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Maryland Sea Grant

The Maryland Sea Grant (MSG) pro- gram is not surprisingly orientated around the Chesapeake Bay, America's largest estuary and a dynamic mix of ecology, hydrology and socioeconomics.

Maryland Sea Grant has its administra- tive home at the University of Maryland with day-to-day administration by the

University of Maryland Center for Envi- ronmental Science headquartered at Col- lege Park. The program also has a signifi- cant outreach component. Following the

Land Grant model, the Maryland Sea

Grant Extension Program has eight people strategically placed at labs and other facil- ities around the state. "The Maryland Sea

Grant program accepts proposals for research from a number of agencies such as NOAA, ONR, NSF and others and funds those most critical to the state," said

Dr. Jonathon Kramer, director of Mary- land Sea Grant. "We carefully define our niche and the key roles that we play as we participate in the region-wide effort to manage and protect the Chesapeake,"

Kramer added. "A new research agenda-Science to

Support Realistic Restoration Goals- sharpened our focus and led to a 30 per- cent increase in proposals to the pro- gram," according to Kramer.

Significant research is ongoing on man- aging and controlling disease among the oyster and blue crab fisheries. The decreases amount of oxygen in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay is if great concern to both the general public and the scientif- ic community.

MSG is at the forefront in developing technologies to further mapping tech- niques of these two most important species.

Still other programs are studying larval stocking as a means to restore Shad fish- ery in the Chesapeake.

Education of the next generation is an important segment of the work of Mary- land Sea Grant.

This is done through supporting gradu- ate students through an ongoing Research

Fellows Program, conducting a Research

Experiences for Undergraduates Program each summer that offers hands-on educa- tion experiences that bring college stu- dents together with working marine scien- tists and the Knauss Fellowship program that provides graduate students the oppor- tunity of spending a year in Washington,

DC working with policy and marine experts. NOAA coordinates this program.

Other programs reach out to Maryland high school teachers providing them the tools and resources to impress upon their students the challenges and opportunities of the Chesapeake.

It is the Maryland Sea Grant Extension program that makes the Maryland Sea

Grant program unique. "With a history that reaches back to its

Land Grant roots in the nineteenth centu- ry, the University of Maryland serves as a bridge between those in the scientific research community that generates the information and those who stand to bene- fit from it," said Dr. Doug Lipton, pro- gram leader based in College Park.

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