Articles

• Adapting to shifting sands
• 5 Questions on Engagement
• MASGC shares in Gulf Guardian Award
• Program to certify nature-tour operators
• Bruening recognized for outstanding service
• Symposium to feature adaptive management
• Water-access committee nears end of mission
• Volunteers grow 45,000 oysters for restoration
• Potential end-users test tool for sea-level rise planning
• Fink joins Office of Coast Survey in Mobile
• Featured Publication
• From the Director

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

Editor: Melissa Schneider

Frontpage graphics: Matthew Capps

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 09-011-04

From the Director

The MASGC 2009- 2013 Strategic Plan was approved last November after completing an eight month planning process. The plan provides guidance to our program’s work in Healthy Coastal Ecosystems, Safe and Sustainable Seafood Supply, Sustainable Coastal Development and Hazard Resilience in Coastal Communities. Cross-cutting these four focus areas are marine science literacy, workforce development, climate adaptation, and regional collaboration and engagement. This plan is a milestone for Sea Grant in that it is the first time all 32 Sea Grant programs have aligned their local strategic plan to national priorities identified in the National Sea Grant Strategic Plan and NOAA’s Strategic Plan. The MASGC alignment process also took into account the newly released Gulf of Mexico Research Plan and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance Action Plan II. MASGC now has the opportunity and responsibility of implementing the plan.

Identifying partnership opportunities with other constituents at the local, state, regional or national level is just one advantage to a national alignment process. The marshalling of regional assets to address issues of importance to Alabama and Mississippi is already under way with examples, such as the newly created regional climate adaptation community of practice, coastal community resilience index, regional climate and resilience research program and NOAA extension, outreach and education engagement pilot. Each of these programs consists of strong teams of local, state, regional and national partners.

A second advantage of aligning Sea Grant program plans to a national framework is improvement in assessing Sea Grant’s performance as a national network. Each Sea Grant Strategic Plan contains goals, outcomes, measurable objectives, strategies and performance measures. We now have the structure in place to determine the long-term effectiveness of MASGC in addressing issues that affect living and doing business on the coast. A copy of our plan is available at masgc.org/
pdf/general/strategicplan.pdf.