Program

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Meal provided

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Afternoon session only

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Networks combined

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Plated meal provided.

Welcoming Remarks: Dr. Jennifer Frum

To Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum

Departs hotel at 6 a.m., returns at 6 p.m. -  this will be a long day with approximately 1.5 hour drive to and from Sapelo and a 30-minute ferry ride. Join us on an exciting, full-day adventure to Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve. After touring the visitor center, we will embark on a 30-minute ferry ride across the Sapelo Sound where we will see dolphins, wading birds and more. On the island, we will take a bus tour with the staff from the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve, stopping at important sites to learn about the island’s rich history, culture and stewardship efforts. After lunch, we will meet partners in the Hog Hummock Community who work each day to preserve the island’s unique character before assisting the Reserve staff with a stewardship project.

Continental/ to-go options will be available for early departing excursions

Departs hotel at 7:45 a.m., returns 4:15 p.m. Spend a day focused on learning about mariculture and estuaries of the lowcountry! Tour Lowcountry Oyster Co., the largest-scale oyster mariculture operation in South Carolina located in the ACE Basin. The tour will include stops at the land-based operation facility, the seed nursery, a boat ride to lease site, and a tour of the gear manufacturing site. The site also features a small working waterfront, and SC Department of Natural Resources has a research station nearby. Following the tour, the group will head to lunch on St. Helena Island, which will be catered by Gullah Grub (vegetarian options are limited). The last stop will be be at Gullahman Oyster LLC, on St. Helena Island, where the group will learn about a wild oyster harvester’s transition into oyster mariculture, and how the community is deeply connected to marine resources.

• Oyster Aquaculture Technical Assistance and Outreach, Tom Bliss with Laura Solomon

• Marine Education Fellowship Program, Anne Lindsay with Micayla Cochran

*Session Canceled*

This session will be an interactive walk-through of data access/visualization technologies and methods that everyone can use, including geospatial and non-geospatial applications. It will cover proprietary/open source and web/desktop tech, and review some fundamental concepts that apply to all. Some relevant Sea Grant-related topics include marine debris, ecosystem management, shellfishing management, and art, and the audience includes extension, research, education, and outreach. With enough interest, it will go into API tech such as what an API is, why they’re great, how we use them. This will include ERDDAP/ OPeNDAP which folks are more familiar with. We will review modern database development and management methods that increase data access, and review the most valuable data repositories that scientists should upload their data to. The Digital Ocean portion of the 2024 AGU Ocean Sciences meeting was far larger than four years ago, with numerous presentations and posters relevant to Sea Grant activities. The ultimate goal is to help people save time and money in finding, accessing, visualizing and utilizing data, (which APIs and EDRDAP/OPenDAPs facilitate very well). 

This panel will be a ninety-minute program with four speakers. The overarching goal is to present managed retreat as a coastal management strategy and then dive into more specific legal aspects and challenges it may present. Additionally, the panel will touch on community resilience efforts more broadly, including implementing ordinances, regulatory and permitting issues, and tribal perspectives. Brianna Jordan, of Rhode Island Sea Grant, will provide a background on managed retreat— its benefits and the legal challenges presented by this type of coastal management strategy (i.e takings, exactions, etc.). The other panelists will provide different perspectives on unique aspects of coastal community resilience. Kai Hardy, with a background in living shoreline permitting, will discuss regulatory challenges faced by communities implementing resilient infrastructure projects in the face of sea level rise or other climate related effects. Melissa Daigle, of Louisiana Sea Grant, will provide insight into the dynamics of coastal resilience and tribal lands. Lastly, Scott Luis, from Georgia Sea Grant, will talk about local level ordinances and how communities can implement adaptation strategy through law. The session will conclude with time for discussion with the audience about legal and policy issues they are facing when working on coastal resilience projects. 

Sea Grant programs, collaborations, and outreach efforts have recently included opportunities to enhance carbon storage and/or reduce emissions. For example, coastal blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) are tidally-connected habitats that sequester carbon over time. BCEs are recognized in the U.S. Ocean Climate Action Plan and several state GHG inventories. Additionally, a white paper on BCE opportunities and challenges was developed for NOAA (Brodeur et al. 2022); the 2023 Blue Carbon Law Symposium co-hosted by Georgia and South Carolina Sea Grants; and a 2023 EPA report (The Blue Carbon Reservoirs from Maine to Long Island, NY) was co-authored by MIT Sea Grant. Sea Grant has an opportunity to build local to national leadership on carbon through education, inter-disciplinary research, and implementation strategies. This session will provide the opportunity for Sea Grant programs to (i) share recent or upcoming efforts in BCE and carbon reduction practices, (ii) identify partnership opportunities and information gaps that Sea Grant programs can address, (iii) build a new network of carbon practitioners across Sea Grant. This session is open to focus areas such as decarbonization of maritime fleets; reduction of the aquaculture carbon footprint, and other activities. Key outputs will include a set of recommendations to revise the National Sea Grant’s Blue Carbon website, and outline of the current carbon storage or reduction focus areas among Sea Grant programs. 

Misinformation is rampant in our society, across all media–social or otherwise. It has serious implications for Sea Grant as we try to provide the best available scientific information to our audiences, so they make well-informed decisions. These efforts can be slowed down by interested parties who “have heard something else” or have reasons to believe something different. Approaching misinformation in a discerning manner is where Sea Grant can unify rather than divide. With a diverse portfolio of topics, the Sea Grant liaisons encounter a wide variety of misinformation on everything from climate change to offshore wind energy to water quality to aquaculture, from audiences everywhere we work. This session will include a panel discussion featuring stories from the field and how Sea Grant specialists and partners have dealt with the misinformation they have experienced. We will also hear from session participants about the misinformation they have encountered and how they responded. Tips and resources will be shared, and we will use the session’s safe space to practice working through these often-difficult conversations in small groups. Handling misinformation can be extremely difficult, disheartening, and downright uncomfortable. But, with more tools on your utility belt and a little practice, participants will be more confident and better prepared for the next time—it’s not if, but when! 

The University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability and Sea Grant (UOGCIS/SG) pioneers community engagement strategies tailored to our unique status as a small island territory in the Pacific. Through initiatives like conservation corps and outreach programs, we aim for sustainability, equity, and prosperity for our island and region. Community efforts include expanding outreach to Tinian, our neighboring island in the CNMI. We educate students on sea turtle conservation through our outreach initiatives and further engage with them through our inaugural art contest. On Guam, we introduced the Tåsi Trailer, a mobile outreach classroom showcasing UOGCIS/SG projects such as the sea turtle monitoring project, Guam Restoration of Watersheds project, and Guam Green Growth (G3) programs. Since 2019, we've established four conservation corps: G3 Conservation Corps (G3CC), a five-month workforce development program; G3 Kupu Corps, a partnership with Kupu in Hawaii; G3 Local2030 Islands Network Conservation Corps, training members from neighboring Micronesia islands; and G3 Art Corps, engaging local artists to promote UN SDGs through murals. G3, Guam’s largest public-private partnership, addresses sustainability challenges and fosters a green economy. This presentation will highlight new concepts for outreach and community engagement implemented across the program. 

Ongoing work at Korea Sea Grant provides an exceptional example of international collaboration aimed at addressing large scale problems. Directors of Korea Sea Grant Centers and U.S. Sea Grant Programs determined that an important mutual priority for their programs is to address the massive problem of marine debris. Most recently, partnerships between Korea (Gyeonggi-Incheon) Sea Grant and their most natural geographic counterpart, Hawaiʻi and Guam Sea Grants, have collaborated to tackle the issue of marine debris through coastal modeling. Each Sea Grant brings a specific area of expertise to this numerical modeling project, and through this collaboration, each Sea Grant will be able to track marine debris in coastal areas with more refined accuracy. This modeling project addresses the needs of coastal communities in both countries, and provides an opportunity to share information and compare/contrast potential solutions to this immediate and drastic problem. Through this global network, KSG and US Sea Grant transfer information, ideas, experiences, and solutions to these shared issues to achieve outcomes that individual Sea Grants couldn’t accomplish alone. Additionally, the synergy of these working-level partnerships amplifies successful research, extension, and education for each partner. This session at the US Sea Grant Week 2024 would highlight the ongoing work at Korea Sea Grant and the importance of international collaboration by showcasing the success story of joint work between Korea and US Sea Grant around tackling the complex problem of marine debris. 

The principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice and Accessibility (DEIJA) are written into Sea Grant’s mission and vision. Yet, as we strive to continue and expand this work, the network faces pushback in higher education and direct attacks on some of the communities we are committed to serve. This workshop aims to equip participants to persevere in our DEIJA efforts. The key issues addressed in this session will cover: The current political climate impacting the advancement of DEIJA efforts in Sea Grant; How to navigate such structural barriers that make DEIJA work challenging like legislation, political climate and organizational culture; How to communicate about challenging issues, disarming political discussions, and how to respond when you receive push back using nonviolent communication and trauma-informed practices; and Exercises to strengthen relationships and provide resources in the DEIJA Community of Practice to continue this work in the long term and to not burn out. The workshop will be interactive and will include: Reviewing the current landscape we are working in Identifying our place both individually and organizationally in that landscape Teaching frameworks for productive communication Sharing and brainstorming solutions to challenging situations Practicing solutions through scenarios and role-playing exercises Participating in exercises to understand our personal needs and resources while doing this work and avoiding burnout (ie personal resourcing) By fostering discussion, problem-solving, and skill-building, this session aims to empower participants to move beyond identifying challenges to implementing effective solutions and strategies for sustained DEIJA progress within Sea Grant and beyond. 

This session will focus on the development of innovative tools and practical implementation of community resilience strategies, with a focus on ensuring equitable engagement. Drawing upon case studies from Sea Grant Extension Agents nationwide, with an emphasis on the Pacific Islands region of American Samoa and Hawaiʻi, the session will share processes and key insights learned in fostering community-driven resilience. Time will be reserved to interact with other Sea Grant Programs about their engagement practices, shared experiences, and lessons in the context of coastal resilience. For example, the American Samoa Sea Level Rise Viewer, addresses the heightened vulnerability to sea-level rise in the region following the 2009 Samoan tsunami- earthquake. Developed collaboratively, this interactive tool empowers chiefs and villages to assess local vulnerability by providing maps of flooding extent based on various sea level rise scenarios and future projections. The Viewer offers more accurate insights into potential flooding scenarios with the associated timeframes, enabling communities to plan effectively for resilience. Furthermore, the session will showcase Sea Grant Extension Agents' collaboration with state and county government agencies, such as the 5-year update to the Hawaiʻi Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report which includes efforts to integrate equity and justice. Additionally, Sea Grant's involvement in facilitating nature-based projects across the state, such as community-led restoration efforts and permitting on Oʻahu and Maui will be discussed as examples of community-led ecosystem restoration efforts. Extension Agents will participate in the panel, sharing valuable insights into collaborative approaches in engaging communities and enhancing resilience. 

Sea Grant’s economic data is compelling. It generates powerful stories and metrics that convey the richness of our work in the communities we serve. And now, after ~5 years of reporting informed by Sea Grant’s economic valuation guides and example digests, we reserve time for a refresher on economic valuation utility and to dive deeper into the ways we may use that information beyond reporting. This session will engage a panel in sharing Sea Grant network, Sea Grant Association, and National Sea Grant Office perspectives on the utility of economic valuation information, and will engage the audience in creative ways to broaden its use. We aim to provide all types of Sea Grant employees with a basic understanding of what economic valuation is, why we report it, and how it is and can be used. This session is for people who not only report these numbers, but have a sense of what we as a Sea Grant community and partners can benefit from those valuations. This work is an integral part of Sea Grant's mission and we hope this session can help to reinforce and strengthen its traction across the Sea Grant network. Join us as we engage the broader Sea Grant network in progress towards a fundamental part of the Sea Grant mission, and to hear from experts on broader applications. The session may yield increased understanding by the network into economic valuation, and understanding of co-benefits that can arise from expanding the use of economic valuation beyond reporting. 

The Sea Grant Network plays a significant and growing role in addressing flooding challenges faced by coastal communities. The 2018 visioning plan Community Response to Flooding: A 10 Year Vision for the National Sea Grant Program describes strategic priorities and actions intended to capitalize on Sea Grant’s flood-specific niche and support communities making locally relevant, science-based decisions to build flood resilience. More recently, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) made major investments ($492,000,000) in coastal inundation mapping, forecasting, models, and products. A national Coastal Inundation Community of Practice (CICoP) was conceptualized as part of the BIL efforts to ensure that coastal communities impacted by inundation are fully engaged in the process of developing and implementing new information and products; that this information and products are responsive to user needs; and that they effectively support on the ground decision making. This interactive session will revisit Sea Grant’s Community Response to Flooding visioning plan and explore opportunities for leveraging the newly formed CICoP to advance the plan’s objectives. Participants will also discuss existing communication pathways between Sea Grant professionals working on coastal inundation and related NOAA products and services, and opportunities for enhancement. Outcomes of this session will inform future activities and priorities of the CICoP. 

The session will open with a brief presentation of work by the Ad Hoc Professional Development (PD) Group to date and an overview of the draft “Sea Grant Network PD Framework” that the group has developed. The overview will highlight existing models of Sea Grant PD (e.g., academy, national virtual, regional in-person and virtual) and results from network PD surveys that have informed development of the framework. Following the overview, participants will engage in small group breakout sessions to provide feedback and further develop the various PD tracts in the Framework - new-to-SG, mid-career, leadership, topical. Participants will reconvene after the breakouts to report out and engage in a facilitated group discussion to identify elements of the PD Framework in need of future funding support and develop strategies for obtaining such support. The outcome of this session will be a draft PD framework (or vision) that will guide future requests and programming. The Sea Grant Ad Hoc PD group members represent all 6 SG functional networks and SGA leadership elements (communications, education, extension, fiscal, legal, research/fellowships, Networks Advisory Council [NAC] and Program Mission Committee [PMC]) and has met approximately monthly over the past two years. All are welcome to participate in the session and the Ad Hoc SG PD group is open to new members. Some PD priority topics that have emerged include: Mentoring Non-Advocacy Work / Life Balance and Wellness Accessibility / Compliance of Sea Grant material Administrative elements of Sea Grant (i.e. Omnibus preparation) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, Accessibility (DEIJA) and Traditional and Local Knowledge (TLK).

Indigenous aquaculture systems such as clam gardens and fish ponds offer proven approaches–tested over thousands of years–of integrated and adaptive systems capable of expanding local food production without deleterious ecological effects. There is growing evidence that these systems yield net-positive benefits to coastal environments, while also amplifying cultural and economic benefits to local coastal communities. In 2019, Washington Sea Grant, Hawai'i Sea Grant and Alaska Sea Grant came together to catalyze a cross-Pacific regional collaborative with the aim of integrating community engagement, research, outreach and education to advance sustainable Indigenous Aquaculture practices and enhance seafood production in the broader Pacific region. These efforts eventually grew into a thriving community of practice made up of Pacific-region Sea Grant offices that now also includes Guam, together with practitioners from Northwest Tribes and First Nations, Native Hawaiian and Indigenous communities from the Pacific, and organizations and universities. Through virtual and in-person gatherings the community of practice shares the living traditions from unique places to develop strong cross-cultural learning and support collective efforts. Sea Grant functions (education, research, extension/outreach, and communications), along with trusted, place-based partnerships, have been effective in mobilizing action with Indigenous stewards in traditional aquaculture systems. This session will share and build on lessons learned from the Cross-Pacific Indigenous Aquaculture Collaborative to explore opportunities to develop new connections and collaborations across the Sea Grant Network around Indigenous Aquaculture. As well, session participants will discuss strategic future directions and resources to sustain Sea Grant partnerships with Indigenous communities. We will combine case studies shared from Washington, Alaska, Hawaiʻi Sea Grant and Guam Programs with facilitated discussions to achieve session outcomes. 

This session will bring together Sea Grant extension, communication, educators, research, and legal professionals to discuss scaling capacity to support resilient coastal communities and economies, an emerging need and opportunity. Sea Grant is uniquely positioned to work with communities in preparing and planning for environmental and economic challenges of climate change, adaptation, and resilience. Resilience is increasingly becoming a core consideration influencing short and long-term programmatic activities, especially as coastal areas continue to grow, with more people at risk, and increasing pressures on coastal resources. Many Sea Grant programmatic areas are incorporating resilience, with topics that range from local adaptation through vulnerability assessments and updating code ordinances, to implementing nature-based infrastructure solutions, to engaging vulnerable populations, to the challenges of purchasing flood insurance. The session will start with a panel that includes the National Sea Grant Office and state programs (program directors and extension). The Panel will discuss efforts in resilience across planning, research, legal, and extension, and envision how to advance resilience capacity and expertise at the programmatic and national levels. After, breakout groups will focus on: how to build off previous efforts (for example, Sea Grant’s Resilient Coasts Initiative 2020, the Coastal Adaptation and Resilience program funds 2022, 2023), discussing internal capacity needs and scaling of Sea Grant’s role in building resilience from individual staff to regional to national programming, how to enhance resilience work in underserved and under-resourced communities, and how to provision staff to be effective resilience leaders. 

In recent years, violent acts against people of color, LGBTQ+, and faith-based communities have resulted in a proliferation of volunteer organizations that work on diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and access (DEIJA) topics (e.g. Black Marine Science, Out in STEM, etc.) In our own Sea Grant network as in other organizations, state and national level DEIJA advisory committees, working groups, and communities of practice have been established. Too often, however, DEIJA work is uncompensated labor done by people with marginalized identities, whose ability to advance in their workplaces may depend on the removal of systems of oppression in our organizations. Undervalued volunteerism quickly leads to burnout, and workplace dissatisfaction results in turnover and attrition of highly qualified employees. To combat this trend, we must elevate DEIJA work with adequate compensation, to reflect the values of our Sea Grant organization. Recently hired paid DEIJA staff at Oregon Sea Grant (ORSG) will discuss ORSG’s journey from volunteer DEIJA efforts to organizational support for compensating this work. They will discuss ORSG’s role and reach, describe the National Sea Grant DEIJA landscape, and share the challenges and lessons learned of being the first compensated DEIJA staff for ORSG. They will engage with the audience through facilitated activities in considering the “value” of DEIJA work, how to equitably distribute this labor, and how to maintain momentum and commitment while safeguarding work/life balance. Participants will leave prepared to advocate with their leadership for compensated DEIJA positions, and strategies to bring those positions to fruition. 

Addressing complex sustainability challenges requires innovative approaches. One such approach is the process of knowledge co-production, where individuals with diverse expertise collaborate to build shared understanding in support of transformative solutions. As part of the Sea Grant Special Issue in the journal Oceanography, a team of Sea Grant and other natural/social scientists and practitioners developed a knowledge co-production framework for conceptualizing their work, drawing from literature and professional experience. The next step in the co-design process is to bring together interested Sea Grant practitioners to further refine and adapt this concept. This interactive session will be dedicated to exploring, sharing, and refining the concept of knowledge co-production and the terminology we use. The discussion will cover the diversity of work across the Sea Grant network, including efforts by Extension agents/specialists, research coordinators, researchers, communicators, educators, and other professionals. The session will include a brief overview of the knowledge co-production process, an individual activity to apply the framework to personal experiences, and an interactive activity and discussion to explore the strengths of and possible improvements to the framework. The goal of this session is to build a shared understanding of the process by which we conduct our work within Sea Grant and develop common language used to describe the process. The outputs of the workshop will be shared with the Sea Grant network in a white paper, focused on the conceptualized process Sea Grant uses when conducting place-based, solution-focused work. 

The Sea Grant model can be applied internationally to facilitate collaboration around mutual priorities, ultimately providing benefit to both local and international communities. Global networks allow for transfer of information, ideas, experiences, and solutions around shared issues, and a global Sea Grant network can facilitate outcomes that individual Sea Grants can’t accomplish alone, as well as be a venue for sharing best practices. In this interactive session, US Sea Grant programs will have the opportunity to engage in active discussions with NOAA Research’s International Activities Office and other Sea Grants about opportunities, challenges, and ideas for international Sea Grant-related collaboration. While one of the goals of this session is to engage interested parties from US Sea Grants in international collaboration and to identify ways NOAA can assist with these collaborations, this session will also discuss more equitable and open methods of extending the US Sea Grant model to interested international partners. 

Join author Janisse Ray for a writing workshop to explore your relationship to the natural world and to think about your role in protecting it. Bring a journal or notebook to this inspiring workshop on nature and environmental writing. The session will include writing exercises, field notes, some attention to craft, and a Q&A time. Ray brings passion, humor, and authenticity to the teaching. Beginning writers are welcome. Leave with pieces of your own writing, handouts, and answers to your questions. 

Keynote Speaker: Janisse Ray

Janisse Ray is an award-winning American author who has been writing about the natural world for over 30 years. Her first book, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, is an environmental memoir that tells the story of growing up in the disappearing longleaf pine flatwoods. It was a New York Times Notable and is credited with bringing attention to a critically endangered ecosystem and starting a movement to restore this iconic landscape.

She has won an American Book Award, Pushcart Prize, Southern Booksellers Award, Southern Environmental Law Center Writing Award, and Eisenberg Award, among many others. Her books have been translated into Turkish, French, and Italian.

Ray leads workshops on writing, where she teaches not only writing technique but how to access the mysteries that make writing great. Find out more at her website, janisseray.com or subscribe to her free Substack newsletter, “Trackless Wild.”