Alaska Sea Grant
A PARTNERSHIP FOR ALASKA
The Alaska Sea Grant team back row (left to right): Avery Herrman-Sakamoto, Dawn Montano, Davin Holen, Arron Jones, Karen Grosskreutz, Sean Kelly, Tav Ammu, Caleb Taylor. Middle row: Ginny Eckert, Julie Parshall, Melissa Good, Ashley Dunker, Julie Matweyou, Gay Sheffield, Chris Sannito, Gabe Dunham. Bottom row: Brooke Carney, Sunny Rice, Molly Cain, Dave Partee, Leigh Lubin. Not pictured: Quentin Fong.
Who We Are
Alaska Sea Grant, one of 34 Sea Grant programs nationwide, is a statewide program headquartered at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Alaska Sea Grant is a collaboration between NOAA and the University of Alaska Fairbanks and has been supporting healthy coastal resources, economies, and communities in Alaska for over 50 years. Our staff and Marine Advisory Program agents and specialists who live and work in Alaska’s coastal communities carry out this mission through research, education, and outreach.
Funding sources
Alaska Sea Grant receives federal funding from the National Sea Grant Program. We increase those funds threefold with:
- University of Alaska state funds
- External grants
- Cash and in-kind donations
- Program income from publications and workshops
More funding details are available in our Annual Report.
At a glance
Alaska Sea Grant program guide
download highlights PDF
Workforce development and training highlights
download highlights PDF
What We Do
Healt
hy Coasts
The State of Alaska manages thousands of square miles of coastal ecosystems that support recreational, commercial and subsistence activities. Alaska Sea Grant helps residents, natural resource managers, and businesses protect and restore healthy coastal habitats for continued ecosystem and public well-being.
Fisheries & Seafood
Sea Grant is a leader in developing innovative technologies for all sectors of the seafood industry, including fishing, aquaculture, seafood processing and consumer safety. Alaska Sea Grant supports sustainable fisheries and aquaculture through applied research and extension.
Coastal Resilience & Economy
More than 70 percent of Alaska's 700,000 residents live along the coast. Alaska Sea Grant scientists and Marine Advisory Program agents research coastal processes, hazards, energy sources, and more. Communities seek our expertise to sustain vibrant coastal economies and help them respond and adapt to environmental change.
Environmental Literacy & Workforce Development
Alaska Sea Grant provides leadership in K-12 marine and aquatic education statewide at all levels; and through public education in coastal communities. Programs are designed to inform, educate, and train community members as citizens and help prepare the current and next generation of the workforce involved with our nation’s coastal resources, communities, and economies.
Diversity, equity and inclusion
Alaska Sea Grant, as part of the National Sea Grant College Program, champions diversity, equity and inclusion by recruiting, retaining and preparing a diverse workforce, and proactively engaging and serving the diverse populations of coastal communities. Sea Grant is committed to building inclusive research, extension, communication and education programs that serve people with unique backgrounds, circumstances, needs, perspectives and ways of thinking.
How We Do It
Research
Alaska Sea Grant conducts and funds scientific research that enhances the sustainable use and conservation of our coastal and marine resources.
Alaska Sea Grant supports a number of formal, peer-reviewed research projects through a biennial call for proposals. Through each RFP, we seek creative and innovative research proposals in the natural and social sciences that focus on the environmental and economic viability of Alaska's coastal communities.
Each proposal must provide an engagement plan that describes how broader audiences will engage with and use the project results.
Learn more about our research work
Marine Advisory Outreach
Alaska Sea Grant’s Marine Advisory agents work with Alaskans to sustain healthy coastal economies, communities and ecosystems. They do this through collaborative projects, classes, workshops, training, applied research, and other methods of technical assistance.
Explore our outreach efforts in Alaska
Education
Alaska Sea Grant employs a variety of education strategies to promote environmental literacy statewide. National Sea Grant defines an environmentally literate person as “someone who has a fundamental understanding of the systems of the natural world, the relationships and interactions between the living and nonliving environment, and the ability to understand and utilize scientific evidence to make informed decisions regarding environmental issues.”
In Alaska, the context of environmental literacy is a diverse population with varying degrees of access to educational resources facing the challenges of a dynamic and rapidly changing natural environment. The need for current, relevant information gleaned from research and the long-term perspectives of local knowledge is becoming more urgent for Alaskans. Environmentally literate citizens able to participate in public policy decisions that affect Alaska’s coastal resources are crucial.
Alaska Sea Grant also works with, and invests in, K-12 school district administrators, teachers, students to promote environmental literacy in Alaska’s schools.