Sea Grant’s 2007
1st Quarter Highlights
(Archive of SG Highlights)

Sea Grant E-Currents Newsletter now available!

First-Ever Great Lakes-Wide Dunes Conference held in October 2006 - For the first time, researchers, educators and resource managers gathered from eight states and Ontario, Canada, to discuss the systemwide needs of the Great Lakes dunes system. (Great Lakes Sea Grant Network)

Marine Biotechnology Web site launched - Though Sea Grant Funding, the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution Media Lab has launched a new website at www.marinebiotech.org that chronicles both the medical and environmental sides of the emerging field of marine biotechnology. The site is designed to help everyone from students to the public to working scientists better understand the breadth of research in marine biotechnology and its potential benefits, as well as introduce them to key researchers in the field from around the country. (FL SG)

New Waste Disposal Resource Kits part of State of the Lakes Conference - Two new community awareness campaigns on backyard burning and medicine disposal were highlighted in a at the State of the Lakes Conference (SOLEC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 1-3. The new resource kits, developed by the U.S. EPA and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, provided participants with key tools for communities that want to address these waste disposal concerns. (IL-IN SG)

Port Austin State Harbor receives first Clean Marina designation in MI -Port Austin State Harbor is the first public marina in Michigan to receive the honorable designation of a “Michigan Clean Marina” by the Michigan Clean Marina Program (CMP) Committee. The Clean Marina Program (CMP) is a joint undertaking by the Michigan Boating Industries Association, Michigan Sea Grant, and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. It is the policy of a “clean marina” to protect the health of boaters, staff, and the environment by preventing the discharge of pollutants to the water, land, and air. (MI SG)

Gulf region kicks-off their efforts in regional planning - “A regional research plan will help bring groups together to identify and prioritize needs and build collaborative funding agreements,” said LaDon Swann, director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium. Regional cooperation was highlighted in the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy’s report, and a GOM regional research plan is in line with the commission’s recommendation that federal agencies dealing with ocean and coastal issues improve coordination and use their funding to focus on regional priorities. (MS-AL SG)

Ground broken for $2.4M shrimp facility - A new shrimp aquaculture facility in Martinsville, VA is expected to have a national impact while generating an estimated 600 jobs within the next five years, according to officials and dignitaries at a groundbreaking ceremony Monday. Since raising shrimp in an enclosed facility does not allow it to become contaminated with substances such as mercury or bacteria such as E. coli, the process is said to be safer for consumers. (VA SG)

The Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) unanimously passed the Metro Bay Urban Coastal Greenway Policy (UCG) on October 10th – Rhode Island Sea Grant, in coordination with CRMC, has been working to develop this policy since January 2005. The team looked at models from across the country and spoke with hundreds of individuals to ensure the policy makes a difference for the Metro bay area, all of Narragansett Bay and for the people of Rhode Island. To view the policy, see: http://www.crmc.ri.gov/samp/metrobay.html (RI SG)

NOAA $50,000 grant helps the recovery of derelict crab pots - A lost-and-found program for derelict crab pots unloaded its first batch of recovered gear at the Port of Astoria last week. The 40 rusty old crab pots were left behind by crab fishermen who presumably couldn't find them because their buoys were torn off at sea. This recovery is a coordinated effort by local and state, public and private interests to collect these pots was paid for by a $50,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Cleanup program. It is one of NOAA's 10 crab pot recovery programs nationwide and the only one in Oregon. (OR SG)

Red tide brings red ink to coastal businesses - Hotels and restaurants in Fort Walton Beach and Destin, FL lost an average 32.3 percent of their revenue in months when red tide was stinking up the coast. The study by economists Sherry Larkin and Charles Adams (Sea Grant extension agent) is the first in Florida to isolate red tide as a source of business losses. The study also is the first in Florida to use an empirical approach, rather than interviews and other anecdotal information, Adams said. (FL SG)

North Carolina may review dock-building rules - When someone builds a waterfront house along the rivers and sounds, they often build a boat dock too. As shoreline development has increased, so have the number of boat slips, leaving more and more dock-related issues to the state environmental authorities. Now the state has decided to open up discussion of the matter. From a Sea Grant perspective, it was a NC Sea Grant-led study that recently recommended that the state more closely scrutinize applications to build multi-slip docking facilities. (NC SG)

New Dauphin Island wildlife viewing area part of preservation effort - Bird watchers on Dauphin Island are more likely to spot migratory birds stopping to rest or nest thanks to a new wildlife viewing area that opened this fall. Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier cut the ribbon on the new viewing pier created at Alonzo Landing, a narrow piece of land formerly littered with abandoned boats. Officials from the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Firestone Complete Auto Care, which were partner organizations in the habitat restoration project, also participated in the event. (MS-AL SG)

