Virginia Sea Grant supports research and extension efforts to enhance ecosystem health, resilience, and sustainability.
You’ve heard of UFOs, but what about HABs? A new publication aims to remove some of the mystery surrounding harmful algal blooms, especially when it comes to their effects on the shellfish industry. VIMS Professor Kim Reece and VIMS/VASG Commercial Shellfish Aquaculture Extension Specialist Karen Hudson prepared the short HAB Primer to help shellfish growers [...]
Viruses tend to fly—or float—under the radar when it comes to most water quality standards, but Wendi Quidort’s research may be changing that soon. The Virginia Sea Grant Graduate Research Fellow, who is working towards her Ph.D. at Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), has been making some interesting discoveries about what viruses released from wastewater treatment plants might be doing in Virginia’s creeks and estuaries.
University of Virginia graduate student and Virginia Sea Grant Fellow Alia Al-Haj researches how environmental change will affect seagrass restoration efforts.
Diamondback terrapins face a variety of threats—from coastal development to crab fishing. A team of VASG-funded researchers are mapping terrapin habitat and threats to aid in the development of effective management strategies.
Virginia’s hard clam industry produces between $20 and $30 million of clams annually, and individual clam farms cover areas ranging from 10’s to 100’s of acres. A Virginia Sea Grant-funded research team led by VIMS faculty members Iris Anderson, Mark Luckenbach, and Mark Brush is investigating the effects of these large-scale aquaculture operations on the flow of nutrients in Bay ecosystems. The results will help managers and clam farmers make sure the industry can function sustainably for years to come.
15 of Virginia’s federal and state organizations gathered on May 24 to tour the Okeanos Explorer and hear about one new success story: a collaboration that is putting deep-sea data that is usually difficult and expensive to obtain into the hands of Virginia’s management agencies.
When scientists and environmental regulators talk about nutrient pollution, they are primarily talking about additional nitrogen and phosphorus that enters the water from wastewater treatment plants, runoff, and other sources. These extra nutrients can allow algae to grow out of control, creating a phenomenon know as harmful algal blooms (HABs). However little is known about [...]
The seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla is an invasive species that has been recognized along the East Coast of the US in the last 10 years and is widespread on the eastern shore of Virginia. G. vermiculophylla can survive hot and dry conditions better than native algae, and can thus live in marsh and mudflat habitats where [...]
On a warm morning last August, Ryan Schloesser and his labmate, student Lauren Nys, trawled off Oyster, VA. After a summer filled with collecting fish, they worked with experienced ease, throwing around jokes as smoothly as they tossed their nets behind the boat. What they pull up in their nets should help fisheries managers better predict the size of fish populations.
These videos show our friends at the Tidewater Oyster Gardeners Association (TOGA) assembling containers typically used in oyster gardening. Virginia Sea Grant is a proud partner with VIMS and TOGA. Together we train residents of coastal Virginia in the benefits, practice, and science of oyster gardening.
Old Dominion University professor Dick Zimmerman and his lab are developing a new model to predict where seagrass can grow in the Bay. This article features the work of communications intern Kate Schimel and photography intern Carly Rose.
On a mid-October evening, Gene Burreson, who colleagues consider “one of maybe two of the most important figures in the field” of fish and shellfish pathology, stood before a room of resource managers, industry members, scientists, and family and humbly stated, “Although this award is only given to one person, science is not done alone. I’ve been lucky that I’ve always hired good people to work with me.”
Virginia Institute of Marine Science Marine Extension Program will host two workshops to help watermen and aquaculturists put together applications for 2012 Fisheries Resource Grant funding.
Living shorelines use grasses instead of rocks to control coastal erosion, but are they big enough to provide habitat for salt marsh fishes as well? Jessica Thompson of Christopher Newport University will work with a team of four undergraduate researchers to measure the effects of living shorelines on populations of mummichog, a small fish that [...]
Virginia’s hard clam industry produces between $20 and $30 million-worth of clams annually. Iris Anderson, Mark Brush, and Mark Luckenbach of VIMS will expand upon their 2010 preliminary study of ecosystem responses to clam aquaculture and calibrate their model of how nutrient availability and transformations affect ecosystem health and clam aquaculture sustainability. The model will [...]
Delmarva’s shallow coastal lagoons are important for seagrass, fish, and human recreation, but little is known about how they will fare in a future characterized by increased nitrogen inputs. A group of regional research partners are joining forces to develop new models that will help resource managers quantify how land-use changes will alter nitrogen inputs [...]
Windmill Point Marina received Clean Marina designation on June 26, 2011. The marina, which has 96 slips, is located in White Stone, VA, the western side of the Chesapeake Bay.
As a Knauss Sea Grant Fellow with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Branch of Aquatic Invasive Species, I have been engaged in debates over possible invasive species management strategies. Rarely does a “simple” policy issue pass over my desk.
Colonial Beach Yacht Center (Colonial Beach, VA) and Chesapeake Boat Basin (Kilmarnock, VA) received Clean Marina designations this month. Virginia Institute of Marina Science and Virginia Sea Grant are proud partners of the Virginia Clean Marina Program, which recognizes marinas that voluntarily take measures to prevent or reduce pollution at their facility. There are currently 69 Clean Marinas in Virginia. Here’s more about the two newest additions to the Virginia Clean Marina family:
This fall at Deltaville Yachting Center, volunteers gathered to help the owners find a more natural way of combatting coastal erosion. See how they did it in this slideshow.
