Assessment of Sociocultural Dimensions of Coastal Change

December 9, 2014

Washington Sea Grant

Pacific Northwest coastal communities experience highly variable climate and oceanographic events, rising seas, and other hazards whose cumulative, varied risks to health and wellbeing are largely unknown. As a result, these communities face critical challenges: strengthening resilience, minimizing vulnerability, maintaining food security and protecting and restoring local marine ecosystems. Washington Sea Grant is synthesizing information on the resilience and vulnerability of communities to coastal hazards such as ocean acidification and leading the design of a participatory, community-based rapid appraisal in several Washington and Oregon communities facing such hazards. This appraisal will assess culturally significant ecosystem variables, such as important food species and communities’ sense of place, and identify anticipated and cumulative threats posed to them.

This tool is currently under development.

Environmental Literacy and Workforce Development

Sea Grant’s impacts ripple across U.S. communities

Sea Grant’s work addresses a range of coastal and marine challenges through four focus areas: healthy coastal ecosystems, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, environmental literacy and

NOAA Sea Grant Develops 5-Year Aquaculture Investment Plan

Year-over-year, Sea Grant is committed to supporting aquaculture development across the nation, as a means of enhancing economic resilience and nutritional security in American communities. Sea Grant recently developed a five-year Aquaculture Investment Plan to guide its efforts in supporting aquaculture research, extension and education.

Sea Grant and NOAA Fisheries partner to invest $1 million to advance understanding of fishing community interactions with offshore wind development

The Northeast Sea Grant Consortium, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, announces a research funding opportunity to improve understanding of fishing community interactions with offshore wind development in the Northeast U.S.