New York, NY, March 22, 2021 - Here in New York, Sea Grant funds a wide-range of research studies, extension activities and education efforts in both the State's Great Lakes and the marine waters — including the Hudson, St. Lawrence and Niagara Rivers, Lakes Ontario, Erie and Champlain, Long Island Sound, inland bays, Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Throughout the country, though, there is an even larger collection of vital work being done by the 34 university-based Sea Grant programs, each of them protecting and preserving America's coastlines and water resources.

If you're interested in learning more about what each of the respective Sea Grant programs has accomplished towards that goal, check out the latest Sea Grant report, "The State of Sea Grant: 2020 Biennial Report to Congress" (pdf).

Submitted to Congress every two years by the National Sea Grant Advisory Board (NSGAB), the report features detailed information about each program's education, research, and outreach achievements, as well as short- and long-term goals for future action.

Just as it has done in response to hurricanes, oil spills, and other environmental and economic challenges, Sea Grant in 2020 learned how to draw from past experiences to use its strengths to support its constituents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sea Grant’s credibility in scientific and disaster communications was an advantage to coastal and Great Lakes communities around the nation by providing online resources to enhance at-home STEM education, assisting the seafood industry and other coastal businesses with direct marketing of their products, navigating the complexities of federal and state assistance programs, and working quickly to find innovative ways to connect with and support their stakeholders.

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 10,404 jobs and 998 businesses, provided 1,224 resilience training events to coastal communities, and reached some 897,729 K-12 students.

Some 646 Sea Grant extension agents are stationed in communities across the country to advance understanding of coastal and fisheries science for communities and economies that are more resilient.

At least 252,047 volunteer hours were logged via Sea Grant-supported events and 1,825,793 acres of habitat restored or protected through network efforts.

With a federal investment in Sea Grant of $80 million in 2019, the collective efforts of these and other Sea Grant employees and funded investigators has resulted in a $412.4 million economic benefit.

All recommendations made in The State of Sea Grant 2018 were addressed. Sea Grant (1) supported the development, integration, and implementation of visions generated by interdisciplinary Network Visioning Teams; (2) continued enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) so that its workforce, audiences served, programming conducted, and materials produced are more representative; (3) expanded the Sea Grant evaluation process to include the National Sea Grant Office (NSGO) and the Sea Grant program overall; and (4) expanded its capacity and continued to build greater awareness of the network’s substantial role in coastal disaster and emergency preparedness as well as (5) its substantial role in aquaculture. 

This 36 page report outlines Sea Grant's many successes in a number of key coastal areas of focus, including (1) sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, (2) resilient communities and economies, (3) healthy coastal ecosystems, and (4) environmental literacy and workforce development.

More Info: Sea Grant Nation-wide

Congress established the National Sea Grant College Program in 1966 to bring practical scientific information from the nation’s universities to coastal businesses, citizens and all levels of government in order to capture the economic and social benefits of the nation’s oceans, coasts and Great Lakes in a sustainable way.

For over 50 years, Sea Grant research, extension, and education have been substantively engaging coastal and Great Lakes communities. These efforts align with Sea Grant’s mission, which is "to enhance the practical use and conservation of coastal, marine, and Great Lakes resources in order to create a sustainable economy and environment."

For more in-depth information about the work that Sea Grant does to protect America's waterways, check out the "Sea Grant Programs" drop-down menu at seagrant.noaa.gov. There, you'll find highlights from some of New York Sea Grant's more recent efforts.


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 Elmsford 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.