Genevieve Bernatchez of the NOAA Milford Lab, left, and Sarah Bodenstein of CTSG used a live oyster display at the Milford Oyster Festival Aug. 15 to show how these shellfish help keep Long Island Sound clean.Connecticut Association of Agriculture Educators member Jon Russo gets a laugh from Clayton McGoldrick of CTSG as he pretends to bite into a mouthful of kelp after a lesson for educators in the mobile aquaculture lab at Vernon High School on Aug. 11.Connecticut Association of Agriculture Educators members learn how to dissect an oyster from Tessa Getchis of CTSG during a program at Vernon High School Aug. 11.Kudos to Brendon Albertson, his son Soki and all the other volunteers who collected 102 pounds of trash at Ft. Trumbull State Park and the New London neighborhood on Aug. 8 to kick off the 2026 #DontTrashLISound campaign!The diamondback terrapin, the world's only turtle that lives in brackish water including CT's salt marshes, was celebrated July 18 at Hammonassett Beach State Park with events that included turtle puppet making offered by CT Sea Grant.Madison's Annual Clam Dig June 20 at Garvan point brought out dozens of new and experienced shellfishers on a beautiful day!CT Sea Grant joined with the CT NEER and CT DEEP in hosting Celebrate Rocky Neck State Park events for CT Trails Day on June 6.Teachers use a transect to measure marsh grass during an activity at the "Field-based Ecology" Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher workshop at Hammonasset Beach State Park on May 8.Erica Casper, left, and Syma Ebbin welcomed many visitors at the CT Sea Grant table at the Thames River Heritage Park Partner Fair at Fort Trumbull State Park in New London on May 9.Three children coloring sea creature muralPanel discussions, presentations and networking made for a worthwhile day at the 3rd Annual Sustainable and Resilient Communities Funding Workshop at Gateway Community College in New Haven on March 31.Students from the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action in the Bronx were one of 15 USA Blue Schools and Long Island Sound Schools Network schools from CT, NY and NJ presenting projects at the 2nd annual Student Symposium at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk on March 27.The CTSG Aquaculture Team participated in Agriculture Day at the CT State Capitol March 18. Part of the Connecticut Agriculture Week celebration!Assistant Extension Educator Zachary Gordon gives a lesson to participants in the Blue Economy Education Resources Workshop on Feb. 28 about how kelp is grown in Connecticut Sea Grant's mobile seaweed labSome of the 35 students in the 2026 Foundations of Shellfish Farming class work on a group exercise to select a hypothetical site for an aquaculture farm, along with deciding on gear, location and other factors.Christy Mueller, Maddy Meadows-McDonnell and Mari Cullerton posed for a photo during the final week of their 2025 National Sea Grant College Program Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship.Members of municipal shellfish commissions listen to a presentation during the 2026 annual meeting of commissions on Jan. 24 in New Haven. About 60 people attended.CTSG Assistant Extension Educator Zachary Gordon with school officials after receiving the Superintendent's Recognition Award from Bridgeport Public Schools for his work with the Bridgeport Regional Aquaculture Science and Technology Education school on Feb. 26, 2026About 25 people joined the First Day hike at Griswold Point in Old Lyme, hosted by CT Sea Grant and the CT National Estuarine Research Reserve.The staff of Connecticut Sea Grant on the porch of the Branford House at the UConn Avery Point campus.Larissa Graham of the CT National Estuarine Research Reserve, front, gives a presentation about the CTSG-supported CT MyCoast project to the New London Rotary Club on Dec. 4.Students in the CTSG-supported UConn Climate Corps Class present a resilience project addressing flooding and other impacts on a community.Participants, instructors and organizers of the Fishing Partnership Safety & Drill Trainings hosted by CT Sea Grant gather around a life raft at the end of the first of the two-day workshop Oct 27 & 28. At center in the life raft is Nancy Balcom, CTSG associate director.Connecticut College Arboretum Director Maggie Redfern, right, tells about 20 people on a CT Sea Grant-sponsored hike of Mamacoke Island Oct. 19 about how Indigenous people once used the area for fishing and other activities The hike was part of the Thames River Park's "Walk in the Park" series.Mike Morazzini, teacher at Jonathan Law High School in Milford, holds up a jar of polluted water filtered through cotton, burlap and other materials during a stormwater exercise at the Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher workshop on marine pollution at Bluff Point State Park on Sept. 12.Hannah Roby, a doctoral student at UConn Avery Point, throws an eel back in the water after seining in Mumford Cove in Groton for a CTSG-funded research project on flounder.Participants ply canoes and kayaks during in the paddle and nature exploration event at Bluff Point State Park on June 28 hosted by the CT NERR and CT Sea Grant.Fran Pijar of the Clean Up Sound and Harbors nonprofit shows Yaprak Onat of CIRCA an area in Stonington prone to flooding during a June 25 workshop for the pilot project launching the MyCoast app in Connecticut to track storm and tidal flooding. CT Sea Grant, the CT NERR and CIRCA are partnering in the project.Michael Julian, owner of Park City Seafood, transfers juvenile soft-shell clams from his upweller in the Pequonnock River in Bridgeport to CTSG Senior Extension Educator Tessa Getchis so she can measure them before he plants them in one of his leased areas farther east along the shoreline.EPA, CT and NY officials and other others flank the resolution they signed on June 20 supporting the new Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Long Island Sound. CT Sea Grant is part of the Long Island Sound Partnership that created the plan.Devon Guerette of East Lyme, center, helps his sons Oliver, 2, and Bently, 4, make cotton ball piping plover chicks during the Family Fun day at Bluff Point State Park in Groton on June 8. More than 70 people attended the event, hosted by the CT NERR, CT Sea Grant and the Town of Groton.CTSG's SHUCKS aquaculture training program interns Brendon Goulette, left, and Danielle Calini met May 15 with Mike Bohan of the Guilford Shellfish Commission, which is helping fund the internship.Scientists will be studying salt marshes, declining flounder species, water quality and many other topics with the largest investment in Long Island Sound research.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.Researchers collect water samples at the Bride Brook marsh at Rocky Neck State Park as part of a CTSG-funded project.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.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.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.
Volunteers removed a lot of trash trapped in the seawall at Fort Trumbull State Park during the cleanup.

