Along with Currents—New York Sea Grant (NYSG)'s e-supplement to the once all-print-based NY Coastlines—our recently-merged flagship publication highlights news, events and other activities from our program's various research, extension and education endeavors throughout New York's marine and Great Lakes waters.

In this double issue, we'll take a look back at numerous activities from the second half of this year—including efforts related to stewardship, severe storms and climate change—as well as spotlight some of the program's research and extension on topics including harmful algal blooms and aquatic invasive species.

Late Fall - Early Winter 2014
NY Coastlines / Currents; Vol. 43, No. 3 & 4 / Vol. 3, No. 2


Spotlight: Severe Storms

Sandy: Science Behind the Storm, Two Years Later More>
Late October 2014 marked the two-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy’s landfall in the Metro NY region. Since then, there have been many positions taken by researchers and decision-makers alike on which management response route New York should take: one of resistance (precaution and prevention), resilience (bringing our communities back to their pre-storm state) or re-alignment (evolve and reconfigure what, how and when to rebuild).

"I cannot tell you when the next big one will be, but it will come," says NYSG-funded Stony Brook University storm surge expert Dr. Malcolm Bowman. "It's inevitable in the long term. And the sooner we come to that realization, the better."


Coastal Storms Awareness Program
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s $1.4M "Coastal Storm Awareness Program" (CSAP) is a multi-year partnership with Sea Grant programs in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that is intended to raise awareness of how severe weather is communicated to and within communities. Below are updates on several of the 10 funded projects, several of which are administered by each of the three Sea Grant programs. Additional information on CSAP can be found at www.nyseagrant.org/csap.

• New York:
  
  On Blog: Evaluating Pre-Sandy Evacuation Decision-Making Processes Among Long Beach Residents (Hofstra University) More>
  As one might expect, this social science project has much to do with the culture, language, and attitude of people making the profound and often emotional decision about whether or not to evacuate their home before a storm hits.
  
  
• Connecticut:
  
  Storm Warning: Why Do So Many People Ignore Evacuation Orders? (Yale University) More>
  When dangerous storms batter coastal communities, not all residents heed safety advisories. A new study by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication explores what factors shape these choices.
  
  Tweeting in the Tempest: What We're Learning From #Sandy (Mississippi State University) More>
  So far, investigators who have been identifying and linking up some 12 million tweets sent during Hurricane Sandy—cataloging them by frequency of use of term—have yielded some interesting insights for everyday people and emergency managers alike.
  
  
• New Jersey:
  
  On YouTube: Severe Storm Focus Group Study on Flood Risk and Uncertainty (Nature Nurture Center) More>
  Participants in several New Jersey counties are being accepted into focus groups and surveyed about their use of the various flood warning tools and products made available by the U.S. National Weather Service.
  
  Coastal Storm Risk Communication Study Led by Rutgers Faculty (Rutgers University) More>
  Rutgers professor Rachel Schwom is conducting interviews with emergency managers of coastal towns as part of this NOAA-Sea Grant risk communication study.

WWWhat's Trending: Be Weather-Ready, Year-Round More>
Whether the weather calls for rain, snow, strong winds or something else severe, one thing is for sure: Winging it is not an option. Here's what you need to know about these and other seasonal concerns from NOAA, Sea Grant, the National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and others.


Social Science & Severe Weather: Evaluating NOAA's Impact-based Warning Tool More>
As featured on the National Sea Grant Office's Web site, NYSG's Associate Director Dr. Kathy Bunting-Howarth is one of four social scientists from the Great Lakes Social Science Network who evaluated the effectiveness of some warnings put out by the National Weather Service. “Understanding how to best communicate about severe weather is imperative," says Bunting-Howarth.


Sea Grant Extension Exchange Offers Insights into Storm Recovery More>
More than two years after Hurricane Sandy made landfall in the northeast, the Sea Grant programs in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut are still dealing with storm recovery issues. Louisiana Sea Grant—whose specialists helped their communities in the aftermath of severe storms including Katrina and Rita—lend a helping hand.


