Two New Hampshire Sea Grant staff members, Gabriela Bradt and Katy Bland, have been recognized with 2024 Superior Outreach Programming Awards ("SOPA") by the Northeast Sea Grant Consortium for work completed in the 2021-2023 timeframe. SOPA honors are bestowed in two categories: Individual and Team. Every two years, one individual award winner and one team award winner are selected for the Northeast region. As regional award winners, Bradt and Bland's projects will be forwarded to the national Sea Grant Superior Outreach Programming Award competition, which will culminate at Sea Grant Week in Savannah, GA in mid-August 2024. Congratulations to Gabby and Katy!
Individual SOPA Winner (Northeast Region, 2024)
Invasive European Green Crab (Carcinas maenas) populations in the Northeast have exploded because of warming ocean temperatures and the lack of mitigation strategies. As green crab numbers have grown, so has interest in developing markets and fisheries as population control mechanisms. In response, New Hampshire Sea Grant’s fisheries extension specialist, Gabriela Bradt, began a multifaceted approach to studying green crabs, educating the public, and engaging seafood industry members through integrated extension, education, research, and communications activities under the umbrella of the NH Green Crab Project.
Highlights from her work include: publication of The Green Crab Guide with partners at Manomet, robust citizen science engagement during Great Green Crab Hunts with NH's Coastal Research Volunteers and Nature Groupie, an interactive public science exhibit with the Seacoast Science Center, and an innovative beverage collaboration, called "Crab Trapper" whiskey, with Tamworth Distilling. Bradt is regarded as a leading expert on invasive green crabs in the Northeast and nationally.
Member of Winning SOPA Team (Northeast Region, 2024)
Offshore wind energy is developing rapidly in the Northeast, and the Northeast Sea Grant programs have worked together to respond to public, private sector, and community needs and concerns as the region prepares for the implementation of hundreds of offshore wind turbines and infrastructure by 2030. The award-winning regional team was recognized for “working together to leverage their shared technical expertise, science and data resources, and outreach and communication tools and products” and “significantly [building] the capacities of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island” to address offshore wind issues.
Team members include Jessica Jansujwicz, Maine Sea Grant; Syma Ebbin, Connecticut Sea Grant; Kayla Walsh, New York Sea Grant; Katy Bland, New Hampshire Sea Grant & NERACOOS; Juliet Simpson, MIT Sea Grant; Poonam Narotam, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Sea Grant; Lily Keyes, MIT Sea Grant; and Abbey Greene, Rhode Island Sea Grant.