Alaska Sea Grant prepares fishermen for inspection - Alaska Sea Grant extension agent Torie Baker is the author of a new Alaska Sea Grant bulletin, Tips for Direct Marketers: The Onboard DEC Inspection, for Alaska fishermen with direct market permits. The publication informs captains of small vessels who process their own fish how to prepare for a Department of Environmental Conservation inspection. (AK SG)

Students harbor a love of marine life: New York and New Jersey Sea Grant participated in National Estuaries Day - Sponsored since 1988 by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NERRs, Sea Grant) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to call attention to the disappearance of the marshes. High school students and students from New Jersey's Hudson County School of Technology were exploring the Big Egg Marsh in Jamaica Bay recently with nearly 30 other students as part of a program aimed at teaching the importance of preserving the disappearing salt marshes of Jamaica Bay and 27 other sites around the nation. Thanks to "EstuaryLive," an hour-long science demonstration broadcast over the Internet from Big Egg Marsh that day, the students - some in waders and boots - shared information with others in classrooms worldwide about organisms they discovered in and around the bay and water quality tests they took. The Sea Grant effort was led by NY's Laura Bartovics and New Jersey's Cathy Yuhas. (NY and NJ SG)

Rockfish workshop to be held in Homer- A free public workshop on rockfish biology and management was held this fall in Homer. “The Life and Times of North Gulf Coast Rockfish” workshop brought together nationally recognized and local marine biologists and is sponsored by the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the Alaska Sea Grant Extension Program and the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve. (AK SG)

$2.3 million aimed at researching deadly lobster disease - For years, Rhode Island lobstermen have watched a bacterial shell disease work its way through local lobster populations without any clear explanations of the cause. Now, a concerted search for answers is under way. A total of $2.3 million in grants was awarded this fall nine research projects and two monitoring programs all targeted towards finding out more about a disease that afflicts as many as a quarter of the lobsters hauled in Rhode Island. It’s not known how many lobsters are killed by shell disease, but it makes it difficult to sell lobsters that are affected. The money comes from a $3-million appropriation, sponsored by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, which was used to create the New England Lobster Research Initiative based at the University of Rhode Island. Kathleen Castro, a Rhode Island Sea Grant fisheries extension leader was named chairwoman of the initiative’s executive committee. The money will finance surveys in Rhode Island and in Maine to determine if small lobsters are affected by the disease, and will provide support for numerous research projects including aid for techniques to look at the microbiology on lobster shells to identify the pathogen causing shell disease and to determine whether lobsters have suppressed immune systems. (RI SG)

Indicators Reflect Health of Detroit River, Western Lake Erie - A varied list of environmental features—from the abundance of burrowing mayflies to transportation issues in Southeast Michigan—are among a new list of ecosystem indicators that reflect the health of the Detroit River and western Lake Erie. Detailed information on 46 ecosystem indicators was compiled as part of the Detroit River-Western Lake Erie Basin Indicator Project. The project was led by the US Fish & Wildlife Service through a fellowship from Metropolitan Affairs Coalition with assistance from many other partners, including Michigan Sea Grant. See summary of the Conference at the following link http://www.miseagrant.umich.edu/upwellings/issues/06dec/health-detroit-river.html (MI SG)

Detroit River shoreline benefits from soft engineering – Soft engineering is a practice that employs ecological principles to stabilize shorelines, control erosion, and restore natural habitat. A variety of native plants, birch, redbud, sycamore, flowering dogwood, serviceberry, spicebush, American bladdernut, and several native shortgrasses and rye are part of the habitat restoration project. http://www.miseagrant.umich.edu/upwellings/issues/06dec/soft-engineering-detroit-river.html (MI SG)

Puerto Rico Sea Grant-sponsored television program, GeoAmbiente wins Emmys Award - The Puerto Rico Sea Grant-sponsored television program, GeoAmbiente, won four Emmys at the Suncoast Chapter’s annual Emmy awards night. GeoAmbiente, which airs weekly on WIPR, Puerto Rico’s PBS affiliate, provides information about the wise use and conservation of coastal and marine resources in Puerto Rico. (PR SG)

