Connecticut Sea Grant

Bluff Point State Park in Groton and the lower Connecticut River are being proposed for nomination as a National Estuarine Research Reserve. (more info )
Crew members Liz Sistare, center, and Rodrigo Pinto walk out the lines to unfurl the mainsail on the Onrust during CT Sea Grant's 30th anniversary on-the-water workshop on Oct. 5.(more info )
Kelp farmer J.P. Vellotti, left, hands packages of frozen kelp to Connecticut chefs during workshop for chefs. (more info )
CT Sea Grant's Anoushka Concepcion gives an overview of the seaweed industry to kelp growers and chefs.(more info )
Judy Preston, Long Island Sound outreach coordinator for Sea Grant, talks about the Long Island Sound estuary during a habitat walk with members of the Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society on Sept. 9. (more info )
Kelp farmer J.P. Vellotti, left, hands packages of frozen kelp to Connecticut chefs during workshop for chefs. (more info )
Kate Masury, program director for the nonprofit group Eating with the Ecosystem, holds a porgy (also called scup) during a demonstration and food tasting at the Lyme Farmers Market on Sept. 8. (more info )
Tom Savoy of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection talks about his research on sturgeon during CTSG's 30th Anniversary Research Forum. (more info )
UConn student Mia Dupuis, left, hands a sediment core sample from Little Narragansett Bay to graduate student Quinne Murphy for a Sea Grant-funded research project. (more info )
Egrets and gulls are among Long Island Sound wildlife providing great material for our photo contest. (more info )
CT Sea Grant staff show reusable water bottles and mugs with "Break the single-use plastic habit" stickers that are part of the Please #DontTrashLISound campaign. (more info )
Mystic Aquarium summer campers look for trash on the shoreline at Bluff Point State Park on Aug. 1 to help launch the #DontTrashLISound campaign. (more info ) Judy Preston / Connecticut Sea Grant
Mystic Aquarium summer camper Alex Mynuk shows a plastic spoon he collected during a clean-up at Bluff Point State Park to launch the #DontTrashLISound campaign. (more info )
Joe Gilbert, second from right, tells a group of visitors about his scallop fishing vessel during an open house at Stonington Town Dock on July 28. (more info )
Long Island Soundkeeper Bill Lucey releases a manta trawl net in Fairfield harbor as part of a pilot project to find the extent of microplastics in the Sound. Learn about the campaign to quit the single-use plastic habit: (more info )
Sailors and seabirds: student sailors practice their skills around a channel marker that serves as a roost for cormorants in Bridgeport harbor. Send your favorite Long Island Sound images to our photo contest: (more info )
Joseph Sarnelli of Marrakech Inc. holds a rack of dehydrated seaweed for a Sea Grant testing project. (more info )
A school of bunker, also known as menhaden, swim in Bridgeport harbor near Captain's Cove Marina on July 24.
Sun sets over Hatchetts Point in Old Lyme as fishermen head in for the night. Send your photos of scenes of the Sound to our photo contest starting Aug. 20. (more info )
Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven is a favorite spot to cool off and enjoy scenic Long Island Sound. Send your photos of scenes of the Sound to our photo contest starting Aug. 20. (more info )
Gaboury Benoit, professor of environmental chemistry at Yale University, frees a log stuck in the self-regulating tide gates in the West River in New Haven. With a CT Sea Grant research grant, Benoit is studying whether heavy metal contaminants are being captured in sediments north of the self-regulating tide gates installed in 2003. The research could demonstrate the ecosystem services being performed when more natural tidal flows are restored.
"They Came By Water," a sculptural installation by artists Diane Barceló and Ashby Carlisle funded by a 2017 Arts Support Award from CT Sea Grant, is on display in the lobby of the Marine Sciences Building at UConn Avery Point. Copper wire spells words associated with water in languages used during the whaling era in New London. (more info )
Anoushka Concepcion gets a line strung with gracilaria ready to deploy in Norwalk harbor for a testing project for the edible seaweed.
Danielle Buttermore, hatchery manager at Noank Aquaculture Co-op, places a tray of seed oysters into the growing tank on June 27. Creation of the hatchery is one of results of the Connecticut Shellfish Initiative's work since 2014. (more info)
J.P. Vellotti harvests kelp grown near Pine Island in Groton on June 22. This is the first crop from the site as he and other growers work to develop processing and marketing networks for this sea vegetable. (more info )
