At its October 25, 2018 meeting, the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) unanimously approved 24 research projects totaling $6 million in funding through the Proposition 84 Competitive Grants Program. The projects support state priorities focused on stewardship and management of California’s ocean and coastal resources in the areas of: ocean acidification and hypoxia; sustainable fisheries and aquaculture; sea-level rise adaptation and coastal resilience; coastal sediment management; marine pollution; and marine renewable energy.

When the carbon dioxide from human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, dissolves into ocean water, it raises the acidity of the water. Also, as global temperatures rise, the oxygen available in the water decreases. These changes act like alarm bells that tell marine life to evacuate to a safe space. Researchers are studying whether that safe space could be the climate refugia created by kelp forests. There, life could escape the potentially harmful waters that surround them.

Amid the difficult days of the coronavirus pandemic, as Fort Bragg’s tourism-centric economy took a sudden hit, a group of locals came up with an idea for a brighter future. This small town of 7,000 sits along Northern California’s rugged coastline, a location that has yielded a long and intimate relationship with the ocean. That relationship, locals realized, could be the key to the city’s future, too: Smart investments might bring sustainable, ocean-focused industries to town.

In 2019, Erin Satterthwaite attended a planning meeting for the then-upcoming United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Looking around the room, Satterthwaite noticed how rare she was as a young professional — one of a handful out of hundreds of attendees. It was, Satterthwaite felt, unfortunate. “We're talking about a decade of ocean science. It seems that younger professionals are needed to make this a sustainable process,” she remembers thinking.

California Sea Grant is excited to welcome Dr. Simona Augyte as the new Aquaculture Extension Specialist. In this new role, based in the Biology Division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, Augyte will build an extension program focused on Southern California aquaculture. Combining applied research and community outreach, the program seeks to develop aquaculture through workforce development training.