Research

Research

The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (MASGC) supports relevant, cutting-edge research that addresses coastal issues in Alabama, Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico region and the nation. Through a highly competitive, peer-reviewed granting process, MASGC awards funding for research projects. Its core research program funds two-year projects that offer potential impacts in one more of the MASGC focus areas: environmental literacy and workforce development; healthy coastal ecosystems; resilient communities and economies; and sustainable fisheries and aquaculture. Research projects include an outreach plan to deliver the results to the people who can use them best.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides most of MASGC’s funding. The state governments of Alabama and Mississippi and other federal partners also support the bi-state Sea Grant research program. Often, MASGC coordinates additional grant competitions for NOAA, other federal agencies and state entities to address research needs in the bi-state area and regionally throughout the Gulf of Mexico.

The mission of the MASGC is to enhance the sustainable use and conservation of ocean and coastal resources to benefit the economy and environment in Alabama and Mississippi. To fulfill this mission, MASGC supports interdisciplinary research and community-based natural resources management.

Programs

  • Red Snapper

    NOAA-independent red snapper stock assessment estimates number of red snapper in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

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  • Greater Amberjack

    This research program will develop additional data sources, assessment approaches and knowledge to improve agency and agency-independent estimates of the abundance of Greater Amberjack.

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  • Living Shorelines

    The current trend in Mississippi and Alabama is to install hard structures, such as bulkheads, seawalls or rip-rap on the shoreline to protect waterfront coastal property from erosion. Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant supports the use of living shorelines, in many circumstances, instead of bulkheads...

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  • Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program

    The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program has conducted legal research, education, and outreach since 1972 and is now operated in conjunction with the National Sea Grant Law Center, created in February of 2002.

    As the legal research arm of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, the...

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  • Northern Gulf of Mexico Sentinel Site Cooperative

    This program focuses on coordinating NOAA's sea level rise efforts in the Northern Gulf of Mexico.

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  • Gulf of Mexico Research Plan

    The effort to develop a regional research plan for the Gulf of Mexico began in 2007 and resulted in a plan that was released in 2009. The plan is currently being updated using input that has been collected since 2009. The mission of the Gulf of Mexico Research Plan (GMRP) is to identify priority...

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  • Gulf of Mexico Shellfish Initiative

    The Gulf of Mexico Shellfish Initiative (GoMexSI) will protect and enhance our shellfish resources in a way that creates sustainable water-dependent jobs while improving the water quality of our numerous Gulf estuaries.

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