Mid-Atlantic Region

Delaware Sea Grant
SeaTalk Radio Announcements Available Online

• Have you ever wondered why salt water doesn't freeze as fast as fresh water? Want to find out about superheated water that leaks into the ocean through vents on the deep ocean floor?
• Find out by listening to SeaTalk, the radio announcement series from the University of Delaware and Delaware Sea Grant.
• Two thirty-second and two sixty-second SeaTalks are available for each month.
• The SeaTalks for January and February 2008 are now available at http://www.ocean.udel.edu/seagrant/SeaTalk/index.html.
  

Maryland Sea Grant
Sea Grant Publishes Landmark Book on the Blue Crab

• 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.

North Carolina Sea Grant
Sea Grant Provides Relevant and Reliable Black Sea Bass Research Results

• The South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council (SAFMC) sought input from a Sea Grant-funded study of catch rates and discard mortality when the Council considered management options for black sea bass.
• SAFMC biologists noted that the Sea Grant study design included both fishermen and academia, and provided data that could fit directly into existing fishery management models.
• In addition, council members, staff and stakeholders and media were given an article on the sea bass research that appeared in Sea Grant's Coastwatch magazine.
• "I think your study is excellent and very valuable. More studies like it need to be conducted," a NOAA Fisheries official told the researchers.

New Jersey Sea Grant
Scholarship to Plant the Seed for New Jersey's Aquaculture and Fisheries Future

• New Jersey Sea Grant established a scholarship fund to honor Stew Tweed, a long-time Marine Extension Agent for New Jersey who passed away in February 2007.
• The scholarship will perpetuate Stew's memory by recognizing his twenty-seven years of service and commitment to New Jersey's commercial fishing industry and his valuable contributions toward revitalizing the State's oyster populations.
• Beginning in 2008, scholarships will be awarded to a graduating high-school or vocational school senior and an undergraduate or graduate student pursuing studies, careers or research focused on aquaculture and fisheries.

Virginia Sea Grant
Virginia Sea Grant Facilitates Development of Cobia Aquaculture in the United States

• Sea Grant has worked over the past several years to develop environmentally sustainable aquaculture of cobia, a fastgrowing, desirable finfish species.
• Commercialization of cobia is in progress in Belize, Panama, Brazil, and the United States, and has been established in many Asian countries.
• Sea Grant researchers have developed a standard protocol to increase fingerling production and survival.
• Virginia Sea Grant-funded research has resolved several bottlenecks in cobia fingerling production limiting industrial expansion.
• Due to the success of this project, a new business (Virginia Cobia Farms, LLC) formed in October 2006.
• In five years, Virginia Cobia Farms should create 60 jobs in an economically depressed region of the state.