VIMS hosts workshop for sea scallop harvesters - In anticipation of the re-opening of the Elephant Trunk Closed Area to scallop harvesters in 2007, the Sea Grant Extension program at VIMS hosted a workshop this fall to bring industry stakeholders up to date on research findings and current projects in the Elephant Trunk area, which lies offshore of Delaware Bay. Scallop industry members, including vessel owners and captains as well as others who have an interest in the future of the scallop resource, attended. Surveys of the Elephant Trunk Closed Area by VIMS and NOAA Fisheries indicate that there are more than 100 million pounds of scallops in the 1,700 square mile area. The informal workshop offered ample time for discussion and questions relating to the ETCA, cooperative research projects, and current issues related to the scallop resource. (VA SG)

Microbe fixes nitrogen at a blistering 92 degrees C - A heat-loving archaeon capable of fixing nitrogen at a surprisingly hot 92 degrees Celsius, or 198 Fahrenheit, may represent Earth’s earliest lineages of organisms capable of nitrogen fixation, perhaps even preceding the kinds of bacteria today's plants and animals rely on to fix nitrogen. The genetic analysis reported in last week’s issue of Science supports the notion that the gene needed to produce nitrogenase – an enzyme capable of converting nitrogen gas, that's unusable by life, to a form like ammonia that is useable – arose before the three main branches of life – bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes – diverged some 3.5 billion years ago, according to oceanographer Mausmi Mehta, who recently received her doctorate from the UW, and John Baross, UW professor of oceanography. This is opposed to the theory that the nitrogenase system arose within archaea and was later transferred laterally to bacteria. Known as FS406-22 because of the fluid and culture samples it came from, the archaeon discovered by the UW researchers is the first from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent that can fix nitrogen, says Mehta, first author on the Science paper. The work that led to FS406-22 was supported by Washington Sea Grant and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. (WA SG)

Alaska Sea Grant DVD helps fishermen keep afloat - A New DVD has been released, which underlines the importance of understanding and following stability guidelines for vessels. Unstable vessels account for 35% of all commercial fishing vessel losses in the United States each year. The new Alaska Sea Grant Extension Program instructional DVD, 'Fishing Vessel Stability: Operational Practices', seeks to educate fishermen about the importance of understanding and following stability guidelines unique to their individual vessel. The Alaska Marine Safety Education Association and the Alaska Sea Grant Extension Program produced the video with funding from the U.S. Coast Guard. (AK SG)

Shoreline project in River Rouge a good one for fish, fowl and man - With help from EPA, Sea Grant and other partners, Detroit Edison Energy (DTE) has become involved with a number "green" projects in Southeast Michigan along the Detroit River. The River Rouge project involves naturalizing approximately 200 feet of shoreline along the Detroit River at the River Rouge Power Plant. Naturalizing is the process of removing large pieces of concrete rip-rap along the shoreline and reshaping/revegetating the shoreline to the natural setting before industry lined the waterfront. Partners include: EPA, Michigan Sea Grant, Wildlife Habitat Council, Detroit International Wildlife Refuge, Friends of the Detroit River, Metropolitan Affairs Coalition, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, City of River Rouge. (MI SG)

Ohio Sea Grant Researcher Featured on Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs - Kristin Stanford, a resident researcher at Ohio State's Stone Lab on Lake Erie's Gibraltar Island, studies the endangered Lake Erie water snake. Stanford catches, weighs, and induces the snakes to vomit, then records their diet. Stanford was featured in the season premiere of the Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs. The snakes are a federally threatened species found only on the Lake Erie islands. Stanford's goal is to see the snakes removed from the endangered species list. “Filming Dirty Jobs was fun," according to the researcher. Stanford hopes it shows prospective Stone Lab students how interesting summer research can be. The lab attracts students each summer from all over the country to work on supervised, independent research projects. (OH SG)

Oyster Gardening - In an attempt to turn the tide against the dwindling oyster population, 18 volunteers throughout Rhode Island grew oysters off their boats and moorings this summer and fall for the Rhode Island Oyster Gardening for Restoration and Enhancement program. Steve Patterson, the program coordinator, helped build the cages and monitored the oyster growth. This fall 100,000 juvenile oysters will be released in Bristol Harbor onto a large “culch” – a bed made of 2½ tons of clam shells. Ideally, these thumb-size oysters will attach there, grow to adulthood and remain there to improve the water quality. This project is funded by RI Sea Grant’s Rhode Island Aquaculture Initiative. (RI SG)

