The National Sea Grant College and Program Act was signed into law in 1966
By Brooke Carney, National Sea Grant Office
For 50 years, Sea Grant has been on the ground in coastal communities across every coastal and Great Lakes state and Guam, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to listen to needs, respond with science, and transfer new information into products people can use. Looking ahead, connecting people to coastal science remains the core mission of Sea Grant and its individual state programs. More on "Where We Work" via the National Sea Grant College Program's Web site.
Pictured above (clockwise, l-r):
- The sun sets at Montauk on Long Island, New York. In May 2012, New York Sea Grant partnered with The U.S. Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary to host the third in a series of award-winning Safety-At-Sea trainings at the Hamptons hamlet's Coast Guard Station (Photo: Sharon O'Donovan/New York Sea Grant).
- Lake Erie in the winter. Ohio Sea Grant has worked for over 30 years to solve pressing environmental and economic issues facing Lake Erie (Photo: Frank Lichtkoppler, Ohio Sea Grant).
- The Elwha River restoration site. Washington Sea Grant has led a restoration monitoring program and has engaged in research to facilitate funding, coordinate outreach efforts, organize meetings and publish results (Photo: NOAA Fisheries).
- A view of Pago Bay from the University of Guam. Guam Sea Grant started Builders of a Better Bay to involve students in researching the effects of upland activities on the Pago Bay watershed (Photo: John Torres).
WASHINGTON, DC, Thursday, March 03, 2016 - March 2016 marks the start of Sea Grant’s 50th anniversary year. In honor of the 50th anniversary, Sea Grant is organizing a year of outreach efforts to highlight how Sea Grant has successfully been “putting science to work for America’s coastal communities” for 50 years.
The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness about the successful approach Sea Grant programs throughout the country use to apply research and community engagement tactics in order to bring about positive impacts to coastal communities in the areas of healthy coastal ecosystems, resilient communities and economies, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, and environmental literacy and workforce development.
The Sea Grant model of directly engaging community members to identify pressing information and research needs and then working with both scientists and the individuals who will put research to work has been honed and perfected over the last 50 years, leading to countless stories of positive impacts. Through the 50th anniversary campaign, Sea Grant aims to share these stories such that they may lead to more research, more partnerships, and ultimately, more positive impacts for coastal communities.
To focus outreach messages of the 50th anniversary year, Sea Grant is organizing its outreach into
monthly themes that each highlights an area of focus for the program.
- In March 2016, the First 50 Years will take a look back at the individuals and projects that have built the program as it is today.
- The Knauss fellowship, graduate education, “k to gray” education, and workforce development themes will all highlight a different aspect of Sea Grant’s education and training functions.
- Water resources, climate, and healthy coastal habitats are themes that will focus on Sea Grant’s work in sustaining and restoring healthy coastal ecosystems.
- The community resilience, sustainable development, aquaculture and fisheries, and coastal tourism themes will highlight how Sea Grant works to ensure resilient coastal communities and economies.
- The year will end in March 2017 with a month of looking ahead to the next 50 years of Sea Grant and how the program might evolve to meet new challenges using its finely tuned approach of community engagement paired with focused and applied research.
Throughout the year, Sea Grant will share stories of positive impacts in local communities through web, social media, and print outlets. Special events will be hosted and presentations made to highlight the program’s impacts. The Sea Grant network, Sea Grant Association, Sea Grant Advisory Board, and the National Sea Grant Office are all participating in a coordinated and diverse approach to carrying out the goals of this campaign.
More information on the
50th anniversary campaign via the National Sea Grant College Program (NSGCP), including a general 50th Anniversary "one-pager"/handout as well as a
"50th Stories" sub-page.
The NSGCP will gather and share related content
from the individual 33 Sea Grant programs on social media via its social media channels using the hashtag
#SeaGrant50:
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