Alaska Sea Grant College Program Strategic Plan 2014–2017

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Vision

Strong coastal communities whose people live and work in balance with vibrant, productive marine, coastal and watershed ecosystems, and cooperatively reconcile differing values about use and conservation of Alaska’s marine and coastal resources.

Mission

Alaska Sea Grant works to maintain and enhance the viability of Alaska’s coastal communities and ecosystems and to promote the wise use and conservation of Alaska’s marine and coastal resources, through research, education, and extension.

Introduction

Sea Grant in Alaska

Alaska accounts for nearly one‐fifth the area of the United States. Alaska’s awe‐inspiring landscapes stir the country’s imagination, as one of the last great symbols of a proud, can‐do frontier nation; and our abundant natural resources help feed the nation and fuel the national economy.

Central to Alaska’s importance to the nation and the world are its marine resources, which are without rival in the United States. Extending over 36,000 miles, Alaska’s coastline exceeds that of all other states combined, and Alaska’s offshore waters cover more than two-thirds of the nation’s extended continental shelf. These waters host some of the world’s most abundant populations of year‐round and migratory marine life and strongly influence the entire Pacific and Arctic Ocean food webs. Alaska’s northern lands and waters—the U.S. Arctic frontier—are already experiencing the first impacts from global climate change, even as the Arctic is emerging as a new global economic frontier.

Three quarters of Alaska’s land area, and many of its marine mammal and fishery resources, are owned by the public and managed by the federal government. Alaska residents, as well as visitors from elsewhere, place a high value on the vast undeveloped expanses in the state. And the appeal of Alaska each year draws over a million tourists from around the United States and the world, many of whom vacation in Alaska’s marine and coastal areas.

Marine Resources Underpin Alaska’s Society

Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska fisheries annually yield a greater commercial fisheries harvest than the entire remainder of the United States. Sixty‐two percent of U.S. seafood landings come from Alaska, including 96 percent of all wild‐caught salmon, with a total annual value of nearly $2 billion. The seafood industry provides over 70,000 Alaska jobs, more than oil and gas, mining, tourism, and timber combined. Fishing and seafood processing underpin the economies of most coastal communities and often shape community social identities.

Alaska yields thirteen percent of U.S. crude oil production, most extracted from wells along the coast and offshore. Most of the oil is shipped elsewhere, traversing pristine state waters. Oil industry revenues provide the state’s largest source of income, providing 92 percent of general fund tax revenue in fiscal year 2010.

Coastal tourism accounts for much of the state’s visitor industry, a burgeoning $3.4‐billion industry that supports approximately 36,000 full‐time equivalency jobs—about 8 percent of all employment in Alaska—and second only to the seafood industry in private sector employment. In 2010, nearly 1.5 million people visited Alaska, more than half on cruise ships.

Alaska’s coastal and marine resources are the lifeblood of Alaska’s society, as well as a critical, export‐earning, part of the U.S. economic foundation. Nearly everyone in Alaska lives along the coast or major rivers that flow to the ocean. Perhaps more than any other state, livelihoods of a large portion of Alaska’s population center on or are affected by marine resources. Rural Alaskans get 35 percent of their food from the subsistence harvest of fish and game, and 75 percent of that is fish, shellfish, and marine mammals. Subsistence in Alaska is a cultural tradition dating back thousands of years, and sustainable subsistence harvests are critical to the economic well‐being of rural communities.

And beyond direct economic yield, Alaska’s pristine seas and coasts represent enormous assets. Alaska’s natural resources provide “ecosystem services” including ecological processes, watershed benefits, habitat for animals and people, and the biodiversity that makes a healthy planet and sustains life.

The Challenges of Space and Society

Alaska’s vast, rugged, and often difficult‐to‐access territory challenges community viability, and creates unique challenges for research, management and conservation of its ecosystems and resources.

For example, travel is not trivial. Approximately 800 miles and a $600+ round‐trip airfare separates Alaska Sea Grant headquarters in Fairbanks, in interior Alaska, from Juneau, the capital city in Southeast Alaska. A trip from Fairbanks to the Marine Advisory Program Unalaska office 1,200 miles away in the Aleutian Islands, costs about $1,200 and takes at least seven hours—if the weather is amenable. Most Alaska communities, including Juneau, Cordova, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Bethel, Dillingham, Sitka, Unalaska, and Kodiak, are accessible only by air and water.

