Ahead of the Class: Florida Sea Grant Delivers Marine Education
Contents >>
| Home: Investing in Coastal and Marine Education | Community Education | Industry Education | Scientific and Professional Education |
| Agency and Organization Education | Formal K-12 Education | Youth Education |
Florida Sea Grant provides the agencies that have jurisdiction over coastal resources
with up-to-date information through a variety of channels, including direct input
to scientists at these organizations based on the latest findings (even before they are
published); service on committees of the federal fishery management councils; testimony to legislative
subcommittees; or presentations to county commissions. (Florida Sea Grant)
Florida has a large number of local, state and federal agencies that focus on the coast. In fact, with half of the counties in Florida on the coast, even county commissions get heavily involved in debating issues relating to the coast. Federal agencies such as NOAA Fisheries and two federal fishery management councils that cover the state, the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and regional (within Florida) organizations such as the West Coast Inland Navigation District are regular partners with Florida Sea Grant to conduct educational programs or receive the latest scientific information.
Providing Science to Management
Florida Sea Grant researchers and extension faculty provide yeoman's service to fisheries management agencies, often delivering research results before they appear in scientific journals. During 2000-02, 10 members of Sea Grant's funded research or extension faculty were serving on a scientific advisory committee of either the Gulf of Mexico or South Atlantic fishery management councils. Sea Grant input was directly responsible for establishing the parameters that led to a conclusion that the yellowtail snapper fishery was healthy and not overfished, which had been the contention of outside reviewers. Sea Grant researchers serving on council committees at that time included Deb Murie, Bill Lindberg and George Burgess from the University of Florida; Wally Milon of the University of Central Florida; Felicia Coleman and Chris Koenig of Florida State University; Nelson Ehrhardt of the University of Miami; and Mark Butler of Old Dominion University.
Marine economist Chuck Adams and Monroe County marine extension agent Doug Gregory are Sea
Grant extension faculty that serve on the scientific and statistical committees of both the
Gulf and South Atlantic fisheries management councils. Adams chairs a technical task force for
the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, which is currently developing a fishery
profile and draft management plan to guide the recreational and commercial harvest of sheepshead in the
Gulf of Mexico. Gregory also serves on a joint council coastal pelagics stock assessment panel,
and is often asked to serve on teams to review stock assessments in other fisheries the councils
manage. (Florida Sea Grant)
Although resource managers and scientists have become increasingly alarmed by the overfishing of shark populations in the northwest Atlantic, NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement has lacked effective tools to enforce protective measures. A team of researchers led by Mahmood Shivji, associate professor at Nova Southeastern University and director of the Guy Harvey Research Institute, has developed a method of DNA analysis of shark parts that puts teeth in NOAA's efforts to identify and prosecute U.S. fishing vessels suspected of catching and selling protected shark species.
In one recent period, Shivji's group helped federal prosecutors confirm the presence of prohibited species in four of five investigations, resulting in fines of more than $100,000. In one case, a fish dealer suspected of selling white shark filets was exonerated when the analysis showed the products were obtained from legal species. The team's research has received extensive international media coverage in Science; Nature; the New York Times; National Geographic Today; New Zealand radio; NBC TV's "EcoWatch" program and AAAS radio, among others. Thus, Florida Sea Grantsupported science has led not only to direct application, but has gone a long way in educating the public about the seriousness and need for fisheries management.
Clean Marinas and Clean Boatyards
There are nearly 2,000 marinas operating in Florida today and hundreds of thousands of boaters using Florida's waters every day, all contributing to constant and growing pressure on the state's fragile aquatic and marine ecosystems. Clean water is essential to the multi-billion dollar boating industry. Florida Sea Grant has responded by partnering with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Marine Industries Association of Florida, U.S. Coast Guard, and International Marina Institute to form the Clean Boating Partnership, the original Clean Marina program in the nation. The partnership's goal is preventing pollution in Florida's waterways by providing incentives to marinas, boatyards and related facilities that adopt environmental best management practices.
A rapid and reliable DNA test developed by team of scientists led by Mahmood Shivji of Nova
Southeastern University can identify shark species from fins and other body parts, which
in turn helps fisheries managers enforce protective measures for overfished shark
populations. Shivji's work has fostered close cooperation between Sea Grant funded
research and NOAA Fisheries. (NOAA Fisheries)
Waterways and Boating Management
Coastal communities face a daunting yet critical challenge: how to balance the phenomenal growth of the recreational boating population while maintaining and restoring fragile natural environments. To help manage the challenge, Florida Sea Grant has been providing local decision makers with innovative research that forms the basis of new management policies and programs.
