Message from the Director: Leon Cammen Visits China

International Highlights Continued....

Sea Grant International Resources Website: Coming Soon
The National Sea Grant Office is developing an international resources webpage that will include:

• Informative materials and presentations on Sea Grant designed for international audiences.
• Sea Grant one-pager translated into Spanish, French, and Vietnamese (additional languages to follow).
• Link to the new Sea Grant Experts Guide, which will soon include an international feature, searchable by project location (country) and area of interest.
• Updates on other international projects within NOAA.

Vietnam Sea Grant Pilot Program

• Connecticut Sea Grant is leading an initiative to create a program based on the Sea Grant model in Vietnam.
• The program will include research and training, and will focus on sustainable development for the coastal region of Vietnam.
• The pilot program in will be in Thua Thien Hue province.
  

Kate Wynne, Alaska Sea Grant and observer trainees identifying fish species in Tema fish market.

Alaska Sea Grant played a key role in the development and delivery of the marine mammal portion of a two-week joint US-Ghana fisheries observer training program to 40 biologists in Ghana from March 31-April 11, 2008. This observer program was initiated by the NMFS Office of International Affairs in response to provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Reauthorization Act (2006) that encourage assistance to nations attempting to improve the sustainability of their fisheries.

• California Sea Grant formed a partnership with Korea’s Yeongnam and Honam Sea Grant programs in order to exchange personnel and ideas.
• These Sea Grant programs, located in southeastern and southwestern Korea, signed memoranda of understanding (MOU) agreements in 2006 with California Sea Grant to collaborate on topics of mutual interest.
• A series of visits by U.S. and Korean Sea Grant staff have facilitated mutual learning and program development.
• A third MOU with the new JungBu Sea Grant in northwestern Korea is planned.

• Connecticut Sea Grant’s Dr. Robert Pomeroy was a trainer at the World Bank Agriculture and Rural Development Department Hub Training on Fisheries & Aquaculture in Nha Trang, Vietnam on January 13-18, 2008, organized by the WorldFish Center.
• The objective of the training was to equip World Bank task managers, and program officers from partner development agencies, to make informed judgments in addressing bank lending policies in fisheries and aquaculture projects that will impact impoverished communities.
• Approximately 35 World Bank staff from around the world participated in the training.
• Financial decision-makers now have a better understanding of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture and how they may benefit small-scale fishers.

• A Sea Grant researcher developed a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model to simulate the physical conditions of Gamek Bay (South Korea) and a water quality model to determine residence times in the Bay.
• The model has been adopted by the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI) of South Korea.

• In March 2008, Hawai‘i Sea Grant initiated a biennial series of joint symposia promoting collaborative research between the University of Hawai‘i, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, and the University of Tokyo, Ocean Research Institute.
• These symposia are part of a 1991 agreement facilitated by Hawai‘i Sea Grant promoting student and faculty exchange and cooperative research in the areas of marine biology, biological chemistry and physical oceanography.

• Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant aquaculture marketing specialist Kwamena Quagrainie, who was born and raised in Ghana, is currently leading research efforts to build successful aquaculture industries in Kenya and Ghana.
• According to the researcher, fish has always been an important part of the diet of most Africans, and aquaculture could address help offset depleted fisheries and become a profitable alternative agriculture enterprise to help alleviate poverty on the continent.
• The researcher is working closely with USAID’s Aquaculture & Fisheries Collaborative Research Support Program (AquaFish CRSP), to oversee five international study projects which focus on marketing aquaculture products in Kenya and Ghana.
• Quagrainie’s team aims to develop supply chains from fish farms to retailers in these countries.
• “The goal is to support the emerging small-scale commercial aquaculture sector in these countries, and also enable fish farmers to realize significant profitability and potential to obtain credit for fish production,” Quagrainie said. The bulk of the data will come from surveys sent out to fish farmers and fish traders.

The 10th annual NACE conference took place in Maine in December of 2008. The conference drew industry members and other partners in Atlantic Canada. Maine Sea Grant has been involved in the NACE program since it began in 1998, and a Sea Grant staff member co-chaired the 2008 event.