Management of Alaska’s commercial, subsistence, and sport fisheries is divided among state, federal, and Alaska Native jurisdictions, and international rules sometimes apply. State resource management laws, dictated by the Alaska Constitution, sometimes conflict with federal laws. Alaska Natives from five historically distinct groups make up 17 percent of the population and add a multicultural dimension to every decision debated.

These and other interest groups within Alaska vie for what they believe is their fair share of the state’s natural resources or in some cases for complete preservation. These often contentious conditions provide a ripe environment for Alaska Sea Grant to exercise its strength as a respected and trusted entity that can bring together diverse interests to discuss and resolve issues with the aid of reliable, science‐based and traditional or local information.

Service to the State

For more than three decades, Alaska Sea Grant and its extension arm, the Marine Advisory Program, have helped people understand, conserve, and wisely and sustainably use Alaska’s bountiful coastal and marine resources. We do this through a program of research, education, and extension activities across the state, coordinated and often delivered by Marine Advisory Program faculty based in strategically selected communities around the coast.

Alaska Sea Grant’s efforts have yielded tangible results. For example; the Alaska Young Fishermen’s Summit continues to bring next-generation commercial fishermen face to face with political, industry and regulatory leaders, as a means to train future leaders for the state’s fisheries; a new community cold storage facility, established by a community group with assistance from our Petersburg marine advisory agent, continues to operate on a sound economic basis; coastal communities are prepared for possible tsunami events; and information and training delivered by Marine Advisory Program agents has contributed to fewer fishing‐related deaths.

Innovative research on salmon, funded by Alaska Sea Grant, is helping fisheries managers better understand long‐term fluctuations in salmon populations and how interbreeding can affect those populations. Information shared by scientists and resource managers during our international scientific symposia has improved fishery management and led to greater understanding of high latitude marine ecosystems and communities. Alaska Sea Grant has contributed to a well‐trained workforce through its support of dozens of graduate students, many of whom have gone on to work for resource management agencies, marine industries, conservation groups, and academic institutions in Alaska.

We continue to create and provide educational materials to help fishermen and other coastal businesses increase efficiency and reduce costs in their business and operational practices, as well as improving public awareness and understanding of our marine and coastal ecosystems and the complex issues that are impacting them. Alaska Sea Grant helps connect researchers to schools through its partnership in the Alaska Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE Alaska), and we provide and support a range of teaching tools for homeschoolers, K–12 schools and the public.

Looking to the Future

While most U.S. mainland coastal and Great Lakes states grapple with problems related to increasing population and overuse of natural resources, we in Alaska still have time to avoid most such problems. As part of the national network of Sea Grant programs and a key asset of the University of Alaska Fairbanks—Alaska’s research university and the nation’s premier Arctic university—Alaska Sea Grant is ideally situated to apply lessons from other states to maintain and preserve our pristine and near‐pristine coastal ecosystems and to ensure that we use them wisely and sustainably into the future.

This strategic plan builds on the goals developed for, and outlined in, our 2009–2013 strategic plan. That plan was compiled in partnership with fellow Alaskans who share a keen interest in the vitality of our marine and coastal resources, and especially with our Alaska Sea Grant Advisory Committee. Because its strategies and priorities remain both current and relevant, we have not undertaken a major plan revision. Rather, we have reexamined the existing plan, adjusted and updated it where necessary, and realigned the focus areas, goals and performance measures to conform with the new 2014–2017 National Sea Grant strategic plan [PDF; 192 KB], as well as with current NOAA plans and priorities.

Alaska Sea Grant’s Focus Areas

Alaska Sea Grant will use the four national focus areas:

Healthy Coastal Ecosystems (HCE)

Strategic Issues

Alaska is unique in its vast size. It borders two oceans and three seas, ranging across arctic, subarctic, and temperate habitats with complex, interdependent freshwater, estuarine, and marine ecosystems. These high latitude ecosystems support an abundance of local and migrant species that capitalize on high summer productivity. Alaska is also unique in its small population, in the strong linkage of its communities to their environment, and in the remoteness of many of those communities from the rest of the nation. Our communities, and the critical ecosystems of which they are an integral part, are already under pressure to adapt to the direct and indirect impacts of climate change. Changes in ice distribution and behavior, increasing ocean temperature and acidity, and shifts in species range and distribution threaten a way of life that has persisted for many centuries. At the same time, Alaska’s communities face unprecedented increases in human impact from tourism, from resource exploration and extraction, and from rapidly increasing shipping and other traffic. And all of these are exacerbated by population shifts from remote communities to larger centers.

