(gentle music)
- [Narrator] Georgia's coast,
100 miles of beaches,
salt marshes,
and maritime forests
are home to an incredible diversity
of plant and animal life.
For more than 40 years,
Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant
has worked with people on the coast,
helping them understand the environment
and how to live and
work responsibly in it.
- The Sea Grant network
was created back in 1966.
We act as a bridge between the communities
and the university system.
- The Georgia Sea Grant
and Marine Extension
has been very key in helping
with development of fisheries.
- We've had this lab here since the 1980s,
so we've been involved
in shellfish research,
predominantly clam
aquaculture at the beginning,
and then a lot of oyster
work over the years.
- Over these 30, 40 years,
the biggest thing has been
the development of trust.
I think the fact that we are
actually in the community
working side-by-side with our fishermen
really makes us unique because
we're not in here one day
and gone the next, we're still here.
- [Narrator] After years of
building trusting relationships
with the community,
Marine Extension and Georgia
Sea Grant specialists
are helping people on the coast adapt
and respond to a changing environment.
- So microplastics are pieces of plastic
that have a length or largest diameter
no larger than five millimeters.
- We started a project to really look at
abundance and distribution
of microplastics
so that we could have a better picture
of what's going on along
the coast of Georgia.
- Black gill is a condition
that we see in shrimp.
The decline that we've
seen since about 2000
has been due to this parasite
that causes black gill.
It was a number one call from stakeholders
that Sea Grant was getting.
"What are you gonna do about black gill?"
We've developed a smartphone application
that allows anybody to report.
We have a much better
view of what's going on
with black gill in our whole state.
- Three of the top five
highest water levels
have occurred in the last three years.
These flood events are
increasing, and it's important
that Marine Extension and
Georgia Sea Grant assists
local communities in becoming
more resilient and safer.
I worked with the city of Tybee Island
to create the first Sea Level Rise Plan
in the state of Georgia.
After that, I worked with
the city of St. Marys
to create their own flood resiliency plan.
- Our projects tend to have
those immediate impacts
that affect citizens in Coastal Georgia.
What I'm most excited about
is probably our efforts
related to aquaculture
because people will be able
to derive their livelihoods off of that,
and that will lead to more
people living in Coastal Georgia.
- [Narrator] For
generations, Marine Extension
and Georgia Sea Grant has bridged the gap
between research and communities.
Now, they educate for the future.
- The Marine Education Fellowship
is a 50-week opportunity
for college graduates.
They are getting on-the-job training
of how to teach marine science concepts,
coastal ecology concepts
to students of all ages.
- The Knauss Fellowship places
highly-qualified graduate students
in one-year fellowship positions
in the Washington, D.C. area.
It was a bridge for me
from graduate school
to the job I have now.
- [Narrator] Through a
long-standing commitment
to research, extension, and education,
Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant
plays a key role in improving
Georgia's coastal communities.
- Georgia Sea Grant
and Marine Extension
are a really vital cog in the scientific
and educational communities in this state.
- Any individual, any
community can come to us
for technical and scientific information
to inform their choices.
- Our role is to really
connect with the public,
to educate them, to make them more aware
of the environment, the
coastal environment,
and more importantly, why
is it that they should care
about that natural environment.
- When you care about a
place, care about an area,
care about an issue, then you work harder
to be a part of solutions,
you work harder to be part
of conservation efforts,
and you become true stewards
of the coastal area.