Spotlight: Opportunities

Job: Seafood Safety and Technology Specialist More>
New York Sea Grant is soliciting applications for a Seafood Safety and Technology Specialist.  This specialist will develop, conduct, and evaluate educational programs in seafood technology in New York State, the region and the nation, as needed.The position—for which application will be accepted through mid-January 2015 before a review commences—will be located at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY. The position will remain open until filled.


Fellowships: To apply for any of the student opportunities below, visit www.nyseagrant.org/proposals. You can also keep tabs on such fellowships, as well as NYSG's requests for proposals, via our RSS news feed feature, www.nyseagrant.org/rss/fundingopportunities, which is updated as new opportunities become available.

2015 NOAA Fisheries—Sea Grant Fellowships in Marine Resource Economics and Population and Ecosystem Dynamics
Closes at: 5:00 PM Eastern on Thursday, January 29, 2015
The Graduate Fellowship Program awards at least two new PhD fellowships each year. One is for students who are interested in careers related to the development and implementation of quantitative methods for assessing the economics of the conservation and management of living marine resources. The other one highlights population dynamics of living marine resources and the development and implementation of quantitative methods for assessing their status.

2016 Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship
Closes at: 5:00PM Eastern on February 13, 2015
This program is for eligible students who have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources.

2015-16 Great Lake Commission—Sea Grant Fellowship
Closes at: 6:00 PM Eastern on February 27, 2015
This fellowship, which focuses on environmental quality and sustainable economic development in the Great Lakes region, is in its 16th year of being sponsored by the Great Lakes Commission, NOAA's National Sea Grant College Program and the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network.


Spotlight: Harmful Algal Blooms

Sea Grant Alerts Millions of U.S. Pet Owners of Potentially Lethal Toxins in NY Waters More>
After news of NYSG's "Harmful Algal Blooms and Dogs" publications was announced by the Associated Press in mid-September 2014, dozens of U.S. media outlets – daily papers, blogs magazines – followed suit, which extended the total potential reach to some 4 million people. And, thanks to reposts on Facebook and Twitter by NOAA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Cornell Cooperative Extension, over 350,000 social media users received the news in their various feeds. “It all goes back to our culture,” says author Dave MacNeill, a NYSG Fisheries Specialist from the State University of New York at Oswego. “Americans are devoted pet owners.”

Related Media:

• Toxic Algae Blooms Cause Illness, Death in Dogs (Cornell Chronicle, November 4, 2014) More>
  
  
• Dogs and Harmful Algal Blooms (Ducks Unlimited, November-December 2014) (pdf)

Spotlight: Education - Climate Change, Lake Learning

Covering Climate in the Classroom More>
"Understanding the relationship between weather and climate are important first steps to understanding larger-scale global climate change," says NYSG Hudson Estuary Specialist Nordica Holochuck, who tested this and other lesson plan concepts with educators during a mid-November workshop on climate change and its impacts. Holochuck has been working with partners from Cornell University and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Hudson River Estuary Program on this new series of teaching curricula designed to help middle school students understand climate and weather basics and explore climate change-related issues close to home in the Hudson River Valley. The teaching curricula fit into Learning Standards for New York State, Next Generation Learning Standards and the Common Core.


WWWhat's Trending: On YouTube—NOAA and Sea Grant on Being "Climate Resilient" More>
It's been quite a packed second-half of 2014 for discussions on the topic of climate change—from NOAA's monthly, quarterly and seasonal climate reports via its social media channels to the release of its new online Climate Resilience Toolkit to the Administration's assistance compiling an annual snapshot of major climate findings. NYSG also provides both an archive of its climate stories as well as a regular review of related content via its Facebook and Twitter platforms.


Hands-On Teacher Workshops a “Re-Sounding” Success More>
In Fall 2014, formal and informal educators from all along New York’s Long Island Sound coastline learned about the Sound's topics of marine debris, geology, and climate change through hands-on teacher workshops. Built into each event to engage teachers was a field trip component as well as a follow-up activity that can be linked to New York State Science Learning Standards.

