Saving Seafood

Five SoMAS Research Projects Receive Funding from New York Sea Grant

January 21, 2025 –New York Sea Grant (NYSG) has awarded approximately $2.15 million to support 10 research projects — five of which are based at Stony Brook University — that will directly address multiple high-priority community, economic and environmental objectives.

The two-year 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 to benefit residents across a number of New York’s coastal geographies.

Below are the five Stony Brook research projects that will receive funding.

Lead PIs: Michael Doall, Associate Director for Bivalve Restoration, and Christopher Gobler, Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation, Distinguished Professor, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS)

To help ensure the future viability of shellfisheries in New York, researchers are conducting analyses to characterize the dynamics of past, present, and future temperature and dissolved oxygen in New York estuaries and identify ideal and inhibitory locations across New York for each species, allowing managers, fishers, and aquaculturists to prepare for future change.

Read the full article at Stony Brook University

Rep. Zeldin Announces $182,000 Grant for New York Sea Grant Program

October 19, 2018 — Congressman Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1), co-chair of the bipartisan Long Island Sound Caucus and member of the Congressional Shellfish Caucus, announced today that New York State Sea Grant has been awarded $182,000 in federal funding by the NOAA National Sea Grant Program. This funding will be used to support the seafood and aquaculture industry, as well as to foster relationships between the industry and next generation of fishermen and other seafood professionals. New York Sea Grant (NYSG) is headquartered at SUNY Stony Brook in New York’s First Congressional District.

Congressman Zeldin said, “New York Sea Grant is a critical program that provides resources to our local anglers and businesses, and this federal funding will help them carry out this important mission. Their vital work helps preserve and support our local fishing industry. With 90% of consumed American seafood imported, we must ensure Long Island fishermen and shellfish farmers have access to the resources they need to sustain and grow their businesses.”

Interim Director of the New York Sea Grant Program Katherine Bunting-Howarth JD PhD said, “NYSG is pleased to partner on a project that promotes sustainable and healthy seafood—seafood that is produced in a manner that protects the environment, invigorates the economy and provides a vital source of protein for our diets.”

National Sea Grant and this $182,000 grant was funded through $72.5 million in federal funding, which Congressman Zeldin helped secure by leading a bipartisan effort of 95 Members of Congress.

Read the full story at LongIsland.com

High-Tech Satellite Tags Give Unique View into the Behavior of King Salmon

November 28, 2017 — Cornell University, New York Sea Grant, and charter boat captains have teamed up on a high-tech mission to learn more about the behavior of King Salmon in the Lake Ontario ecosystem.  They’re already getting valuable information from pop-off satellite tags attached to the fish.

New York Sea Grant Fisheries and Ecosystem Health Specialist Jesse Lepak narrated a video that shows the tagging process with the help of charter captains.  It took about a month to tag 10 fish starting in early July.

“Once the fish are landed, they’re put in a Styrofoam cradle to help keep them calm, and lake water is pumped across their gills so they can  breathe.  The fish are then tagged with a monofilament harness that connects the tag to the fish.  The harness is crimped, and the excess monofilament is cut off.  The tagged fish is ready to go.”

 Read the full story at WAER