Sea Grant's Involvement in Mississippi River Valley Collaborative Efforts

Since 1968, the now 33 Sea Grant programs in every coastal and Great Lakes state and territory, have been conducting thematically-focused research projects as well as extension and educational programming for a variety of audiences.

Whereas most of this research and outreach has been at the Program and state level, there have been some notable cross-regional efforts as well. Sea Grant programs in the Great Lakes and Gulf of Mexico, in close collaboration with partners in the Land Grant system and NGOs, proudly point to the targeted work that began in the 1990s in the Mississippi River Basin addressing the dispersal, implications and control of aquatic invasive species (AIS).  Most of the AIS effort involved zebra and quagga mussels, Asian carp, and aquatic plants such as water hyacinth and giant salvinia.

Sea Grant programs in Louisiana and several other coastal states have also worked with Land Grant partners from the southeast and Midwest to help achieve USDA NIFA’s National Water Quality Program goal of protecting or improving water quality in agriculturally managed watersheds. This collaboration has led to the development of joint extension programs related to estuarine and wetland environmental issues such as Master Farmer and Master Naturalist.