• Also ... Q & A With Dr. K: How has the Sound Changed? More>
  At a recent New York Sea Grant-sponsored climate change teacher workshop, Dr. K. (the NOAA liaison to the EPA Long Island Sound Office) was asked a really interesting question about human caused changes in Long Island Sound.
  

On YouTube: Making a "Splash" With Great Lakes Education More>
This year, 109 teachers took part in five workshops that focused on Great Lakes watersheds, the Buffalo River, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.  Those teachers agreed to conduct stewardship activities with over 11,325 students from 4th grade through high school. "By using the 'Teach-the-Teacher' approach, we engage teachers in experiential learning and provide them with information and classroom-tested curriculum developed by Sea Grant and NOAA," says NYSG's Coastal Education Specialist Helen Domske.


Spotlight: Aquatic Invasive Species

NYSG Aquatic Invasive Species Education: By The Numbers More>
In 2014, aquatic invasive species (AIS) educators reached over 335,000 in New York via the "Clean and Safe Boat campaign," workshops and stewardship efforts and engaged audiences in the removal of invasives on 335 acres throughout New York State. New York Sea Grant's social media channels helped to deliver the AIS message to the masses.


Launch Stewards Serve Up Another Season of Educating Boaters on Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention More>
For a period of about 16 weeks beginning around Memorial Day, eight New York college students interested in environmental science careers worked with our program's Launch Steward initiative to demonstrate watercraft inspection at various sites along Lake Ontario's eastern shoreline. "The stewards provide this voluntary service for operators of motorized and non-motorized boats and share information on the easy-to-implement Clean, Drain, Dry method that boaters can use to help slow the spread of numerous aquatic invasive species," said New York Sea Grant Coastal Community Development Specialist Mary Penney, who serves as the Launch Steward Program Coordinator. 


On YouTube, On Air: Great Lakes Shipwreck Display Enhances Boating Education Program More>
Now in its eighth season, the New York Sea Grant-initiated "Discover Clean & Safe Boating" was recently named a top notch safety program by Great Lakes Boating magazine. The exhibit has now been seen by more than half-a-million boaters and potential boaters and counting at over 50 events in all of New York state's coastal regions, including this year's Empire Farm Days and even the New York State Fair. Included are a series of the program's informative 2014 television and radio clips and boating safety tips.


Long Island Pitches in for NY’s First Invasive Species Week More>
As reported by Newsday, The Long Island Press and other local media, volunteers at Long Island's Caumsett State Park stuffed two dozen bags with invasive plants in two days this past July during New York State's first-ever "Invasive Species Awareness Week." But pitching in is something you can do any day in your own backyard. Learn more on "What You Can Do" via The Long Island Sound Study and the New York Invasive Species Clearinghouse.


Spotlight: Outreach & Education

On YouTube: Two NY Sea Grant Educators Receive Awards at Great Lakes Network Meeting More>
New York Sea Grant's Coastal Community Development Specialist, Mary Penney, and Coastal Education Specialist, Helen Domske, are recipients of awards voted on by Sea Grant-ers from programs in the nine Great Lakes states. Also shared at this June 2014 Sea Grant conference was the latest regional news on invasive species partnerships as well as impacts from the harmful algae blooms that have been cropping up around the Great Lakes. 


When To Dredge in NY's Marine Waters? Workshop Summary Sheds Light More>
A recently-released NYSG publication summarizes the findings of a workshop focusing on the use of dredging “windows” for permitting navigation dredging projects in the inlets and bays of Long Island's south shore, the New York / New Jersey Harbor and Lower Hudson River. Windows refer to the optimal time frame in which dredging might be done while causing the least interference with the life cycle of commercially important marine species, notably fish.