A fishermen reels in a porgy off the rocks at UConn Avery Point on June 20. Porgy have become more abundant in Long Island Sound in recent years due to warming waters. Read about porgy and other local seafood in the new issue of (Wrack Lines).
Clearing the channel: Nancy Balcom of CT Sea Grant, right, shovels out a tidal channel at Dodge Paddock in Stonington on June 18 as UConn student Adelaine McCloe, center, and recent UConn graduate Helena Ives, left, remove rocks. The Avalonia Land Conservancy preserve was becoming blocked, cutting off tidal flows into a recently restored marsh.
Juliana Barrett of CT Sea Grant anchors a plastic sheet placed over a former garden area at Dodge Paddock in Stonington on June 18. The plastic will remain through the summer to prepare the site for native grasses.
Essex Rotary Club volunteers prepare fillets during the annual Shad Bake at the Connecticut River Museum on June 2.
Shad fisherman John Smoloski shines a beam as he prepares to set his gill net on the Connecticut River in May.
The Thames River Heritage Park water taxi brought boatloads of passengers between Fort Trumbull, Fort Griswold and the downtown New London waterfront park for the Thames River Quest on June 2. (more info )
Thames River Quest participants look for clues at the ferry landing at Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park. (more info )
Thames River Quest participants look for clues at Fort Trumbull State Park. (more info )
Commercial fishermen practice getting into a life raft during safety and survival training sponsored by CT Sea Grant and Fishing Partnership Support Services. (more info)
Commercial fishermen take part in training to become certified drill conductors who run on-board safety drills. The fishing vessel Emma & Maria was used for the training. (more info)
Students from Ella T. Grasso Southeastern Technical High School worked with CT Sea Grant to plant beach grass as Esker Point Beach in Groton on April. 23. Photo: Juliana Barrett
Juliana Barrett of CT Sea Grant leads an exercise to develop an outreach project at a conference on coastal ocean acidification in the North Atlantic April 10-12. Forty academic, goverment and industry scientists attended. (more info)
Scientists at a coastal ocean acidification conference participate in an exercise to develop outreach projects.(more info)
J.P. Vellotti, left, pulls a kelp seed line out of the water during a tour of his kelp farm off Pine Island in Groton for the Connecticut Aquaculture Permitting Workgroup on March 28
Panelists answer questions about using low-impact development practices to control stormwater in a March 22 UConn Climate Adaptation Academy symposium. (more info)
Dunes like these at Waterford Town Beach have helped protect against erosion from the four nor'easters this March.
Rockweed, a common brown algae on the Connecticut coast, covers rocks along the shore at UConn Avery Point.
Jake Madden collects a water sample from the Mystic Waterwater Treatment Plant for a testing project that could open new areas to shellfish farming. (more info)
Ed Stilwagen, owner of Atlantic Clam Farms, shows some of the clams harvested from beds he leases in Greenwich harbor.
The shell of a hard clam, a native species that is a main aquaculture crop in Connecticut, lies on a beach amid slipper shells.
Brant swim off the rocky shore at UConn Avery Point in late February.
J.P. Vellotti unwinds seaweed seed string from a spool onto a long line anchored in an area he's leasing off Pine Island in Groton. He expects to harvest the kelp, planted on Feb. 9, in May.
The first-place Quahog Bowl team from Ledyard High School, left, and the second-place team from Glastonbury High both applaud Ledyard's win in the Feb. 3 contest at UConn Avery Point. (more info)
Early results of research on sand lance larva show they are particularly sensitive to higher levels of carbon dioxide. (more info)
About 40 members of shellfish commissions from Greenwich to Stonington attended the 14th annual meeting of shellfish commissions hosted by CT Sea Grant Jan. 13 at The Sound School in New Haven. (more info)
Roger Bowgen of the Greenwich Shellfish Commission, far left, asks a question to Tessa Getchis, aquaculture extension specialist, during CT Sea Grant's annual meeting of shellfish commissions on Jan. 13 in New Haven. (more info)
Winter marsh: Salt marshes like those at the Barn Island Wildlife Management Area in Stonington were among coastal habitats assessed in new research on resiliency. (more info)
A pair of hooded mergansers swims in the Thames River in New London harbor on a late December day.
Solstice sailing: A sailboat passes Ledge Light on Dec. 21 offshore from the UConn Avery Point campus.
Attorney Edward Cassella talks about the legal challenges facing towns with roads flooded by sea level rise during the "Legal Issues in the Age of Climate Adaptation II" workshop on Dec. 15. (more info)
