Credit: Joel Davenport | New York & New Jersey Sea Grant Programs

— Published in The Long Island Times

Stony Brook, NY, July 19, 2020 - Area beachgoers and boaters are being reminded to stay socially distant this summer, thanks to a new social media campaign from the New York Sea Grant.

The #BEachSAFEly campaign is aimed at reminding people headed to the beaches to stay safe and have fun. Sea Grant programs will post a new social media graphic each week with specific safety messages for beachgoers.

Making sure beachgoers have sunscreen and sanitizer as well as making sure masks don’t become marine debris are two key reminders that will play out during the nine-week long campaign.

A related initiative offers saltwater and freshwater for-hire boats a series of decals to encourage compliance with boating-specific COVID-19 safety precautions. The decals will adhere to boat surfaces to note “Mask Required,” “Use Sanitizer,” “Wear It” with a life jacket symbol, and “Keep Personal Belongings Personal.” Others have a blank line to write a name with an erasable marker to designate person-specific areas aboard the vessel for each individual’s fishing pole or diving gear. There is no cost for the decals to qualified for-hire boating businesses.


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, University at 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. Our program also produces an occasional e-newsletter,"NOAA Sea Grant's Social Media Review," via its blog, www.nyseagrant.org/blog.