Sea Grant assists Delcambre redevelop after Hurricane Rita - In the town of Delcambre many houses appear abandoned, with a few sporting "for sale" signs on the front doors or lawns. However, planners have recently suggested using smart-growth plans to rebuild Delcambre and neighboring towns, such as Erath. In addition, LSU landscape architecture students and members of the LA Sea Grant program last week unveiled proposals for the town's redevelopment, with an emphasis on preserving culture, promoting recreational activities and improving the town's infrastructure. The plans are scheduled to be on display at the Delcambre branch of the Iberia Parish Library. (LA SG)

Boat sales continue to climb in Washington State - Despite soaring gas prices and a sagging economic market, new boats are flying out of many dealers' doorways. New boat sales in Washington continued to climb for a fourth consecutive year during the third quarter, according to data recently released by the University of Washington Sea Grant program and the Department of Licensing. New boat sales by dealers increased 6.6 percent during the third quarter compared with the same period last year. (WA SG)

Ruddiman Creek Remediation Project Awarded a Success Story - The clean up of Ruddiman Creek began as a grassroots effort in Muskegon, Michigan many years ago. Recently, this project, which resulted in the removal of nearly 90,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment, was awarded as a 2006 "Success Story" at the State of the Great Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC). IL-IN Sea Grant specialist Susan Boehme works closely with communities as they go through the remediation process. The Ruddiman Creek Great Lakes Legacy Act Sediment Remediation Project combined the resources of U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality-Water Bureau, which teamed with the Muskegon Lake PAC, Ruddiman Creek Task Force, City of Muskegon, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, who all share in this award. (IL-IN SG)

Pilottown Marina deemed clean in Lewes, DE - With the updating of a sewage pumpout station and a pledge to operate a more environmentally aware business, a local marina has received special recognition from the state. While there are over 100 marinas in the state, only four have earned the status of a Delaware Clean Marina, with the latest to join the ranks being Pilottown Marina in Lewes. Pilottown Marina was certified by the state's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control as the fourth clean marina. The Delaware Clean Marina program is a joint effort between DNREC and Delaware's Sea Grant. (DE SG)

‘Birding Trail’ lists ten sites in county - As part of a statewide birding trail that will eventually wind its way from the coast to the mountains of North Carolina, ten sites in Brunswick County have been identified as gardens of Eden for eager naturalists. The grand opening celebration was this fall. The NC Birding Trail links existing bird watching sites across the state into an organized and interconnected unit while exposing birders to other historical and cultural attractions. With a focus on education and environmental awareness, partners in the trail are: North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Audubon North Carolina, state parks, North Carolina Sea Grant, North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service and United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The partners will hold a training seminar to help prepare area businesses for the opening of the birding trail. The seminar will give business owners tools and information to market their businesses to birders. (NC SG)

Sea Grant Study Finds Piscidins In More Fish - North Carolina Sea Grant researchers have found that peptides previously isolated from hybrid striped bass are probably present in many important commercial fish species. The peptide antibiotics or “piscidins” were originally isolated from mast cells — a highly common, tissue immune cell found in fish and other vertebrates, including humans. This new study greatly expands the range of fish species that may possess these broad-spectrum host defenses and may lead to future studies that optimize their levels in these fish, helping to protect them against many diseases in these species. (NC SG)

Fishermen collect Pribilof blue king crab for Alaska hatchery research program - For the first time in nearly a decade, fishermen this fall harvested blue king crab from waters surrounding this remote Pribilof Island fishing community in the Bering Sea. The crabs were collected as part of a fisherman-led effort aimed at rebuilding the island's collapsed blue king crab fishery, and will serve as brood stock and research specimens for the Alaska King Crab Research and Rehabilitation Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). The program, run by the NOAA Alaska Sea Grant Program, seeks to develop and test techniques to mass-culture king crab. The long-term goal is to develop with state and federal partners a plan to release hatchery-born wild king crab into the wild. (AK SG)

Hawaii Agencies and Pet Stores Work to Prevent Pet Dumping - Federal and State government agencies and the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council are pleased to announce Hawaii's participation in the national "Habitattitude" campaign to encourage pet owners to turn in unwanted aquarium fish and plants instead of dumping them in streams or the ocean. The goal of the campaign is to reduce the possibility of released plants and animals becoming established in the oceans, streams, or lakes. Instead, agencies have partnered with the Waikiki Aquarium, pet stores and animals shelters to be drop-off locations for unwanted aquatic plants and animals. The Hawaii Habitattitude program is being sponsored by the DLNR Division of Aquatic Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA Sea Grant, and the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, with generous support from the Hawaii Invasive Species Council, Hawaii Department of Agriculture, Waikiki Aquarium, Maui Ocean Center, Humane Societies on Oahu, Maui, and Kauai, Waimea Valley Audubon Center and participating pet stores statewide. (HI SG)

