Insider News
National Sea Grant College Program
Sea Grant Reauthorization Hearings
Congress has held two hearings on Sea Grant's reauthorization bill. The first hearing was held on April 3rd by the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans (Chair Madeleine Bordallo, D-Guam). The subcommittee approved the National Sea Grant College Program Amendments Act of 2008 by unanimous consent. The bill, HR 5618, would authorize a total of $498 million through fiscal 2014 for the National Sea Grant College Program. On May 21, the House Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment (Chairman Nick Lampson, D TX-22) held a second hearing on the reauthorization bill. The Administration has also sent a Sea Grant reauthorization bill to Congress.
National Sea Grant Strategic Plan
The National Sea Grant College Program completed its 2009-2013 strategic plan. The plan outlines four focus areas: A Safe and Sustainable Seafood Supply, Sustainable Coastal Development, Healthy Coastal Ecosystems and Hazard Resilience in Coastal Communities. Members of the NSGO and Sea Grant network are now developing an implementation plan for the four focus areas. A meeting has been scheduled for June 10-13th in the Washington, D.C. area to complete this task. A final national implementation plan should be completed in early July.
The plan is available at: www.seagrant.noaa.gov
National Sea Grant Review Panel Appointments
Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez appointed Terry Gardiner, Nancy Rabalais, and Rolland Schmitten to NOAA's National Sea Grant Review Panel. Gardiner started as a commercial fisherman, and founded Silver Lining Seafood in Ketchikan, Alaska. He has served as the speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives, chaired the judiciary, resources, and Alaska permanent fund committees, and served as a member of the U.S. National Seafood Promotional Council. Rabalais is a professor at Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium in Chauvin, La., where she conducts research efforts on estuarine and coastal interactions and environmental impacts of habitat alterations and contaminants. She is a past chair of the Ocean Studies Board of the National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. Schmitten has served four U.S. presidents as U.S. tuna commissioner and U.S. Atlantic salmon commissioner, and served 10 years as head of the U.S. delegation to the International Whaling Commission. He served as the Washington state director of fisheries, NOAA deputy assistant secretary for international affairs, assistant administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service, and the national director of marine habitat conservation.
Panel website: www.seagrant.noaa.gov/leadership/review_panel.html
NOAA Spotlight Article
New Hampshire Sea Grant (Rebecca Zieber) provided the May Spotlight story for NOAA titled, "UNH Researcher Is Mapping the Flow of Communication." The story features researcher Troy Hartley who is considered a cartographer of human communication.
Please visit: www.oar.noaa.gov/spotlite/2008/spot_communication.html
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