#DontTrashLISound campaign opening event a success

August 10, 2026

The 10th annual #DontTrashLISound campaign got underway on Aug. 8 with a cleanup at Fort Trumbull State Park and the surrounding neighborhood in New London. The event drew more than a dozen volunteers, who collected 102 pounds of trash.

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Volunteers pried dozens of pounds of trash trapped in the rocks on the shoreline along Long Wharf Drive in New Haven during the 2025 #DontTrashLISound kickoff cleanup.

What if there was no trash to pick up?

July 31, 2026

This op-ed article, published in The Day, The Connecticut Mirror and Connecticut Hearst newspapers, announces the kickoff of the 10th annual #DontTrashLISound campaign on Aug. 8 with a cleanup at Fort Trumbull State Park in New London.

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Diane Payne

National education network honors CTSG’s Diana Payne

July 30, 2026

Connecticut Sea Grant Education Coordinator Diana Payne received the The Sea Grant Education Network’s annual Award for Excellence at its annual meeting on July 11. The award honors the network’s work in making environmental literacy and education accessible to all formal and nonformal learners.

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Cover of Wrack Lines magazine Spring-Summer 2026 issue

New Wrack Lines explores the place-community connection

June 3, 2026

“Building community around the places we love,” is the theme of the new Wrack Lines. Learn about Six Lakes Park coalition, Riverfront Recapture, MyCoast CT, CT land conservation conference, photo-videographer Tomas Koeck and National Geographic explorer walking around the world.

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Cover of Wrack Lines magazine Spring-Summer 2026 issue