During Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrate and honor the contributions and achievements of our Hispanic UF/IFAS Extension marine agents, who are championing efforts to protect and enhance Florida’s vital marine resources, as well as innovating new inclusion-minded solutions and local insight to meet the challenges of Hispanic communities of Florida. Since 2017, Victor Blanco, a…

By: Tory Moore, 352-273-3566, torymoore@ufl.edu At the mention of climate change, most people think of melting ice and increasing global temperatures. While those are key elements of climate change, one of the lesser-known aspects is the direct impact on human health. Low-income communities, communities of color, rural communities and tribal and indigenous communities suffer the…

If coral reefs went extinct, much of our marine life would lose their essential ecosystems, millions of people would lose their main source of food, and the global economy would take a huge hit. Coral reefs are among the most ecologically rich and economically robust ecosystems on the planet. They are also among the most…

Florida Sea Grant bids a fond and optimistic farewell to Ms. Corina Guevara, our Student and Education Coordinator for the past seven years. Corina came to the United States from Guatemala in 2003, accompanying her husband, Christian, who was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue M.S. and then Ph.D. degrees from the University…

September is marked as Microplastics Awareness Month and September 18th is International Coastal Cleanup Day (ICC) for people around the world. As Floridians, coastal cleanups are essential to preserving the quality of life for not only humans, but for our aquatic friends as well. The Ocean Conservancy, a national nonprofit, started International Coastal Cleanup Day…

Gainesville, Fla. (September 14, 2021) – Have you ever caught and released a fish only to see it float  away on the surface? Each year millions of reef fish are discarded — and many die — due to  barotrauma, damage caused by the rapid expansion of gases in fish brought to the surface. Return ‘Em…

Two writers from Florida universities have been awarded $1,000 each as the 2021 recipients of the Florida Outdoors Writers Association scholarship for outdoor communicators. The winners are Mack White, a PhD candidate in Earth Systems Science at Florida International University in the Coastal Fisheries Research lab and Megan Cahill, an undergraduate at the University of…