• Stephen Bortone, former Director of the Minnesota Sea Grant program was appointed to the International Editorial Board of Biologia Marina Mediterranea (Journal of the Italian Society of Marine Biology).

• AquaNIC has become the world’s leading Web-based aquaculture portal, (http://aquanic.org/), providing access to unbiased electronic aquaculture information to the U.S. and international aquaculture industry.
• The portal, established in 1994, is supported by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, NOAA’s Office of Aquaculture, Auburn University and the USDA North Central Regional Aquaculture Center.

The Hydrodredge being retrieved aboard the F/V Bounty off the Isle of Man.

Sea Grant’s Hydrodredge, a habitat-sparing approach to scallop dredging could revolutionize scallop harvesting. The Hydrodredge uses a row of inverted cups that generate downward jets of water, producing enough commotion to lift scallops into trailing vorticies that stream from each cup. Researchers from the University of Wales in Bangor have worked with MIT Sea Grant to dredge the port of Douglas, where there is an important scallop fishery. The results were promising, with a noticeable reduction in the level of damage to the harvested scallops. The substitution of hydrodynamic effects for physical seabed contact has potential in fisheries beyond scalloping and offers potential fuel savings. A Dutch fishing company is adapting the Hydrodredge design to a beam trawl to be used in the flounder fishery. The design will eliminate the mat of tickler chains normally used to help capture sole and other flatfish species. Sea trials are planned later this summer in the North Sea.

A research team, led by Oregon Sea Grant was invited to the Fujian Provence to help coastal managers and counterparts within the Fujian Academy of Forestry better understand and manage spartina, an invasive grass common in both the U.S. and China. In Fujian, the grass has destroyed natural mangroves, increasing local vulnerability to coastal hazards and negatively affecting the livelihoods of communities along the coast. Chinese coastal managers and the U.S. research team shared techniques for handling the grasses. The partnership could lead to future research and educational exchanges between the two countries.

Sandwatch team in Montserrat (Caribbean) using magnets to compare river sand and beach sand.

Sandwatch started in 2001 as a joint initiative between University of Puerto Rico Sea Grant and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and targeting Caribbean youth. The program seeks to develop awareness of the fragile nature of the marine and coastal environment. Students monitor changes in their beaches over a period of months or years. They then analyze their data and share key findings with the wider community. Finally, they design and implement small projects to address particular issues. The program uses simple methods that can be adapted to Grades 1-12 using minimum equipment. Sandwatch has expanded to include more than 30 countries worldwide (including several African and South American nations as well as countries in the Pacific and Indian Oceans). Additional information and publications are available at www.sandwatch.org.

• This small project was part of a larger project funded by USAID called the Tanzanian Coastal Management Partnership (TCMP) and took place in Dar es Salaam from January 26 – February 9, 2009.
• The TCMP goal is to establish a foundation for effective coastal governance in Tanzania.
• Sea Grant worked with local stakeholders to conduct a rapid assessment of commercial and artisanal fisheries and conducted a workshop for the fishermen, managers and scientists on the use of Turtle Excluder and Bycatch Reduction Devices.
• Tanzanian participants learned how to reduce turtle mortality and finfish bycatch.

• The 11th International Conference on Shellfish Restoration was held in historic Charleston, South Carolina, November 19-22.
• The meeting provided an opportunity for resource managers, shellfish farmers, community activists, historians, and anthropologists to exchange ideas and information to help restore molluscan shellfish populations while improving water quality and the environmental health of estuarine and coastal systems.
• Shellfish restoration is of international concern and the meeting attracted participants from many other nations, and has spawned similar meetings in Canada, Ireland, France, and most recently, in Vlissingen, The Netherlands.
• This year’s meeting highlighted the role shellfish have played in the development of society, ranging from the coastal tribal nations in the U.S. to the Maori in New Zealand, from the early settlers in Brittany to Canada’s First Nations.
• More information available at: http://www.scseagrant.org/Content/?cid=297.