<<< NYSG at 50: New York Sea Grant Through The Years — Home

Healthy Coastal Ecosystems

• For five decades, NYSG has conducted innovative research on the State’s diverse aquatic ecosystems and habitats, both saltwater and fresh. NYSG has funded numerous research projects to help understand the status of ecosystem components, the mechanisms and processes driving that status, and solutions to address identified challenges. Following are select examples looking into the causes and mitigation of ecosystem disruptors such as harmful algal blooms and aquatic invasives like zebra mussels.

• In 1985, brown tide, a very small algae that grows in dense populations, took a foothold in Long Island’s Peconic Bay, leading to a collapse of the bay scallop fishery. In the Great South Bay, an estuary that hosts habitat that provided the nation with half its hard clams, brown tide caused a reduction in the quality and quantity of clam harvests. NYSG-funded researchers conducted multiple studies into the causes and mitigation of harmful algal blooms including mapping the genome of the brown tide algae (found mainly in south shore LI bays), and identifying environmental factors such as temperature and nutrients that occur before and after blooms. The environmental factors that accompany the occurrence of red tide (in north shore LI bays) and blue-green algae (appearing throughout the Great Lakes and marine district) have been closely studied leading to more effective mitigation when blooms occur.

• The nonindigenous bivalve species, zebra and quagga mussels, invaded the Hudson River then the Erie Canal and Lake Ontario. Without natural predators, the mussels’ unchecked growth led to choked waterways, interfered with the Great Lakes food web, impacted the recreational fishing and boating industries, and disrupted water infrastructure. Some research projects sought ways to mitigate mussel growth. A funded research project found success in creating and marketing a product that could halt zebra mussel growth in its tracks. Other projects investigated the changes in the Great Lakes food web caused by the invasive mussels, such as altered populations of crustaceans and economically important fish species.

• When it was discovered that blue-green algae toxins can cause illness and even death in pets, a collaboration between research and extension yielded a NYSG publication, Dogs and Harmful Algal Blooms. It became NYSG’s most popular brochure, being picked up by NOAA, other Sea Grant programs and numerous nongovernmental organizations.


Sustainable Fisheries, Aquaculture and Seafood Businesses

• NYSG research helps to ensure the health and sustainability of NY’s economically significant shellfish. Hard clams from NY waters, once supplying much of the country’s clams, have been impacted by a mysterious infectious pathogen called QPX Disease. Over a decade of NYSG supported research provided knowledge of the life cycle, ecology and genetics of the parasite behind QPX that led to effective management and mitigation strategies to the benefit of the shellfish and hatchery industries.

• American lobsters in western Long Island Sound dramatically died off after a decades-long boom, destroying the Sound’s lobster fisheries and impacting the livelihoods of lobster fishermen. Sea Grant was there, helping to get Federal emergency grants to financially aid lobstermen and then supporting research to find the cause of the die-off. A series of projects investigated the effects of pesticides, the occurrence of lobster diseases and other possible causes. Although these factors may have led to a decline in lobsters, the research determined that bottom water warm temperatures linked to climate change was the principal driver of the mortalities.

• Sea Grant-funded research into the genetic stock structure of Atlantic, shortnose, and Gulf sturgeon has provided information on the stock structure, natal origin, and migration of sturgeon populations on the U.S. East Coast. This information has been used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to better inform decisions on listing or delisting specific populations based on distinct stocks under the Endangered Species Act and by Federal and state fisheries management agencies for stock specific management plans.

• A disease known as viral hemorrhagic septicemia or VHS had been causing mortality in economically important Great Lakes sportfish. Sea Grant supported innovative research that led to the qRT-PCR, a rapid and sensitive test for the presence of the virus (VHSV IVb). The test provided the fish health community with a diagnostic tool far more sensitive than cell culture techniques. Another study showed the efficacy of using iodine-based compounds to disinfect walleye eggs to prevent the introduction of the virus into aquaculture facilities.

• Research into genetic traits driven by size selection showed how fish populations such as silversides can evolve over several generations, favoring fish that are slow growers. This research, as reported in the journal Science, provided useful information for managers to consider when developing fisheries regulations. It suggested that regulations that enforce releasing smaller fish and keeping only larger ones may ultimately reduce the size at age through genetic selection.


Resilient Communities and Economies

• Storms, extreme weather and flooding events such as Superstorm Sandy have had devastating effects on NY communities. Joint research projects with other Sea Grant programs (i.e., CSAP or Coastal Storm Awareness Program) examined how people in areas affected by Sandy responded to storm warnings and how messaging before a life-threatening storm could be improved in the future. The threat of flash floods after storm events led to the development of the NYC Flood Watch program. Flood Watch has also become an important community-based tool for addressing the increasing occurrence of “Sunny-day” flooding events.

• A Sea Grant-funded research project captured the imagination and sparked debate by its proposal of using physical barriers or gates along three “choke points” surrounding NYC that could conceivably reduce the threat of devastating floods should seas rise dramatically. Researchers developed a computer modeling tool to support NYC managers considering such barriers as part of resilience planning efforts.

• Recent record-setting floods have left Lake Ontario shoreline communities unsure of how best to assess their flood risk and manage future flood events. Sea Grant-funded researchers have developed a suite of flood risk management tools for community planners and property owners which can provide actionable flood risk information for short-term emergency management at local scales.


More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and 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.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University in Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.