New York Sea Grant's 2021 Success Stories

Law and Policy Fellows

New York Sea Grant’s New York Coastal Resilience Law and Policy Fellowship students develop information resources to support community resilience building while enhancing the students’ educational experience. ( PDF )

Environmental Justice Mapping Tools

New York Sea Grant is raising awareness of publicly-available mapping tools that help visualize environmental disparities and can aid in more equitable community planning efforts. ( PDF )

Cornell Climate Stewards

New York Sea Grant expertise is helping to increase the climate action capacity of communities across New York State through a new Climate Stewards training program. ( PDF )

Assessing Climate-Driven Migration

A Sea Grant-led effort is identifying the research needed to address climate-induced human migration in the Northeast, Great Lakes, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. ( PDF )

Renewable Energy, Climate Impact & Blue Economy

New York Sea Grant’s new Coastal Climate Specialist will engage stakeholders with extension programming focused on renewable energy, local climate change impacts, and NY’s blue economy. ( PDF )

Tracking NYC Coastal Flooding

Flood sensors are providing accurate and precise information about coastal flooding to support resilience building across all five boroughs of New York City. ( PDF )

NY’s Dynamic Shorelines: Hudson

New York Sea Grant and FEMA developed ArcGIS story map collections as tools to provide techniques to increase flood and erosion resilience in NY’s Hudson and Long Island regions. ( PDF )

NY’s Dynamic Shorelines: Long Island

New York Sea Grant and FEMA developed ArcGIS story map collections as tools to provide techniques to increase flood and erosion resilience in NY’s Hudson and Long Island regions. ( PDF )

Surf Hazards Awareness & Research

New York Sea Grant and MARACOOS have developed a network of professionals who collaborate to improve the forecasting, understanding, and prevention of surf-related hazards. ( PDF )

Beach & Boating Weather Hazards

New York Sea Grant developed bilingual resources to alert the beach-going and boating public to weather hazards that impact water-based recreation. ( PDF )

NY Seafood Summit

New York Sea Grant fosters active communication and synergistic collaboration to enhance the resilience and growth of the State’s seafood industry. ( PDF )

NY Seaweed Marketing & Processing

New York Sea Grant is responding to increasing interest in nutritious blue foods and the emergence of a seaweed industry in New York. ( PDF )

Meet Your Oyster Farmer

New York Sea Grant programming is actively engaging communities in support of New York’s aquaculture industry and its oyster farming small businesses. ( PDF )

Hard Clam Selective Breeding Program

Establishing a selective breeding program for hard clams will help to maximize the economic potential of the shellfish industry. ( PDF )

LI Sound: Sustainable & Resilient Communities

New York Sea Grant has added new extension specialists to the collaborative regional framework that is strengthening the environmental, social, and economic well-being of Long Island Sound communities. ( PDF )

LI Sound: Outreach Coordinator for NYC and Westchester County

New York City and Westchester County communities are now assisted by New York Sea Grant’s new Long Island Sound Study Outreach Coordinator. ( PDF )

LI Sound: Virtual Classroom

A New York Sea Grant-developed educational tool virtually connects teachers and students from classrooms to New York’s coastal habitats. ( PDF )

LI Sound: Stewardship Opportunities

The Community Science Long Island 2021 webinar series developed by New York Sea Grant and Seatuck, with local scientists and researchers, highlighted the value of getting involved in local resource monitoring. ( PDF )

Boating Education

New York Sea Grant partners with NY’s boating industry to deliver award-winning boating education messaging in diverse, user-friendly formats. ( PDF )

Lake Ontario Water Levels

New York Sea Grant is helping decision-makers respond to climate change impacts that are creating water level extremes in Lake Ontario, threatening the sustainability of waterfront communities. ( PDF )

Lake Sturgeon Conservation

New York Sea Grant is advancing education about a Threatened fish species with a new curriculum, supplemental teaching resources, workshops, and a virtual field trip opportunity. ( PDF )

NY’s Great Lakes Basin Small Grants

New York Sea Grant administers a small grants program in partnership with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to advance New York’s Great Lakes Basin Action Agenda priorities. ( PDF )

Projects Dashboard for NY’s Great Lakes

New York Sea Grant’s new interactive, online dashboard provides information on Great Lakes Basin Small Grant projects’ accomplishments and inspires future applications. ( PDF )

Native Plants Guide for NY’s Great Lakes Shorelines

New York Sea Grant responded to the strong need for educational materials on native plants in New York State with a new guide to more than 40 species and their ideal coastal locations. ( PDF )

Science Priority Planning for Lake Ontario

New York Sea Grant facilitates the prioritized planning of the Cooperative Science & Monitoring Initiative research on the Great Lakes to add to the critical understanding of the world’s most complex freshwater system. ( PDF )

Research: Chinook Salmon in the Great Lakes

This investigation lays the foundation for implementing a cost-efficient and accurate monitoring program for distinguishing between stocked and naturally reproduced Chinook salmon in Lake Ontario. ( PDF )

Research: HABs in LI Estuaries

Findings expand the understanding of an important knowledge gap, nitrogen loading, that may represent a significant obstacle in the planned remediation of Long Island's coastal waters from harmful algal blooms. ( PDF )

Research: Pharmaceuticals in New York Waters

Results find that advanced treatments, specifically activated carbon and ozonation, were most effective in removing pharmaceuticals from wastewater, which has become an issue of concern world-wide. ( PDF )

Research: Rip Current Awareness

This study provides invaluable insight into the behavioral responses when caught in a rip current and proved that virtual reality is a memorable and engaging way to convey hazard risk. ( PDF )

Research: Plastic Marine Debris Exposure in Eastern Oysters

Investigators identified candidate genes in eastern oysters responsive to plastic pollution exposure. results suggest a reconsideration of some standards of oyster restoration such as the use of plastic mesh bags of shell to rebuild reef structure. ( PDF )

Research: HABs in New York’s Coastal Zones

Under examination is the link between Harmful Algal Blooms and macroalgae aquaculture. Researchers are assessing the ability of cultivable macroalgae species to inhibit the growth of HAB species common to NY waters. The expected result is the development of seaweed cultivation best practices and guidance materials. ( PDF )

Research: Impacts of Microplastic Pollution

Being explored is the knowledge gap between plastic debris quantity and quality in the Great Lakes to effectively inform policy, mitigation, management strategies, and the design of targeted research. A simplified version of a model is online for both educational outreach and simple scenario testing. Work continues on chemical degradation, biofilm formation, toxicity and impact on ecosystem function of microplastics. ( PDF )

Research: NY's Aquaculture Operations for Oysters

Oyster aquaculture represents a sustainable, environmentally-friendly industry that contributes to the economic growth of local coastal communities. Many factors affect success in general and oyster aquaculture remains a risky business. This is particularly true for the eastern oyster where disease pressure represents a main factor affecting success. ( PDF )

Research: Enhancing Flood Resilience on Lake Ontario

The research team has finalized and validated an integrated modeling framework of Lake Ontario hydrology, water level management, and flood inundation that can be used to project future flood risk around the lake. ( PDF )