Southeast/Gulf/Caribbean Region

Florida Sea Grant
Sea Grant Plants 10,000 Mangroves Along Five Miles of Shoreline

• With the help of volunteers, Sea Grant planted and released 10,000 red mangrove propagules, which resemble pencil-thin seed pods, to foster the recovery of Charlotte Harbor's mangrove forest.
• Mangrove shorelines provide valuable habitat for snook, redfish, juvenile fish and other Florida fish species and wildlife.
• Hurricane Charley's winds inflicted severe damage to red mangroves lining the shoreline.
• The seedlings are expected to grow a foot a year, and the shorelines will be monitored for a year or more to determine the success of the restoration effort.

Georgia Sea Grant
Sea Grant Establishes Clam Fishery

• University of Georgia Marine Extension Service (MAREX) and Georgia Sea Grant specialists established Georgia's clam fishery by working with the industry leaders to introduce clam aquaculture to the state.
• Georgia clam sales increased from $73,158 in 1995 to $614,000 in 2005, making the clam industry Georgia's third most important fishery and the state's only growing fishery.
• Specialists developed and transferred practical clam culture technology from seed clam growth in innovative clam upwelling systems which allow small seed, 0.3 to 0.5 mm, to grow to 6 to 10 mm before they can be planted in the wild.
• An aquaculture specialist designed and built three tidal powered clam upwellers for coastal Georgia inshore commercial clam aquaculture operations.

Louisiana Sea Grant
Researcher's Warning Helps Save Lives in Bangladesh

• Sea Grant researcher, Hassan Mashriqui may have saved thousands of lives when Cyclone Sidr, a Category 4 storm, roared ashore from the Bay of Bengal near the border of India and Bangladesh on November 15.
• Mashriqui predicted a storm surge as high as 12 feet and associated flooding that might reach 20 to 50 miles inland.
• His information helped officials decide how and where to evacuate before the storm.
• After the storm passed, he provided hindcasting to guide aid and rescue efforts to locations that had been hardest hit.
• The death toll from Sidr is estimated to be at least 3,500 - more than twice the number of dead from Hurricane Katrina, but significantly fewer then in past cyclones.
• Mashriqui wants to ensure that Bangladesh scientists and emergency planners gain the same predictive powers that saved lives in the Gulf of Mexico. While they have the ability to track and forecast tropical cyclones, they do not have the tools or training to predict storm surge.
• Information on Mashriqui's work is available online at www.stormsurge.lsu.edu

Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant
Sea Grant Tracks Shrimp Fishing in the Gulf

• Sea Grant is helping LGL Ecological Research Associates, Inc. of Bryan, Texas to gather data used to develop a fishing effort profile of the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery.
• More of the Gulf's offshore shrimp fleet is using electronic logbook (ELB) technology, and Sea Grant is providing a vital link between LGL scientists and fishermen participating in the study.
• Shrimp fishing effort calculations use information from selected vessels on how much shrimp is caught, where it was caught, and how long it took to catch it.
• Because many of the boats in Mississippi and Alabama participating in this study are Vietnamese-owned and operated, Sea Grant fisheries technologist Peter Nguyen, who speaks both Vietnamese and English, has been critical to this effort.
• The program allows for the design and implementation of a shrimp effort and catch logbook process through voluntary agreement with randomly-selected vessels in the Gulf fishing fleet.
• Data from the logbook program and GPS monitoring on selected vessels will be integrated with data obtained from observers to evaluate existing bycatch and fishing mortality estimates.

Puerto Rico Sea Grant
Sea Grant Holds 4th Marine Adventure: From School to Sea

• In December, Puerto Rico Sea Grant held its fourth "Marine Adventure: From School to Sea" in La Parguera, Puerto Rico.
• Over 200 students were invited to leave their desks behind and join marine educators from Sea Grant the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Marine Sciences Department where eight hands-on learning stations were available.
• Activities included a diving demonstration, sand classification, water quality testing, and stations with marine plants, corals and invertebrates, including a small octopus.
• Additionally, Sea Grant collaborated with other organizations on the Island who promote the protection and wise-use of marine and coastal resources to present exhibitions about marine sea turtles and the dangers of marine debris such as plastic bags and fishing line along with alternatives and solutions to these problems.

South Carolina Sea Grant
Sea Grant Researcher Receives Popular Science Award for Hurricane-Proof Nail

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.

Texas Sea Grant
Sea Grant Works With Houston Leaders to Encourage "Smart Growth"

• Sea Grant obtained a competitive EPA Technical Assistance Grant to work with partners in Houston to explore barriers to "smart growth" associated with a light rail station.
• Sea Grant facilitated a charrette involving nearly 100 community and development leaders.
• The project showed that only limited intervention was necessary to spark dense new development in the transit zone and thus help save valuable coastal natural areas and farmland.
• As a result, Houston's Metro (the regional transportation authority) purchased two entire blocks in the vicinity of the project area to hold until a developer is ready – an unprecedented transaction in this agency's history.
• One of the developers participating in the charrette announced three new major smart growth/urban compact growth developments in Houston.
• The charrette was key to his decision to pursue this path.