$1.3M Sea Grant Studies on NY Environment, Economies, Communities

Stony Brook, NY, February 3, 2022 — New York Sea Grant (NYSG) has awarded approximately $1.3 million to support eight research projects — four of which are based at Stony Brook University — that will directly address multiple high-priority community, economic and environmental objectives.

The projects — administered by NYSG and funded through the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sea Grant’s federal parent agency, represent a range of stakeholder-driven topics across a number of New York’s coastal geographies.

“We are really excited about the eight new timely and impactful projects, selected through the 2022-23 biennial competitive research program,” said NYSG director Dr. Becky Shuford. “These projects will make valuable contributions to the now 50-year legacy of NYSG-supported, science-based knowledge of benefit to New York State’s coastal communities.”

Research includes studies to: (a) Identify heat and disease resistant strains of bay scallops; (b) Evaluate the potential of seagrasses for carbon sequestration; (c) Investigate opportunities for the aquaculture industry such as cultivation of seaweeds, cold storage of shellfish larvae, and perceptions of ecosystem benefits of oysters; (d) Document Hudson River American shad populations under changing environmental conditions.

The other four projects in this research suite, which are led by principal investigators at Hofstra University, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, University at Buffalo and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, focus on Long Island waters, New York Harbor and Lake Ontario and spotlight issues including rip currents education, shellfish aquaculture, oyster restoration and fish spawning habitat. For more, read the complete NYSG press release.

Since 1971, New York Sea Grant, a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York, has been one of 34 university-based programs under NOAA's National Sea Grant College Program. More at www.nyseagrant.org.