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News
Updated July 8, 2008
For more information on any of the items listed here, please
contact Rhode Island Sea Grant Communications at (401) 874-6842.
Upcoming Sea Grant events
July 24, 2008
The Most Disgusting Fish in the Sea
Hag fish, also known as slime eels (for good reason), are scavengers that feast not only on dead fish, but also on those that are not quite dead yet. And they can shed light on evolution, telling us about our own distant ancestors. Join Bob Kenney, associate marine research scientist at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography, as he tells us what makes biologists so interested in these “disgusting and improbable” fish.
This is the second event in the 9th Annual Summer Community Lecture Series sponsored by Rhode Island Sea Grant and the URI Cooperative Extension/Nutrition and Food Sciences Department. This event is also sponsored by the Peace Dale Library. The lecture is free, but seating is limited, so please contact the library to reserve your seat.
time: 7 p.m.
place: Peace Dale Library, 1057 Kingstown Road
call: 401.789.1555
August 7
Ida Lewis: Rhode Island’s (and America’s) Most Famous Lighthouse Keeper
Storyteller and performer Marilyn Murphy Meardon offers a solo performance of “Ida Lewis: Rhode Island’s (and America’s) Most Famous Lighthouse Keeper.” Ida Lewis, born in 1842 in Newport, R.I., tended Newport’s Lime Rock Light, and is credited with numerous brave rescues of drowning men.
This is the third event in the 9th Annual Summer Community Lecture Series sponsored by Rhode Island Sea Grant and the URI Cooperative Extension/Nutrition and Food Sciences Department. This event is also sponsored by the Jamestown Library. The lecture is free, but seating is limited, so please contact the library to reserve your seat.
time: 7 p.m.
place: Jamestown Library, 26 North Road
call: 401.423.7280
September 17
Seafood Cooking Demonstration
Chef and cookbook author Normand Leclair will demonstrate mouthwatering preparations for locally available seafood, with samples for the audience. Copies of his book Culinary Expressions will be available for purchase.
This is the final event in the 9th Annual Summer Community Lecture Series sponsored by Rhode Island Sea Grant and the URI Cooperative Extension/Nutrition and Food Sciences Department. This event is also sponsored by the Westerly Public Library. The lecture is free, but seating is limited, so please contact the library to reserve your seat.
time: 7 p.m.
place: Westerly Public Library, 44 Broad Street
call: 401.874.6842
October 23-24, 2008
7th Marine Law Symposium: A Viable Marine Renewable Energy Industry: Solutions to Legal, Economic, and Policy Challenges
This two-day symposium will explore the means to achieve a viable marine renewable energy industry for the United States with a focus on offshore wind, hydrokinetics (wave, current and tidal), and ocean thermal energy conversion. Its panels will discuss possible solutions for the nascent U.S. marine renewable energy sector’s legal, economic and policy challenges. These include jurisdictional issues and permitting/licensing schemes; research and development for environmental, technological and human dimension issues; economic/financial incentives; and the role of the public and nongovernmental organizations in these areas.
News
Seeking Coastweeks events
Coastweeks 2008 takes place from September 20 to October 13. If you or your organization would like to include a coastal event in our calendar of events, please fax or mail , or contact Monica Allard Cox at . Past events have included boat tours, book discussions, beach combing, lectures, kayak trips, and more. To see last year's events, visit .
Position available
Rhode Island Sea Grant has a communications/education position available. Applications must be postmarked by July 21, 2008. Job description, requirements, salary range, and application information are available at .
Help us redesign the Rhode Island Sea Grant website
Please take and help us redesign the Sea Grant website. We appreciate your feedback and will enter you in a raffle for a basket of Rhode Island gifts.
Rhode Island Sea Grant coastal and marine research and programs continue with NOAA funding
Over the next two years, Rhode Island Sea Grant, through its biennial funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and matching grants, will be funding research, outreach, a legal program and education efforts that address coastal issues. A total of $6.3 million will be spent in these areas.
