MASGC Steers on New Course
Over the last several months the Consortium has changed its sail and tacked in a different direction. During its 29 years of residency at the Gulf Coast Research Lab (GCRL) in Ocean Springs, MS, the Consortium, made up of nine universities and research labs, has operated as a pseudo-independent agency under the guidance of GCRL and the University of Southern Mississippi (USM). That all changed on July 31, 2001 when USM was selected by the MASGC Board of Directors to serve as the fiscal host of the Consortium for the next six years. This agreement, being formalized through a memorandum of understanding between USM and the Board, will spell out the responsibilities of each party. For the first time in its history MASGC will turn over the administration of its grants and contracts to USM, and the Consortium will pay indirect costs to USM on its administrative project grants.

Changes continued for the Program when Dr. Barry Costa-Pierce, who had been MASGC's director for three years, left the Consortium at the end of August to become the director of the Rhode Island Sea Grant College Program. Dr. LaDon Swann, who joined MASGC in the summer of 2000 as Associate Director of Alabama Programs, was named Interim Director of MASGC. He will split his time between MASGC's main office in Ocean Springs, MS and his Alabama Programs office located at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.

New budget cuts and reorganization have also changed the way the Consortium operates. As two of the seven remaining staff positions were eliminated and some administrative operations were outsourced as grant projects, the Consortium saw its administrative budget fall nearly 50 percent. The result of these deep slashes has meant more money for future grant projects. MASGC's new NOAA allocation for next years will breakdown as 44% toward research, 37% toward outreach, and 16% toward program administration with 3% available for coastal communities and ecosystems program development funds.

"We will be doing some things differently. We will be working more closely with USM," says Swann. But that doesn't mean MASGC's goals and objectives have changed. "Our goals remain the same. These changes in operations will just strengthen the Consortium and benefit all of its members.

		Legal Program Named National Sea Grant Law Center The MASG Legal Program, housed at the University of Mississippi (UM) School of Law, has been selected by the National Sea Grant Office and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as the first National Sea Grant Law Center in the country. The center became operational Feb. 1, 2002, in conjunction with the existing Mississippi-Alabama Sea
Grant Legal Program, which has been quartered at UM-Oxford since 1970. The purpose of the new center is to integrate efforts of ocean and coastal law research centers nationwide and provide outreach and advisory services to the National Sea Grant College Program and its constituents, says Kristen Fletcher, director of the new center.

The MASG Legal Program at UM, one of only two such programs in the nation, is funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce and administered through the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium. The Program’s research has ranged from such state-specific topics as public access disputes regarding Alabama beaches to international issues such as the World Trade Organization’s response to U.S. efforts to protect sea turtles in faraway oceans. The program partners with the Mississippi Law Research Institute (MLRI), the state’s official advisory law revision, research and reform agency, operating much like an unbiased, nonpolitical law firm for the legislature and every state agency.

"This federal and state partnership, along with the dedication of investigators, has helped enable the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program to become a national authority in research, analysis, outreach and education in the field of marine law," said Fletcher. As the development of marine resources evolved and received greater attention, the importance of addressing the related legal issues became more evident. As a result, the National Sea Grant Office proposed the creation of a Sea Grant Law Center to disseminate information about ocean and coastal laws and policies, coordinate ocean and coastal law researchers and provide Sea Grant College Programs a source of critical analysis of proposed laws and policies.

		Mobile Bay Volunteers Harvest 50,000 Oysters from their Garden After seven months of serving as "farmers of the sea," 30 public volunteers in Mobile and Baldwin counties harvested more than 50,000 oysters that they had been growing since April. The harvested oysters were
relocated to three nearby oyster reefs in need of restoration.

The Mobile Oyster Gardening Project -- the first of its kind in the Gulf of Mexico -- is funded by a $95,000 grant from the Gulf of Mexico Program, and is being coordinated by Kim Hamilton, an Auburn University graduate student working out of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.

Other partners in the project include the Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center, Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, Alabama Marine Resource Division, and the Alabama Department of Public Health.

In March local volunteers signed up and attended a workshop where they learned the basics about oysters, oyster biology and oyster gardening. Each volunteer was given everything they needed including a 2x4-foot custom floating cage for the oysters, and the approximately 1,000 seed oysters to grow in each float. Volunteers were expected to clean the floats, keep predators out, and measure and record the growth of the oysters.

Kim Hamilton made regular checks on the cages throughout the growing season recording water temperature, oxygen level, and turbidity. The main goal of the project is to grow these oysters and then use them to help restore many of Mobile Bay's fledgling oyster reefs. A more scientific goal of the project is to find out where the oysters grow the best and what the water conditions are at those sites.

The project hopes to grow next year with many of the same volunteers returning and new volunteers signing up to be an oyster gardener. Those interested can contact the Mobile Bay NEP office at 431-6409.