Indiana drafting Clean Marinas plan - Indiana will soon be the third Great Lakes state to adopt a program encouraging environmentally sound practices at its marinas. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources' Lake Michigan Coastal Program is partnering with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant to develop a Clean Marina program. Indiana would join Michigan and Ohio as the only Great Lakes states with such programs. There are 21 programs currently operating nationally. (IL-IN SG)

Forum explores robots for deepwater oil, gas operations - MIT Sea Grant recently co-hosted a technology forum to discuss how autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) can offer low-cost solutions for deepwater oil and natural gas exploration and production. Current methods for servicing deepwater wells (greater than 1,500 meters) involve deploying remotely operated vehicles, small subs that are connected to a surface ship with a tether. This can cost roughly $100k per day. An AUV, which does not rely on a tether, should be able to monitor and service a well at a fraction of that cost. (MIT SG)

NOAA's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) and NOAA Sea Grant work together - The National Sea Grant Law Center provides needed legal analysis to OCRM. Thirty-four of 35 coastal states and territories have Coastal Zone Management (CZM) programs approved by NOAA. It is a goal of the Ocean Action Plan for NOAA to complete the national system by working with Illinois to develop and approve its state CZM program. One step toward establishing the Illinois program is acquiring the appropriate legal analysis of coastal protection laws governing the state. Drawing on joint NOAA expertise and resources, OCRM approached the National Sea Grant Law Center in Mississippi with a request for legal analysis. The Sea Grant Law Center agreed and was able to provide the analysis in a timely manner, engaging legal students in the process. The analysis represents a critical step for the state of Illinois to work with NOAA as they seek and gain approval for a Coastal Zone Management program and complete the national system. Significance: NOAA coastal programs were able to partner to provide much-needed capacity in a case where the state lacked resources to provide it. (National Sea Grant Law Center)

PA SG Receives Clean Water Grants Excellence Award for their work educating boaters about invasive species - Pennsylvania Sea Grant, one of Boat.US Foundation's previous grantees of the Clean Water grants, has been awarded a Clean Water Grants Excellence Award for their work educating boaters about invasive species. Their original grant of $3880 was used to create signs educating boaters on how to identify invasive species and prevent their spread from one waterway to another. The Excellence Award includes an additional $500 to continue the organization's efforts. (PA SG)

“Red Tides” May Be Linked to Bacteria - California Sea Grant researchers suggest that bacteria that live symbiotically with toxic algae may be just as important as nitrogen and phosphorous, the active ingredients in fertilizers, in sparking some toxic algal blooms. The PIs are examining compounds made by bacteria that they believe transform otherwise biologically useless iron compounds into forms that can be used by marine algae. They believe that the iron compounds trigger sudden bursts in the number of algae in an area, or blooms. In addition, preliminary findings show that all the bacteria associated with the toxic algae produce a compound known as vibrioferrin that binds to the element boron. That is significant because natural products containing boron are very rare and could be part of a bacterial “communication system.” In other words, the work could potentially identify the specific compound involved in signaling blooms by “alerting” the algae when there is enough iron to grow. (CA SG)

Sea Grant Communication Team wins two awards - The North Carolina Sea Grant Communications Team won two awards at the 2006 N.C. Association of Government Information Officers on November 14th in Chapel Hill. Coastwatch took first place for regular publications. (NC SG) Thousands of birds dying along Lake Michigan - About 2,800 dead gulls, cormorants, mergansers, grebes and 150 common loons have been found on the beaches of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore since August. Tests reveal they died of Type E botulism. The bird die-off comes as a surprise here, but Sea Grant programs in New York, Pennsylvania and Ontario have monitored similar die-offs on Lakes Erie and Ontario for a decade. An estimated 25,000 birds now die annually along their shores. Reports also reveal a growing number of dead native fish, soft-shell turtles and mud puppies. Michigan Sea Grant Link: http://www.miseagrant.umich.edu/habitat/avian.html
(MI SG, NY SG, PA SG)

National Steering Committee to Explore Benefits of National Scenic Byway Designation - Melinda Huntley, Ohio Sea Grant’s Tourism Program Director, is leading an America’s Byways Economic Impact Steering Committee to assist the America’s Byways Resource Center and the Federal Highway Administration as they explore the development of possible tools for identifying the economic benefits of national scenic byway designation. This is a 2-year project led by byway leaders to determine whether or not a tool is available for assessing various economic impacts within byway communities, and what that tool might be. (OH SG)