Saving Seafood

RWU Law, URI among institutions to share $1.2M grant to help local aquaculture

October 16, 2019 — The Marine Affairs Institute at Roger Williams University School of Law and Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Program, housed at the law school, has been included in a $1.2 million grant to promote the growth of southern New England shellfish aquaculture, as part of a National Sea Grant initiative.

The University of Rhode Island will also be a partner in the program, which will aim to promote collaborative aquaculture projects in the region using science-based tools and information, while educating the public, news media and decision-makers about the social, economic and environmental effects of aquaculture.

The project will be led by Connecticut Sea Grant and the University of Connecticut. In addition to RWU Law and URI, partners include Rhode Island Sea Grant; Woods Hole Sea Grant; the New England Aquarium; the UConn Center for Land Use Education and Research; the National Marine Fisheries Service office in Milford, Conn.; Clark University; and the George Perkins Marsh Institute.

Read the full story at the Providence Business News

How A Tough New England Coral May Help Its Tropical Cousins

August 26, 2019 — Koty Sharp emerges from the ocean off the coast of Fort Wetherill, Rhode Island, and walks onto the rocky beach. She’s wearing scuba gear and carrying a red mesh bag. Sharp is an ecologist at Roger Williams University in nearby Bristol, and the red bag holds a treasure.

She opens it for inspection. “This what a coral colony looks like, here in Rhode Island,” says Sharp, gazing fondly into the bag. Inside there are about 30 small gray rocks, each about the size of a quarter. The rocks appear to be covered with snot.

“It’s not as charismatic as tropical corals, we will definitely accept that,” says Sharp. “But these stand to tell us a lot of basics about corals.”

Read the full story at WBUR

DENNIS NIXON: Cuts in grants, programs would hurt oceans

June 17, 2017 — On May 31, President Donald Trump proclaimed June 2017 “National Oceans Month,” in recognition of “the mighty oceans and their extraordinary resources.”

His declaration calls U.S. fisheries resources “among the most valuable in the world,” and calls for more fully exploring the ocean and developing its economy. He cites the importance of expanding offshore energy resources — traditional as well as renewable — and increasing seafood exports to reduce America’s $13 billion seafood trade deficit.

This announcement is stunning to those of us involved in marine research and education, coming as it does a week after the administration’s budget proposal to slash the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by 16 percent, or nearly $1 billion. NOAA, as its name implies, is responsible for the research, management, and support for the ocean exploration and economic development that the president calls for, and many of the areas specifically targeted for cuts would reduce U.S. capacity in offshore energy and seafood production.

Speaking from personal experience as the director of Rhode Island Sea Grant — which, as part of the NOAA budget, would be “terminated” along with the $73 million National Sea Grant College Program that encompasses 33 state programs — I can say that one such example is the development of the nation’s first offshore wind farm in the waters off Block Island.

At the behest of the state, and with partners at the Coastal Resources Management Council and with research and outreach efforts at the University of Rhode Island, Roger Williams University and beyond, Rhode Island Sea Grant and the URI Coastal Resources Center helped lead a team that amassed seafloor mapping, scientific and engineering studies and stakeholder input to determine the best location for the turbines.

Without programs like Sea Grant and the coastal council — also targeted for cuts — the nation’s ambitious proposals for offshore wind farms would still be in the blueprint stage, marred by controversies over siting and user conflicts.

In a recent House Appropriations Committee hearing, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross echoed the president’s concern regarding the seafood trade deficit. “The whole fishing scene is very intriguing to me in that I’m obsessed with the problem that we have a $13 billion trade deficit in fish and fish products. … With all the water surrounding us and all the lakes and rivers, it seems weird that we should have a deficit, so that’s one of the areas we’re going to be focusing very much on,” Ross said, according to a report in E&E News.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal