Maggie Favretti of the Alliance for the Mystic River Watershed, left, Kelly Kerrigan of the town of Stratford, center, and Jessica Canizares of The Nature Conservancy, answer questions about their grant funding successes during a Sustainable & Resilient Communities Program funding workshop in New Haven on March 31 attended by about 45 people.Students in the "Life Between the Tides" activity examine a hermit crab model during the Long Island Sound Schools Network Symposium at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk on March. 14.James Flynn, left, and Jake Dittes dissect an oyster in the CTSG "Foundations of Shellfish Farming" class.Scientists will be studying salt marshes, declining flounder species, water quality and many other topics with the largest investment in Long Island Sound research.Goshen Cove in Waterford is an estuarine embayment, one of the priority coastal habitats CTSG works to manage and protect along with local, state and federal partners.Sustainable & Resilient Communities team from NY and CT gathers in Rye, NY, with NY & CT Sea Grant and EPA officials to announce awards to 15 LIS communities and new round of resilience funding.Municipal officials and land trust representatives from CT and NY learn about a rain garden project in Hamden on Dec. 5 as part of the 2024 Annual Sustainable and Resilient Communities Workshop.Clayton McGoldrick, CTSG lab technician, holds a beaker of kelp sorus tissue that is releasing spores in the mobile seaweed lab at the UConn Avery Point campus.High School in the Community students, from left, Eden Torres, Isaiah Sosa and Dominic Moore met with Judy Benson, Wrack Lines editor, to receive copies of the magazine where their essays about nature and climate change appear.Volunteers plant garlic at the FRESH community gardens in New London at an Oct. 26 event supported by the CTSG sustainable & resilient communities intiative.Researchers collect water samples at the Bride Brook marsh at Rocky Neck State Park as part of a CTSG-funded project.A HUGE THANK YOU to the 23 volunteers who picked up 30 pounds of trash at Ocean Beach Park in New London on International Coastal Cleanup Day Sept. 21! A special nod to Elia Gerena, 2nd from left, who recruited his friends and family to help out as part of his Bar Mitzvah project! What a great finale to the 2024 #DontTrashLISound campaign!!Teachers examine marine life through microscopes during the Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher workshop at Hammonasset Beach State Park on Sept. 14.Kayakers and rowers paddle from the shores of UConn Avery Point during the Messing About in Boats event for students, faculty and staff Sept. 13 sponsored by the CT NERR, CT Sea Grant, the John Gardner Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association and the campus.The Moriello family of Bethany joined 25 other volunteers who collected 64 pounds of trash at Hammonassett Beach State Park to kick off the 2024 #DontTrashLISound campaign on Aug. 17.Zach Gordon, left, regional aquaculture extension liaison, and Kristen Jabanoski, science communications specialist at the NOAA Milford lab, talk to visitors about shellfish at the CTSG-Milford lab booth at the Milford Oyster Festival on Aug. 17.Researchers lower a probe into Beebe Cove in Groton at sunrise on Aug. 13 as part of a CTSG-funded project studying whether eelgrass and oysters can live symbiotically.UConn Professor Beth Lawrence, right, talks to a member of her research team while other team members collect gas samples and record data for a CTSG-funded project at Great Meadows Marsh in Stratford on Aug. 12Henry Choong, one of 20 researchers who took part in a CTSG-funded Rapid Assessment Survey of invasive species in Long Island Sound Aug. 6-7, looks at two invasive hydroids he found in a Branford marina.Hannah Roby, a oceanography master's degree student, dissects a black sea bass on July 26 for CTSG-funded research into the diets of black sea bass becoming prevalent in Long Island Sound with rising water temperatures.Yale Professor Gaboury Benoit removes trash collected at a boom he placed on the Mill River in New Haven as part of CTSG-funded research into the plastic litter cycle.The cargo ship Frauke carries the first shipment of nacelles (generators) for the Revolution Wind project to State Pier in New London on July 10, 2024.Lots of shellfish lovers stayed cool on July 13 while harvesting clams at Garvan Point beach at the annual Clam Dig sponsored by the Madison Shellfish Commission.Dancers perform at the Sliver by the River celebration in Bridgeport in May, which included participation by CT Sea Grant Sustainable & Resilient Communities Extension Educator Deb Abibou.Waterford High School student Caydin Martinez, left, shows two of the approximately 370 Waterford elementary school students how to measure the depth of marsh sediment during Marine Science Day at Waterford Town Beach on June 3.Some of the 10 people who joined the CT Trails Day hike at Haley Farm State Park in Groton start the June 1 event co-led by the CT National Estuarine Research Reserve and CT Sea Grant.CTSG's Mike Gilman, 2nd row, 5th from left; and Zach Gordon, 3rd row, 3rd from left, were among those attending the Sea Grant Aquaculture Academy in New Hampshire April 8-11.Students at the Drop-In Learning Center in New London show sea creature puppets they made during an outreach activity led by CTSG staff during school vacation week.CTSG extension educators Owen Placido, second from right, and Sarah Schechter, not shown, led a talk about the formation of Connecticut's beaches to a group at the solar eclipse viewing event at Camp Harkness in Waterford on April 8.Pianist Hea Youn Chung, left, and Molly James, a UConn marine sciences doctoral candidate, led a performance and discussion of their "Harmony of Nature II" project on March 27. Their project received a CT Sea Grant Arts Suppport Award.Fisherman John Genther, center, received a Meritorious Service Award from the Coast Guard for saving a man's life less than two weeks after taking first aid training hosted by CTSG.Lauren Barrett, left, Kayla Mladinich Poole, center, and Kristen Williams, CTSG-sponsored members of the 2024 class of the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, gather at a NOAA Hydrolab exhibit during program orientation in Silver Spring, MD, this winter.Michael Thomas of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and Alissa Dragan, supervising environmental analyst at the state Department of Agriculture Bureau of Aquaculture, discuss ways to improve access to shellfishing grounds for his and other tribes in Connecticut after his talk at the Annual Gathering of Shellfish Commissions on Feb. 3.Some of the 80 students who participated in the the LEARN Sustainers of the Sound program supported by CT Sea Grant look from the beach at the Avery Point campus during a scavenger hunt activity. The Dec. 13 program included fish painting and a lesson on Long Island Sound.Ulysses Hammond, interim executive director of CT Port Authority, points to components of the South Fork wind farm being stage at State Pier in New London during a Nov. 20 tour of the site for about 15 people, including CTSG Director Sylvain De Guise, third from left, and other CTSG staff members.Volunteer Bobbi Brown, left, shows Anthony Leggitt, 5, how to cast a fishing rod during the CT Sea Grant-Groundwork Bridgeport "Let's Go Fishing" event Aug. 19 on Knowlton Park on the Pequonnock River.Fishermen in immersion suits practice getting into a life raft during Safety and Survival training in October 2022.

Student symposium helps nurture budding marine scientists

March 20, 2025

Posters filled with graphs, charts and images interspersed with text told stories of locally significant marine science topics: impacts of non-point source pollution on local rivers, lobster shell disease, invasive species and microplastics in Long Island Sound and beach cleanups.

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2025 Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher program flier

Seeking a few good educators to be LIS Mentor Teachers

February 24, 2025

We are looking for teams of two K-12 teachers to join the Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher program! Do you teach about Long Island Sound, watersheds, and/or the ocean in your classroom? Would you like to help others do the same? We’d love to have you as part of our team!

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Cover of "The State and Economic Contribution of Connecticut's Aquaculture Sector"

Report explores state and economic contribution of CT aquaculture

January 3, 2025

“The State and Economic Contribution of Connecticut’s Aquaculture Sector,” has been published by CT Sea Grant. The document details the current status and trends from 2016 to 2013 in shellfish, finfish and seaweed aquaculture as well as hydroponic, aquaponic and marine ornamental production.

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UConn researcher Beth Lawrence, left, collects data in Great Meadows Marsh in Stratford, CT, for an earlier project.

Major research investment focuses on key aspects of LIS ecosystem

December 11, 2024

In the largest Long Island Sound research award in the history of the collaboration between CTSG, NYSG and the Long Island Sound Study, 13 projects have been selected that will improve understanding of factors impacting several fish species, shellfish, water quality and restoration of salt marshes.

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Cover of Fall-Winter 2024-2025 issue of Wrack Lines magazine with photos of six youth writers