Researcher's Warning Helps Save Lives in Bangladesh

• Continued Sea Grant support has led to the development of a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor system, capable of detecting toxin concentrations at 2.8 parts per trillion. (One part per trillion is the equivalent of one inch in 16 million miles).


• The SPR biosensor can detect chemical remnants of pesticides, identify toxic metabolites responsible for shellfish poisoning or warn of the presence of land mines or chemical weapons.


• Clearly, the technology has a wide range of potential applications.


• Its application for national and homeland security has attracted the interest of the U.S. Department of Defense, which recently awarded contracts for further development of the SPR biosensor for international and domestic use.

• Chemicals from medicines flushed down the toilet can pass untreated through sewage plants, damage septic systems and contaminate nearby waterways.


• In 2000, the U.S. Geological Survey sampled down-stream from wastewater treatment plants in 30 states and found at least one pharmaceutical in 80 percent of 139 streams.


• Several of these compounds are potentially harmful to aquatic organisms, even in small quantities. Sea Grant and the U.S. EPA Great Lakes Office developed a resource kit for those thinking about starting a "take-back" program or creating other disposal programs.


• Fifteen states, the District of Columbia, and Canada have requested the kits. Over 160 resource kits have been distributed, and Sea Grant has held workshops for over 100 local officials.


• The kit includes background information on unwanted medicines, what's known about their impact on the environment, as well as numerous resources for addressing the problem, including extensive collection program case studies.


• Sea Grant is working closely with state and local agencies and programs to facilitate "take-back" projects. The resource kit is available online at www.iisgcp.org/unwantedmeds

• A team of Sea Grant researchers designed a net that effectively eliminates the bycatch of protected fish species (cod and flounder) caught alongside haddock.


• This fall, the team was awarded the $30,000 grand prize in the World Wildlife Federation's International Smart Gear Competition.


• The researchers worked with fishermen on a net called "The Eliminator," which takes advantage of haddock's tendency to swim up when faced with a net, when other fish swim down.


• The International Smart Gear competition was created to encourage engineers and fishermen to develop technologies that would reduce bycatch (the unwanted part of a fishing catch).


• The design, which beat out more than 70 contenders from 22 countries, is more than seven years in the making.

• Sea Grant has published the first-ever comprehensive reference book on the blue crab. The 800-page volume, The Blue Crab: Callinectes sapidus, brings together the work of 28 authors in 16 chapters to cover the spectrum of blue crab biology and ecology.


• The book details blue crab anatomy and addresses larval, juvenile and adult development.


• It also covers diseases and parasites, the ecology of all life stages, population dynamics and the history of blue crab fisheries in the U.S.


• Information about The Blue Crab is available on the web at http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/store/books/bc/ - including a Look Inside feature.


• The Blue Crab joins another Sea Grant book, The Eastern Oyster, as a companion reference text.

• A Sea Grant researcher at Clemson University's Wind Load Test Facility examined better ways to secure residential home structures under threat from hurricanes and earthquakes.


• He discovered that house failures often start with a broken window. High winds then inflate the house and cause the roof to lift from its frame.


• The solution? - modify the simple nail that has been around for centuries.


• The researcher invented a nail made of carbon-steel alloy, with a wider head than other nails (by 25%), barbs that hold the shaft firmly in the frame to prevent pullout, and a twist below the nail head to fill the space that the barbs open to hold the nail in place.


• Tests, during which the new nail was subjected to hurriciane forces, revealed the Sea Grant-developed nail held at 20,000 pounds. (At 9,000 pounds, regular nails begin to pull out of the framework.)


• The invention is now known as the Hurri-Quake® nail.


• Researcher Dr. Ed Sutt was voted the 2006 Grand Award Winner "Innovation of the Year" by the national magazine, Popular Science
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