The Clean Boating Partnership estimates that the Clean Marina program has, in its few short years of
existence, prevented over 600,000 pounds of glass, 1.5 million pounds of paper, 3.7 million
pounds of aluminum, 5.6 million gallons of oil, and more than 1 million gallons of antifreeze
from entering Florida's waters. Florida Sea Grant, a founding member of the partnership, produced a
series of six PSAs on clean boating practices that were widely distributed to Florida television
stations and cable networks. (Eric Zamora, UF/IFAS)
The Sea Grant team has worked with the West Coast Inland Navigation district, the Town of Bonita Bay, Collier County, the City of Naples, the City of Marco Island, the Charlotte County Marine Advisory Committee, and environmental, boating, and citizen associations of Manatee and Sarasota counties.
One resource manager praised the results of a Sea Grant inventory of his county's local boating infrastructure because it enabled his office to objectively measure boating pressures on local waterways, prioritize projects for dredging and signage, and more efficiently obtain state and federal permits.
One of the program's most significant results to date has been legislation enacted to improve the onerous dredging process. In 2002, the Florida legislature authorized a pilot program in two Florida counties that allowed general waterway and canal dredging permits if the counties followed scientific guidelines established in earlier Sea Grant research. The end result is environmentally friendly permitting at lower cost in less time.
With the West Coast Inland Navigation District, Sea Grant published the popular two-volume Historical Geography of Southwest Florida Waterways to provide a historical perspective on the development of Florida's coastal communities. In 2003, both volumes were converted to CD format and placed online with the University of South Florida's Water Atlas Program.
Florida Sea Grant continues to develop its waterways and boating management program into a nationally
recognized effort. In 2003, it was recognized as the top Sea Grant extension program in the
country, receiving the Outstanding Program Award from the Assembly of Sea Grant Extension
Program Leaders. Accepting the award from National Sea Grant director Ron Baird (right) are, from left, Florida Sea
Grant's extension program leader Mike Spranger, director Jim Cato, and boating specialist Bob Swett. (Florida Sea Grant)
Florida Sea Grant conducted the outreach and extension component of the NOAA Coastal Storms Initiative (CSI) Florida pilot project, located along the northeast coast of Florida within the St. Johns River watershed. CSI initiatives unite the efforts of local, state, and federal organizations to help coastal communities plan for, respond to, and recover from coastal storms. Florida Sea Grant's role was to support the nine research projects in the Florida pilot by developing an outreach and extension network and identifying needed training and technical assistance so project partners could take full advantage of CSI information. Pilot coordinator Don Jackson of Sea Grant organized a series of network constituent meetings that helped fully engage communities and provide project leaders with community feedback.
SEACOOS
Why observe the oceans? A significant proportion of our world's population and economic activity depend on the sea, yet we have a limited understanding of the complexity and interconnectivity of the ocean and marine ecosystems. Learning more about the forces at work could lead to improved marine transportation and coastal storm preparedness; reduced public health problems associated with contaminated seafood, rip currents and harmful algal blooms; and, enhanced efforts to protect ocean habitats and endangered species.
Florida Sea Grant is a founding partner in the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System,
known as SEACOOS, a network which provides reliable information on the coastal oceans for people who live and
work in the Southeast. Jay Law, a technician in the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science,
performs maintenance on an ocean monitoring buoy deployed in the Gulf of Mexico by the Coastal Ocean
Monitoring and Prediction System at USF, also a SEACOOS partner. (Chris Simoniello, Florida Sea Grant)
Careful crafting of these products is an essential part of SEACOOS. Florida Sea Grant and cooperating extension programs from Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina have taken the lead in creating an outreach and education work group to coordinate this activity. Their goal is to provide information products according to the needs of key users. County extension faculty conduct needs assessments with their clientele to determine how the application of real-time observational systems can benefit their daily activities. In 2004, Florida Sea Grant co-sponsored a national ocean observation system workshop in South Carolina attended by over 60 educators to develop a plan for incorporating ocean observation data into national and state educational standards.
Florida Sea Grant also employs a SEACOOS outreach coordinator, Chris Simoniello, to deliver educational programs that increase the awareness and potential use of SEACOOS products and services, and to develop educational materials and products. Simoniello contributes to the outreach and education portion of the SEACOOS web site (right).