Third Annual Seafood Throwdown Celebrates in a Red, Hot and Blue Style More>
Once their mystery ingredients were revealed for New York Sea Grant’s Third Annual Seafood Throwdown at “Celebrate Grown on Long Island Day" late this past summer, the chefs had a little time (and cash) for a mad dash to the onsite farmers market to buy other grown-on-Long Island ingredients to round out the on-the-spot dishes. “Fishermen have much in common with small farmers. We are working with fishing businesses to help establish Community Supported Fisheries programs similar to the more familiar Community Supported Agriculture," said New York Sea Grant's Fisheries Specialist Antoinette Clemetson.


Marine Science Experts Discuss Eel Aquaculture Partnership More>
Over 30 marine science experts, eel fishermen and marketing specialists from three countries and more than 10 research universities gathered in Maine this past October talk about the American Eel, a population seemingly in decline throughout its range from Greenland to South America. Restoring free-flowing rivers and unrestricted access to watersheds is key. "The idea is to begin forming a strategic partnership that would work together to better understand eel biology, fisheries, and to take steps to develop eel aquaculture," said NYSG's Fisheries Specialist Dave MacNeill.


WWWhat's Trending

Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance's City of Water Day: Making Urban Waterways Accessible to All More>
NYSG was on-hand at some of the sites in the New York Metro area this past summer during MWA's seventh annual "City of Water Day," a celebration of recreation on New York City's waterways and waterfronts. "City of Water Day is all about fun and recognizing the potential of the untapped resource that is our harbor," said MWA President and CEO Roland Lewis. Check out a photo gallery from July's festivities. There's also a regularly-updated interactive map of locations where free kayaking and canoeing will be offered around New York City next summer as well as a preview of what's to come for Spring 2015's MWA Annual Waterfront Conference.


Sea Grant Communications Network Devise Best Management Practices for Effective Use of Social Media More>
NYSG's Web Content Manager Paul C. Focazio moderated and presented sessions on "The Effective Use of Social Media" at Sea Grant Week in September 2014. Also during the once-every-two-years gathering of employees from the 33 coastal science programs throughout this National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration network, Sea Grant communications specialists took part in a citizen science project, "The Great Bay Scallop Search."


Making the Grade: Biennial Report to U.S. Congress Details 'The State of Sea Grant 2014' More>
In the last two years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Sea Grant College Programs across the country have created or sustained over 17,500 jobs and 6,500 businesses, trained 1,050 coastal communities on hazard resiliency, supported nearly 1,670 undergraduate and graduate students to develop a diverse, highly qualified workforce. Submitted to Congress every two years by the National Sea Grant Advisory Board (NSGAB), this report features detailed information about each program's education, research, and outreach achievements, as well as short- and long-term goals for future action. 


Currents—News Archive
In case you missed any of NYSG's news that we've been posting on our Web site between issues of NY Coastlines / Currents, below is a sampling of some of those stories.

You can come ashore anytime for the latest at www.nyseagrant.org/currents. And for even more Currents, check out the topics in the archives section of NYSG's Web site, www.nyseagrant.org/currentsarchive.


On YouTube: USGS's Oswego unveiling of its new research vessel, R/V Kaho More>
Several New York Sea Grant staffers were on-hand for an August 2014 ceremony at the Lake Ontario Event Center to celebrate the U.S. Geological Survey's newest research vessel, The R/V Kaho.


On Air: Local Waters Not At Risk More>
NYSG's Coastal Education Specialist Helen Domske spoke with WBEN 930 AM Radio in early August about recent water quality conerns for Lake Erie residents on both ends—in New York and Ohio.


On Air: Fish Stocking Program Boosting Lake Ontario's Viability More>
"As improvements in water quality occurred, a sea lamprey control program began and stocking of trout and salmon really took hold, creating a multimillion dollar industry and perhaps the best of any of the fisheries in the Great Lakes," said NYSG's Fisheries Specialist Dave MacNeill during a March 2014 WRVO Radio segment.


On Air:  New Survey Hopes to Boost Oswego County Tourism Industry More>
In early 2014, New York Sea Grant, SUNY Oswego's Office of Business and Community Relations and several other Oswego County groups launched a comprehensive survey pilot program to better understand the area's recreation and tourism industry.