A flock of brant gather on the rocks offshore from CT Sea Grant offices.
Attorney Jane Stahl, center, leads a group discussion about legal issues of flood and erosion control structures during a "Legal Issues in the Age of Climate Adaptation II" workshop on Dec. 15.(more info)
The R/V Lowell Weicker, used by CT Sea Grant researchers, is docked at the UConn Avery Point campus on a snowy December day.
Anoushka Concepcion, top left, CTSG assistant aquaculture extension educator, leads a meeting of federal and state regulators with Long Island Sound kelp farmers on Dec. 14 to streamline gear permitting issues. (more info)
A nuclear-powered submarine accompanied by a tug boat enters the Thames River, just offshore from CT Sea Grant offices, on Dec. 11, heading for the Naval base in Groton.
November sunset at UConn Avery Point, where CT Sea Grant is based.
A key resource available to Sea Grant researchers at UConn’s Avery Point campus, the R/V Connecticut is readied for a 24-hour Long Island Sound mapping cruise Nov.28, the first research trip since the vessel was expanded 14.5 feet.
Oysters harvested from Long Island Sound are brought to the docks Norm Bloom & Son in Norwalk on Nov. 15.
Juliana Barrett of CT Sea Grant, left, talks with Beth Sullivan of the Avalonia Land Conservancy about the living shoreline at the Dodge Paddock preserve in Stonington.
UConn marine sciences students search for invasive Asian shore crabs for a research project. Guides and fact sheets about Long Island Sound's invasive species are available from Sea Grant.
Kelp grows in a tidal area near the Sea Grant offices at UConn Avery Point. Sea Grant's work has helped with the establishment of four commercial kelp farms in Long Island Sound.
Royal measure: a royal gramma being raised in an CT Sea Grant-funded aquaculture project is sized.
Riley Mazula and Alex Picardi visited Sea Grant's booth at Avery Point's 50th anniversary celebration Oct. 15.
Cheryl Cappioli, left, is one of 37 students completing Coastal Certificate training by Long Island Sound Sea Grant's Judy Preston.
Teachers at a Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher workshop at Hammonasset Beach State Park on Sept. 26 drag in a seine net as Diana Payne, Sea Grant educator coordinator, looks on.
Kristin DeRosia-Banick of the state Bureau of Aquaculture checks a cage of oysters before lowering it into the Mystic River on Sept. 14 for a testing project.
Recently retired CT Sea Grant Communications Director Margaret "Peg" Van Patten, right , receives Communications Service Award at national extension and communications leaders meeting in Astoria, OR, Oct. 4-6. Next to her is Associate Director Nancy Balcom.
Juliana Barrett, associate extension educator at Sea Grant, teaches a new class at the UConn Storrs campus called, "Climate Resilience and Adaptation: Municipal Policy and Planning."
Research Coordinator Syma Ebbin, center, works with students in the EcoHusky Club planting a rain garden at UConn Avery Point on Sept. 15.
Extension Educator Tessa Getchis examines seed oysters with Jill Plant of Connecticut Cultured Oysters.
Associate Director Nancy Balcom teaches a Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points class to 20 seafood handlers Sept. 12-14.
Prof. Penny Vlahos, left, works with marine sciences graduate students Allison Byrd, center, and Allie Staniec on samples of water collected from Long Island Sound during a Sea Grant-funded research cruise on Aug. 24.
UConn Prof. Zofia Baumann shows one of the silversides from Mumford Cove that will be dissected and studied in her lab at the Avery Point campus as part of a Sea Grant-funded research project into how mercury levels affect the growth of fish and bivalves.
Gunnar Hansen, a UConn marine sciences graduate student, holds one of the clams he dug from Mumford Cove in Groton in August for a Sea Grant-funded research project on how mercury levels affect the growth of fish and bivalves.
Anoushka Concepcion, left, assistant aquaculture extension educator at CT Sea Grant, package seaweed samples grown at a site in Branford before they are sent to a state testing lab. The work is part of a project to establish water quality and other parameters for commercial seaweed farms.
UCONN scientists work to predict and prevent possible outbreaks of illness from Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Photo Credit: CDC, more info)
Connecticut Beaches and Dunes: A Hazard Guide for Coastal Property Owners (more info)
UCONN researchers work with teachers and students in Connecticut to improve coastal literacy (m ore info)
Kate Masury, program director for the nonprofit group Eating with the Ecosystem, holds a porgy (also called scup) during a demonstration and food tasting at the Lyme Farmers Market on Sept. 8. (more info )

