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A Vision for Success

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Sea Grant Association Retreat 2000
Sea Grant in the 21st Century: A Vision for Success

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I. Building the Vision

Prior to the retreat, the three organizations participating had prepared papers and presentations on a future vision for the Sea Grant Program. Drawing on ideas contained in this material, participants discussed the following topics related to building a comprehensive vision for the program:

    • external trends and conditions;
    • major strengths of the Sea Grant Program;
    • Sea Grant products, programs and markets; and
    • Sea Grant institutional structure.

After considering each of these topics, participants agreed on a vision for expanding the program over the next five years.

1. External Trends and Conditions

Concentration of population along the coast; increasing dependence on coastal waters for food, employment and recreation; and a host of other socio-economic changes are making Sea Grant's role in advancing understanding and sustainable use of coastal resources more critical every day. Today 54% of the U.S. population lives along the coast. In twenty-five years, that number will grow to 75%. This will have tremendous economic and environmental impacts on the coastal environment.

The nature of the coastal economy is changing. Development pressures are increasing and we lack adequate models to promote sustainable economic development in coastal communities. Recreational fishing has grown dramatically in relation to commercial fishing. The gentrification of coastal communities is making water access difficult for some water-dependent businesses, such as marinas, fishing and aquaculture.

Managing coastal resources is becoming increasingly complex. It requires more effective communication among all stakeholders. We need a more informed public and a workforce prepared to help us manage these complex and inter-related problems and resources
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2. Major Strengths of the National Sea Grant College Program

The Sea Grant Program is uniquely designed to address challenges in the coastal environment as they intensify. Sea Grant is a national network embedded in the best research universities in the country. This gives it a strong science base, and allows Sea Grant to harness unparalleled intellectual capital to address problems. Use of university management infrastructure also increases the cost effectiveness of the Program.

Sea Grant offers an integrated program of research, outreach and technical assistance that allows it to link the high quality science-based information it develops with local management structures to provide real solutions to real problems. It has long standing relationships with a broad spectrum of constituents and stakeholders in every coastal state. The combination of a university based program with a fully developed extension component means Sea Grant can identify issues as they emerge at the local level and bring the best scientific minds to bear on these problems.

Sea Grant Programs touch a broad spectrum of the population from kindergarten students, to marine-related businesses, to elder hostel participants. The Program has a comprehensive network of partners, and extensive experience interpreting applied research and scientific information to a broad public. Because Sea Grant is non-regulatory, and focuses on understanding the science of coastal resources, it serves as an "honest broker" among a wide range of constituencies.

The stability of the Sea Grant Program over the past thirty-years has enabled it to make long-term commitments to coastal problems and programs, and to develop a highly skilled workforce, capable of dealing with a wide range of issues related to the use and protection of coastal resources. Sea Grant is multi-disciplinary and can bring many different kinds of expertise to bear on specific problems.

Rapid rates of change in the growth and development of coastal areas will create enormous demand for environmental literacy and trained human resources. Sea Grant is a national leader in providing educational opportunities for marine oriented graduate students. Environmental knowledge and understanding, rapid synthesis of science-based information, and modeling of environmental processes are all major Sea Grant strengths that can help this country respond to the challenges of our changing coastal environment.


3. Sea Grant Products, Programs and Markets

One of Sea Grant's major products is research that can be provided on a rapid response schedule to address priority problems identified by NOAA, state government and others. Recent examples of this include Sea Grant assistance with the Pfiesteria and coral reef crises. Sea Grant's extensive state/local network provides NOAA valuable access to grassroots constituencies and a way to get programs and solutions out to those who need them. Sea Grant can also use this network to help broker conversations between local interests and researchers to see that the most pressing applied research questions are addressed.

Sea Grant has many markets and constituents, from state governments, to coastal environmental managers, to local fishing industries. Sea Grant serves as a clearinghouse for the latest research results related to Great Lakes and marine sciences, and serves as a neutral broker on marine and Great Lakes related issues. Sea Grant's wide range of programs ensures that all constituencies have access to this information to help make policy and business decisions. Sea Grant provides educational briefings and seminars for federal and state policy-makers, as well as for the public at large. It helps local government officials, planners and developers integrate scientific information into practical decision-making in ways that promote sound land use and sustainable development. Sea Grant's extension programs provide technical assistance to the full spectrum of coastal dependent industries--aquaculture, marinas, commercial and recreational fishing--to help them with product and market development.

As a consequence of the size and reach of the Program, Sea Grant has become a training ground for skilled researchers and outreach workers in the Great Lakes and marine science disciplines. Sea Grant recruits, trains and employs graduate students, post doctoral students, and senior researchers and professionals, helping to build a national "brain trust" for dealing with economic and environmental challenges and opportunities in the coastal arena.

Retreat participants believe the Sea Grant Program needs to continue to identify the major markets for its services, adjust to meet demand, and be as objective as possible in evaluating past products and programs to identify ways in which these products and programs need to be changed.

4. Sea Grant Institutional Structure

The Sea Grant Program is both NOAA and university based, giving it strong national and state/local foundations. This provides the Program with an opportunity to seek additional resources at the national, state, and university levels. There is considerable variety in the state/university location of Sea Grant Programs, with some programs located in an individual institution and some designed as true consortiums. Given the growing importance of coastal resources, a number of retreat participants argued strongly for trying to elevate Sea Grant Programs to the same stature and level of support as the university based land-grant programs that spawned tremendous progress in American agriculture over the past century.

The Sea Grant Program gains strength from serving a diverse set of masters, but it is a challenge to bring the interests and priorities of these national, state and local entities into alignment. The strong state/local connection of the individual Sea Grant Programs has in the past led NOAA to feel they have less influence over Sea Grant than some of their other programs. The challenge is to show NOAA the ways in which this strong state/local network can serve and strengthen NOAA's priorities and effectiveness.

Sea Grant allows for and encourages collaboration across its individual programs. There are geographic regional initiatives among programs, as well as "intellectual" regional initiatives on issues like aquaculture, where interest, not geographic location, is the common bond. This collaborative work is highly valued, but there is some concern about extra bureaucratic layers if this is institutionalized into a formal regional structure within the national program.

The Vision

Keeping all of these context issues in mind, participants agreed on the following vision to guide the Sea Grant Program over the next five years.

1. Sea Grant will become NOAA's primary university based research, education, training and technical assistance/transfer program in support of coastal, marine, and Great Lakes resource use, management and conservation.

2. Sea Grant will play a strong leadership role in helping the nation address such critical issues as protecting water quality and coastal habitat, developing coastal economies and communities, protecting and enhancing coastal and Great Lakes fisheries, developing aquaculture industries, responding to coastal hazards, ensuring seafood safety, and maximizing the benefits from emerging coastal technologies.

3. Sea Grant will provide:

• a strong federal/state/local infrastructure that integrates research, outreach and technical assistance to generate practical solutions to real problems;

• essential links between environmental protection and economic development and ideas on how to develop coastal economies and communities in sustainable ways;

• major assistance in setting national priorities for addressing coastal problems and opportunities;

• a flexible organizational structure able to respond to national and state needs and priorities when they emerge and identify and communicate important issues as they arise at the local level;

• a first class, experienced workforce with university based intellectual talent and strong local presence and partnerships;

• high quality education and training on coastal issues at all levels: national, state, local;

• capacity as a credible and objective broker/consensus builder among competing interests in the coastal arena; and

• sustained attention to critical problems over time.

4. Resources to support the Sea Grant College Program will double to $120 million over the next five years.

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