Ahead of the Class: Florida Sea Grant Delivers Marine Education
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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

Community Education
Community education programs are less technical and thus more general in nature than other Florida Sea Grant (FSG) programs. Some call this "informal education," a lifelong process where individuals acquire awareness, attitudes, values, skills, and knowledge from daily experiences. FSG efforts may focus on the value of estuaries, how to be good citizens and protect the coastal environment, or the biological reasons a new fishery regulation is put in place. Methods may range from a presentation to community leaders at a Rotary or Kiwanis Club meeting, to participating in a television show on coastal conservation that reaches millions, to showing a condominium association the way to protect coastal dunes with sea oats.

Putting Sharks in Perspective
Sharks and their relatives, the skates and rays, are in serious worldwide decline from over-fishing and habitat destruction. Yet when a few highly publicized shark attacks on humans in the summer of 2002 created a national groundswell of public fear and speculation, the need to develop and distribute better information about the realities of sharks became apparent.

In direct response to a request from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Florida Sea Grant brought together more than 200 resource managers, educators and media representatives in a national conference, Sharks in Perspective: From Fear to Fascination. Conference presenters, some of the nation's leading experts on shark issues, helped defuse many highly charged issues by explaining basic biological attributes of sharks, precautions beach-goers could take to minimize the incidental shark bites that occur, and fishery management strategies in place to protect endangered and threatened shark species.

Understanding Florida Bay
Florida Bay, the estuary where fresh water from the Everglades mixes with the salty waters from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, has undergone significant degradation from manmade problems in the Everglades and its watershed. From 1998 to 2002, Florida Sea Grant managed an educational effort that reached more than five million residents of South Florida with information about dozens of ongoing NOAA research projects in the area. More than 65 bilingual project profiles were written and distributed; a resource directory, a quarterly newsletter and a series of Florida Bay Watch synthesis and analysis reports were also completed with partners. A low-power radio station and weekly radio programming reached Keys residents and visitors alike. The Florida Bay Project productions are archived at: www.floridabay.org.

Enriching Environmental Awareness
The Florida Master Naturalist Program, an award-winning adult education program developed by faculty from the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), offers courses in three subject areas: freshwater wetlands, coastal systems, and upland habitats. Florida Sea Grant provided substantial funds and technical assistance to the program's coastal systems module, a program that earned a national award for best video series in the 2003 Association for Communication Excellence competition. Since 2001, Master Naturalist has graduated nearly 2,000 people; many of these 'graduates' received additional instructor training and now provide training at the community level, with course offerings in 45 counties throughout Florida involving more than 85 organizations.

REDstart: Volunteers Restock Redfish
REDstart is a fishery stocking program involving sport fishermen, fishery biologists, local volunteers and others concerned about the sustainability of sport fish stocks in the Charlotte Harbor area, particularly redfish (Sciaenops ocellatus). Under the Florida Sea Grant umbrella, REDstart involves a dedicated group of citizen-volunteers, Lee County Cooperative Extension, the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge and the Fisheries Stock Enhancement Program (a partnership program between Mote Marine Laboratory and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission). It also involves an impressive line-up of fishing tournaments, the South Florida Water Management District and the City of Sanibel, which have all contributed to a $350,000 grow-out facility that has been built at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Marine Laboratory on Sanibel Island.

Improving Rip Current Understanding
Rip currents are a beachgoer's number one safety hazard. In Florida alone, they accounted for 33 deaths in 2003, and eight more during just one summer month in 2004. Florida Sea Grant county extension faculty have recently partnered with local and state emergency personnel to help educate beachgoers about the threat of rip currents, and what to do if they become caught in a current. Florida Sea Grant, in collaboration with eight other state Sea Grant programs in the U.S., produced and distributed thousands of rip current brochures and posters during 2002 and 2003. In 2004, Sea Grant was one of a group of NOAA agencies that, together with the U.S. Lifesaving Association, launched a nationwide rip current safety awareness campaign, supported with informational videos, signage, brochures, and the definitive website, http://www.ripcurrents.noaa.gov, featuring "Break the Grip of the Rip." Florida Sea Grant-funded researchers are also developing scientific models that may predict rip current formation. Early in 2004, Florida convened a national researcher's workshop in Jacksonville to give scientists the opportunity to explore the use of their predictive methodologies in surf zone forecasting.