“This funding allows us to continue to tackle coastal and marine problems from a variety of perspectives – drawing on the scientific, technical, legal and technical expertise available at Rhode Island’s universities,” said Barry Costa-Pierce, Rhode Island Sea Grant director. “Our work has led to discoveries about climate change and nutrient impacts in Narragansett Bay, the development of tools to reduce fisheries bycatch, the securing of public coastal access in Rhode Island, and practical guidance for the sustainable development of our shorelines, and I am happy that we will continue to support such programs.” The NOAA grant, awarded in February 2008, will continue through January 2010.
URI student job opportunities
Rhode Island Sea Grant needs student office help and communications assistance (writing) for the summer and the fall semester at our Bay campus offices. For more information, contact Monica Allard Cox at (401) 874-6937. You may also download the student job application: / .
 Narragansett Bay book available on Amazon.com
Science for Ecosystem-based Management: Narragansett Bay in the 21st Century is available from . The book addresses the broad problem of coastal nutrient pollution. In the United States, approximately two-thirds of the coastal rivers and bays are moderately to severely degraded from nutrient pollution. However, debates continue about how large a problem nutrient pollution is and what actions to take, and since effective management requires decisions at a local scale, an in-depth case study can provide valuable guidance. For more information on the book, .
URI fish-saving device pulls in $30,000 prize for American winner of International Smart Gear Competition
New invention - “The Eliminator” - exploits fish behavior to haul in haddock, while keeping other fish out of trawls
 WASHINGTON, November 15, 2007 – A team of Rhode Island inventors today will be awarded the grand prize in the for a fishing gear innovation that could save thousands of fish and other sea creatures from dying accidentally in fishing nets each year, World Wildlife Fund and its partners announced. The winners will be officially announced in Seattle today at the Pacific Marine Expo.
The Grand Prize winning team consists of University of Rhode Island Fisheries Center researchers and Rhode Island Sea Grant Sustainable Fisheries Extension staff Laura Skrobe and David Beutel and fishermen Jon Knight, Phil Ruhle Sr., Phil Ruhle Jr., and Jim O’Grady. Their invention—aptly named “The Eliminator”—captures haddock while reducing the accidental netting of other marine species. The device works by taking advantage of the haddock’s tendency to swim upward but not over the headrope when encountering the large mesh net invention, instead of swimming downward where they can escape the net, which is the tendency of other fish. The Grand Prize winners beat out more than 70 other contenders from 22 countries.
“The collaborative design and development of the Eliminator trawl is a great example of industry and scientists working together with managers to develop innovative solutions to reduce or eliminate bycatch,” said Beutel. “We’re excited to be receiving this award and look forward to continuing to research effective ways of reducing bycatch in fishing.”
Every year millions of tons of fish die and are discarded as unwanted catch, called bycatch. Hundreds of thousands of marine animals are also killed through destructive fishing practices.
“WWF created the International Smart Gear Competition to reward and inspire innovative ideas to reduce fisheries bycatch,” said Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of World Wildlife Fund. “Bycatch is a critical environmental and economic problem. These inventions have shown to be effective solutions in our efforts to make fishing 'smarter' and we’re pleased to honor their creators today.”
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2008 Knauss Fellows head to Washington
Rhode Island Sea Grant is sending four graduate students to Washington, D.C., for one-year, $41,500, National Sea Grant College Program Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships. Marselle Alexander-Ozinskas, Karen Hyun, Jennifer Mehaffey, and Christine Patrick are among 48 Knauss Fellows who will begin working in the federal government on marine and coastal issues starting February 1, 2008.
John A. Knauss Fellowship opportunity announced for 2009
The National Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship was established to provide a unique educational experience to students enrolled in graduate programs in fields related to marine or Great Lakes studies. The program matches highly qualified graduate students with "hosts" in the Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch, or appropriate associations/institutions located in the Washington, DC area. For one year the recipients work on substantive national policy issues related to aquatic resources. The recipients are officially designated Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellows, after the University of Rhode Island's legendary Dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography. For more information, visit or download the .
Latest issue of 41°N focuses on underwater mapping
The latest edition of 41°N, the magazine of the Rhode Island Sea Grant College Program and the University of Rhode Island Coastal Institute, features Narragansett Bay mapping techniques and the MapCoast Partnership. To read the magazine on-line, visit . To receive 41°N by mail (free to Rhode Island residents), contact Jean Gallo at or (401) 874-6842.
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University of Rhode Island