Sea Grant is announcing a Federal Funding Opportunity focused on research of HMS species, including the interactions between yellow-fin tuna and oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, to address critical gaps in knowledge about HMS in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean regions. Letters of intent are due May 15, 2019, and full proposals are due June 19, 2019. 

A Sea Grant team of legal and aquaculture experts has released a report detailing eight case studies that identify challenges to the shellfish aquaculture industry in the United States. The project was funded through Sea Grant's 2017 national investment in aquaculture. 

NMFS-Sea Grant Population and Ecosystem Dynamics Fellow Chris Free and colleagues published a study in the March 2019 edition of Science that "used historical ocean temperature and fisheries data to determine how ocean warming affects the amount of fish that can be harvested sustainably from wild-populations." Free’s dissertation adviser, Olaf Jensen, says that the NMFS-Sea Grant Fellowship was instrumental in allowing Free to pursue this groundbreaking work. “This fellowship gave him the freedom to really devote himself to this research rather than [teaching] or applying for small grants,” said Jensen.

Sea Grant's 2019 national aquaculture program includes three federal funding opportunities to advance priority project types. 

A new online aquaculture siting tool called MA-ShellfAST simplifies the process of selecting and establishing a shellfish farm for Massachusetts-based farmers using funding from the NOAA Sea Grant 2016 Aquaculture Extension and Technology Transfer program.