Pubic meeting planned on proposal for national estuarine reserve site

October 18, 2018

After considering four sites in Long Island Sound, the group has agreed to propose that a hybrid site comprised of areas in the lower Connecticut River and Bluff Point State Park in Groton be nominated as a NERR site.

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Food Boat bringing local seafood to New Haven Farmers Market

October 15, 2018

Eating with the Ecosystem will host the third in a series of Food Boat cooking demonstrations and tastings at the New Haven Farmers Market on Oct. 24.

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Sailing ship becomes classroom for Sea Grant experts, researchers

October 9, 2018

Leaders of partner organizations, town officials and individual stakeholders joined Connecticut Sea Grant on Oct. 5 for an on-the-water workshop aboard the Onrust, a replica of the vessel Dutch explorer Adraien Block sailed into Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River in the early 1600s.

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Farmers, chefs confer about moving local kelp into the mainstream

September 26, 2018

Fueled by forkfuls of kelp and root vegetable salad, chefs brainstormed alongside current and prospective kelp growers about how to get more Connecticut sea vegetables into home and restaurant kitchens.

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CTSG’s Judy Preston interviewed on radio show focusing on plastics

September 14, 2018

The Connecticut Public Radio show “Where We Live” recently aired, “Swimming in Plastic,” focusing on the problem of plastics in the environment.

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Public access show highlights CT Sea Grant’s work of past 30 years

September 14, 2018

“Community Buzz” show about Connecticut Sea Grant and its 30th anniversary celebration is being broadcast on SEC-TV Channel 12 for Thames Valley and Comcast subscribers.

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Habitat walk, paint-out bring artists to Avery Point

September 14, 2018

Nine members of the Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society visited UConn Avery Point on Sept. 9 at the invitation of Connecticut Sea Grant. The event is part of Sea Grant’s efforts to reach out to new groups during its 30th anniversary year celebration.

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Food Boat event introduces market-goers to scup

September 13, 2018

“If you end up liking our sample,” said Kate Masury, program director for the nonprofit group Eating With the Ecosystem, “go out and ask for it at your local market. By eating these local species, you’re helping reduce carbon emissions and you’re supporting local fishermen.”

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Sea Grant-supported science is showcased in daylong forum

September 11, 2018

The keynote speaker at CTSG’s 30th Anniversary Research Forum used an anecdote about a Norwalk bridge project to show how the work of scientists provides the foundation environmental advocates need to persuade lawmakers to take actions that benefit Long Island Sound and its watershed.

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Huffington Post video about kelp farming features UConn Prof. Yarish

September 6, 2018

Titled “American Fishermen Need a Little Kelp,” a new video published by The Huffington Post features UConn Prof. Charles Yarish, who has been supported by Connecticut Sea Grant over three decades on projects to foster seaweed farming in Long Island Sound.

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