Articles

• Farm raises boutique oysters:
  Project shows business potential for oyster growers
• Program lands charter-boat operators in classroom
• Extension trains leaders
  to market foods online
• Volunteers create habitat
  on Deer Island
• Ole Miss School of Law wins environmental moot court competition
• Deborah Jefferson joins Sea Grant
• John Grigsby marks 10 years
• Group aims to encourage climate-adaptation efforts
• Facilitators learn about resilience self-assessment
• Kay Bruening retires after 20 years
• Girl Scouts to grow oyster garden
• From the Director

Sea Briefs is a report on the results of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium.

Editor: Melissa Schneider

This newsletter is available in PDF format from:
masgc.org/seabriefs

MASGC supports applied, interdisciplinary marine science research, education and outreach efforts to foster the sustainable development and management of the Mississippi and Alabama coasts and nearshore ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico

Mississippi-Alabama
Sea Grant Consortium
703 East Beach Drive
Ocean Springs, MS 39564
Phone: 228-818-8838
E-mail: seabriefs@masgc.org
MASGP 011-012-01

There's little difference between sustainable development and a sustainable environment

Few think of the Department of Commerce (DOC) as a cabinet-level department with environmental responsibilities. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a DOC agency with many mandates to manage coastal and ocean resources in a sustainable way. Sea Grant is a relatively small NOAA program that serves as one of NOAA’s primary conduits for competitively funded university-based research and stakeholder engagement at the community level, extending regionally and nationally.

Last year during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, NOAA administration utilized Sea Grant’s reputation of being an honest broker of information and its long-standing professional and personal relationships. Sea Grant and its connections helped to negotiate a path forward in addressing some of the myriad of challenges facing Gulf Coast communities affected by the spill. We have always taken a great deal of satisfaction in our program’s accessibility, responsiveness and respect for partners. NOAA’s affirmation of these engagement qualities is a tribute to MASGC’s staff and the relationships they have built over time.

Sea Grant implements needs-based programs in four focus areas: resilience, sustainable communities, fisheries and habitats. I use these terms a lot. I less frequently go into detail describing specific programs within these focus areas because it is not something I can do in a few hundred words. What I can do is highlight just a few examples of our work to sustain our environment for future generations using economic development as a primary driver. In short, every program implemented by staff has an economic component underpinned by environmental stewardship.

Fisheries specialists work with every sector of fishing industries to reduce bycatch, improve fuel efficiency, provide a safer product for consumers and infuse innovation. Resilience specialists work to empower individuals and communities to better understand the consequences of natural hazards including sea-level rise and how homeowners and communities use planning to become more resilient. Impacts of resilience programs can be reduced to saving lives and money.

MASGC staff who focus on sustainable communities work with various programs, such as our Clean Marina Program, Certified Fishers Interested in Sustainable Harvest and Certified Coastal Nature Guides. These certification programs serve the dual roles of allowing these industries to be more competitive and better environmental stewards. MASGC staff implement many programs to minimize the impacts of stormwater runoff into our coastal streams, rivers, bays and bayous. We are proud partners with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, the Alabama Clean Water Partnership and the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program in these efforts. Our habitat specialists work to bring research innovation into the habitat restoration decision-making process. The MASGC team is responsible for creating one of the first living shorelines (an alternative to bulkheads) in Alabama and the Mobile Bay Oyster Gardening Program that teaches citizens how to be better environmental stewards while creating 4 acres of oyster habitat every year.

These few examples of MASGC supported programs lead me to believe there is not much difference between sustainable development and a sustainable environment. You cannot have one without the other.