Connecticut Sea Grant

Students in the 2019 (Coastal Certificate classes ) gather after a graduation event Oct. 13 with Judy Preston, bottom center, who leads the program at CT Sea Grant.

New Britain YWCA summer campers and their teacher show off the stickers they received as part of the( Don't Trash Long Island Sound-Break the Single Use Plastic Habit campaign.)

Passengers walk toward the docks at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk after the July 26 ( On-the-Water Workshop aboard Spirit of the Sound. )

Sea Grant kayak fleet takes to the Mystic River on July 3 to test out a new ( aquaculture eco-tour developed in partnership with Adventure Mystic, Mystic Oysters & Connecticut Cultured Oysters.)

University of Delaware student Samuel Koeck, center, and Sacred Heart University students Jeffrey Young, right, and Adrian Nelson, second from left, work with Chris Hauser (in mini-excavator) to improve the ( living shoreline at Stratford Point on July 2 in a project jointly funded by CT and DE Sea Grants.)

Passengers get off the Volsunga IV on the dock at Outer Island during a June 7 ( On-the-Water Workshop in Branford ).

Maria Cruz, second from right, and her family look for clues during the ( Thames River Quest )at Fort Trumbull State Park on June 1 sponsored by CT Sea Grant and the Thames River Heritage Park.

Sea Grant participated in the ( 61st Essex Annual Shad Bake )on June 1 at the Connecticut River Museum.

Oyster farmer Jim Markow, right, looks out from his boat as it approaches the docks at the Noank Aquaculture Cooperative on May 16.

Students in the “Global One Health: U.S. and Irish Perspective” class at UConn see kelp harvested from J.P. Vellotti’s beds in Groton as part of a visit to the Noank Aquaculture Cooperative on May 16 organized by CT Sea Grant.

Volunteers from the Avalonia Land Conservancy move a shad bush into place for planting at the Dodge Paddock Beal Preserve in Stonington on May 3 as part of a restoration and living shoreline project with Connecticut Sea Grant. Juliana Barrett / Connecticut Sea Grant

Artist Kristian Brevik and biologist Dr. Andrea Bogomolni drew about 60 people for their April 17 talk, "Art, Science and Conservation: Saving the World's Great Whales and Other Marine Mammals." Photo courtesy of Milton Levin

CT Mosquito Management Coordinator Roger Wolfe talks about mosquito-borne diseases and effective prevention and control during a ( Climate Adaptation Academy/Rockfall Symposium. )

Dozens of people enjoyed the first day of spring March 20 at Hammonasset Beach State Park as the first ( Long Island Sound Blue Plan was announced.)

Don Murphy, chairman of the Stonington Shellfish Commission, lifts a water sample from one of the town's recreational shellfishing areas in the Mystic River at low tide on March 13. The ( contributions citizen scientists like him are being highlighted in a NOAA Sea Grant campaign.)

Karen Wynn of Guilford, left, looks at "They Came By Water," one of the pieces in the ("Crosscurrents" exhibit ) with Kam Ghaffari of East Lyme. Behind them is "Sea Form" another of the works in the show.

The team from the Science and Technology Magnet High School of Southeastern Connecticut won the (22nd Annual Quahog bowl. )

(The 15th annual gathering of the state's 18 municipal shellfish commissions) took place on Jan. 26 at The Sound School in New Haven.

Attorney Jane Stahl answers a question during the Jan. 25 (Climate Adaptation Academy workshop on road flooding,) attended by more than 80 municipal officials.

UConn student Annalisa Mudahy, left, talks with Prof. Thomas Dabrah about one of the works during the opening of the ("Crosscurrents" exhibit ) on Jan. 24.

Christopher Platts, left, curator of the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery at Avery Point, works with Kerry Smith, preparator for The Benton Museum at the Storrs campus, to adjust a sculpture for (the "Crosscurrents" exhibit opening on Jan. 24. )

Heading home for the holidays: a submarine passes by Ledge Light on its way to the Naval Submarine Base in Groton on Dec. 20.

Juliet Wong, center, and Jude Mascarenhas, right, sample dishes using kelp prepared by chef Jeff Trombetta. left, during (an event) at the Sheraton Hartford South on Dec. 13. Wong is the hotel's convertion services manager and Mascarenhas is its director of operations.

Nissrine Essafi, a student in the (Climate Corps class) taught by CT Sea Grant's Juliana Barrett and Bruce Hyde, shows a map of Charleston, S.C., during a presentation on Dec. 6 of a project about sea level rise impacts.

A submarine travels out of the mouth of the Thames River past Ledge Light, right and the UConn Avery Point lighthouse on a late November day.

Zoe Kendall, left, searches the rocky tidal area at UConn Avery Point with Claudia Koerting, academic assistant in marine sciences, in search of invasive algae that is part of a CT Sea Grant-funded research project. Kendel is part of the Marine Scholar program, which offers high school students the chance to learn about marine science at the campus .

Workers at Briarpatch Enterprises unload clams harvested from beds in Milford.(Creation of a plan ) to open the way for restoration of addtitional shellfish beds has been announced.

Juliet Wong, center, and Jude Mascarenhas, right, sample dishes using kelp prepared by chef Jeff Trombetta. left, during (an event) at the Sheraton Hartford South on Dec. 13. Wong is the hotel's convertion services manager and Mascarenhas is its director of operations.

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.

Kelp farmer J.P. Vellotti, left, hands packages of frozen kelp to Connecticut chefs during a (workshop ) for chefs.

CT Sea Grant's Anoushka Concepcion gives an overview of the seaweed industry during a (workshop) for kelp growers and chefs.

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.

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.

Tom Savoy of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection talks about his research on sturgeon during CTSG's (30th Anniversary Research Forum. )

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. )

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 )

Mystic Aquarium summer campers look for trash on the shoreline at Bluff Point State Park on Aug. 1 to help launch the (#DontTrashLISound campaign. ) 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. )

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 )

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 )

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.

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 )

A school of bunker, also known as menhaden, swim in Bridgeport harbor near Captain's Cove Marina on July 24.

Joseph Sarnelli of Marrakech Inc. holds a rack of dehydrated seaweed for a (Sea Grant testing project. )

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.

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.

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)

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.

The team from the Science and Technology Magnet High School of Southeastern Connecticut won the (22nd Annual Quahog bowl. )