rhode Island  

Law Center
The Sea Grant Law Center has drafted a Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument Fact Sheet
To learn more, visit:  http://www.olemiss.edu/orgs/SGLC/National/NWHI.pdf

Coastal Case Alert Monthly Updates
The Case Alert is a monthly listserv highlighting recent court decisions impacting ocean and coastal resource management. For more information, please visit:
http://www.olemiss.edu/orgs/SGLC/lawcenterhome.htm  

National Sea Grant Library
Information on over 33,000 Sea Grant titles is available through a web-searchable publications database:  http://nsgl.gso.uri.edu/search  Approximately 13,000 of these documents may be downloaded as full-text pdfs.  The library will continue to announce the most recent Sea Grant titles on our "What's New" page: http://nsgl.gso.uri.edu/newsite/new/index.html which is updated weekly.

New on the Web
Oregon Sea Grant unveils new website
Oregon Sea Grant has had a presence on the web since 1995.  Today, a newly redesigned site contains more than 2,000 pages of information about ocean and coastal topics.  The site serves Sea Grant's mission by making it easy for people to find the information they want about the ocean, ocean science, and about Sea Grant's work.   Visit:  http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/

Visit the Sea Grant Safe Oysters site
NSGO, California Sea Grant and Georgia Sea Grant are pleased to announce a website featuring information about the safety of raw oysters.  The information on the site is targeted to consumers, food and health educators, healthcare professionals and fishers.  Visit:  http://safeoysters.org