Established in 1966, NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program promotes the wise stewardship of coastal resources in 32 joint Federal/State university programs in every U.S. coastal and Great Lakes state and Puerto Rico (click here for U.S. map with locations). The Sea Grant model has also inspired similar projects in the Pacific region, Korea and Indonesia.

New York Sea Grant (NYSG) - a statewide network of integrated research, education, and extension services promoting the coastal economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State's marine and Great Lakes resources - is currently in its 40th year of "Bringing Science to the Shore."

NYSG is a cooperative program of the State University of New York (SUNY) and Cornell University, with administrative offices at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, extension administration in Ithaca and extension staff in Riverhead, Stony Brook, New York City, Kingston, Oswego and Buffalo.

The combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups - businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

New York needs Sea Grant. . . Our state, with 3,400 miles of widely varied coastline, is the only state in the nation bordering both the Great Lakes and the ocean. The Hudson, St. Lawrence and Niagara Rivers, Lakes Ontario, Erie and Champlain, Long Island Sound, inland bays, New York Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean provide the state with unique economic, environmental and social advantages. Today more than 85 percent of the State’s over 19 million people live in one of those coastal regions. New Yorkers depend on our coasts for ports and marinas, trade and recreation, and their contribution to economic and environmental sustainability.

New York Sea Grant is currently “making a difference” by supporting about 44 important research and outreach projects on issues such as shoreline protection, fisheries, aquatic invaders, and water quality. NYSG has been at the forefront of lobster, hard clam and brown tide research initiatives.

Providing timely and relevant research and outreach New York Sea Grant supports high-quality, university-based, natural and social science research which takes an unbiased look at priority questions. It combines scientific rigor a with real-world stakeholder view. Our technical peer-review process is very thorough and provides the foundation for NYSG’s scientific credibility.

As a Federal/State matching funds program, NYSG is accountable to its Federal source of funding, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US Department of Commerce, as well as to the State of New York.

Our Track Record… Since its start in 1971, NYSG has provided over $120 million for research, education, and outreach projects; sponsored conferences, seminars and workshops on vital coastal issues; and made it possible for hundreds of graduate students to get advanced degrees through the Sea Grant Scholar Program.