Published for Stony Brook University's E-news Site, Happenings

Stony Brook, NY, October 2, 2019 - The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and New York Sea Grant (NYSG) will distribute more than $74,000 in funding for several recreational fishing projects that will benefit New York’s communities. The grants will be administered by NYSG’s Marine Fisheries Specialist Antoinette Clemetson, who is based at Stony Brook University.

The funding comes from the sale of New York State’s Marine and Coastal District license plates and will support six initiatives to help educate students, enhance fishing access for people of all abilities, and improve fisheries data collection to enable more New Yorkers to enjoy the state’s diverse marine resources.



The grant program is funded with $25 from the annual fee charged for the state’s Marine and Coastal District of New York license plate, which features the Montauk Lighthouse and striped bass. The grants promote marine sport fishing, increase participation in marine recreational angling, increase public awareness and appreciation of marine and estuarine natural resources, encourage conservation of marine fisheries resources, and promote research and increased knowledge of the state’s marine and estuarine natural resources.


A small grant to the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County Marine Program will help connect some 300 students with Long Island’s coastal waters and, hopefully, an interest in protecting, conserving and restoring those resources. Credit: Ali Stevens / CCE Suffolk County

More information on ordering a Marine and Coastal District of New York plate can be found at the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Updates on the program are provided via Facebook.

Thirty-one applications were submitted and evaluated by a panel of reviewers familiar with the Atlantic region and who work with Sea Grant College Programs, Cooperative Extension Network, and fisheries management. The Board selected six projects to fund in this first cycle, which will be completed over the next 12 months.

Read more about the projects.

More Info: Marine Small Grants

This project was supported by a partnership between New York Sea Grant, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Marine and Coastal District of New York Conservation, Education, and Research Grants Program.

Funding is supported from the Marine and Coastal District License Plate which is administered by the Marine and Coastal District of New York Conservation, Education and Research Board, and authorized through NYS Environmental Conservation Law Article 13, Title 5 Section 13-0503. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Stony Brook University or New York Sea Grant.


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, 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.