Alaska is unique in the nation in the extent of its dependence on both commercial fisheries that produce income for residents and communities, and on wild food gathered for subsistence and for personal use to supplement “store‐bought” diets. Wild‐caught fish, in particular, can be found in almost every household across the state, and there are many communities in which families depend on subsistence, recreational, and/or commercial fishing for a significant portion of their livelihood. Healthy coastal ecosystems are essential for the survival and welfare of these resource‐dependent communities.

Enhancing the ability of communities to function as part of a healthy coastal ecosystem is at the core of the Alaska Sea Grant mission. As coastal ecosystems change with a changing climate, or with increased or new uses by humans, Alaska Sea Grant’s role in enhancing the understanding of how to adapt to change and mitigate impacts is key to sustaining the health of Alaska’s extensive coastal ecosystems and the communities they support.

Alaska Sea Grant Goal

Alaska Learning Outcomes
  1. Increase understanding of human‐induced and natural impacts on Alaska’s marine and coastal ecosystems and the communities that depend on them through research, education and extension.
  2. Provide decision makers with science‐based information that can be used to develop well‐informed policies to maintain the health and sustainable use of Alaska’s marine and coastal ecosystems.
  3. Provide researchers with links to community‐based information to support research and to assist and encourage the return of new ideas and research results to communities.
  4. Identify critical uncertainties that impede progress toward achieving sustainability of ecosystems and the goods and services they provide (National Sea Grant Strategic Plan [NSGSP] 1.2).
  5. Stakeholders have access to data, models, policy information and training that support ecosystem‐based planning, decision‐making and management approaches (NSGSP 2.1).
  6. Baseline data, standards, methodologies and indicators are developed to assess the health of ecosystems and watersheds (NSGSP 2.2).
  7. Residents, resource managers, businesses and industries understand the effects of human activities and environmental changes on coastal resources (NSGSP 2.3).
  8. Residents, resource managers and businesses understand the importance of the benefits provided by preserving non‐degraded ecosystems (NSGSP 3.1).
  9. Residents, resource managers and businesses understand the threats to ecosystems and the consequences of degraded ecosystems (NSGSP 3.2).
Alaska Action Outcome
  1. Engage citizens in monitoring, data collection and other activities that increase the reach of researchers’ research and provide hands‐on education.
  2. Resource managers apply ecosystem‐based management principles when making decisions (NSGSP 2.6).
  3. Residents, resource managers and businesses integrate social, natural and physical science when managing resources and work with all sectors in the decision‐making process (NSGSP 2.8).
  4. Resource managers set realistic and prioritized goals to protect, enhance and restore habitats by incorporating scientific information and public input (NSGSP 3.4).
  5. Resource managers, businesses and residents adopt innovative approaches and technologies to maintain or improve the function of ecosystems (NSGSP 3.5).
Alaska Consequence Outcomes
  1. Dynamic ecological systems provide a wide range of ecological, economic and societal services and are more resilient to change (NSGSP 1.4).
  2. Greater public stewardship leads to participatory decision‐making and collaborative ecosystem‐based management decisions (NSGSP 1.5).
  3. Habitats are protected, enhanced or restored (NSGSP 3.6).

National Sea Grant Goals

Alaska Performance Measure
National Performance Measures

Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture (SFA)

Strategic Issues

Alaska is unique in the nation in the extent of residents’ dependence on wild food gathered for subsistence and for personal use to supplement “store‐bought” diets. Wild‐caught fish, in particular, can be found in many households across the state, and families in many Alaska communities depend on subsistence, recreational, and/or commercial fishing for a significant portion of their livelihood. More than half of the seafood Americans eat from U.S. waters is caught in Alaska. Maintaining a safe and sustainable seafood supply is critical for the nation, for the state, for communities that depend on seafood production, and for all Alaskans for whom seafood is a significant contributor to diet and to household economies. The Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program’s seafood specialists are active in both research and community education, with support from our agents around the state.

Supporting small businesses that underpin local economies and provide community jobs is another core component of Alaska Sea Grant’s mission. Business and management training, seafood product development, and safety and energy efficiency assessments are key program activities under this focus area.

Alaska Sea Grant Goal

Alaska Learning Outcomes
  1. Train Alaska seafood professionals to excel in maintaining quality and safety.
  2. Provide fishermen, seafood processors and aquaculture industry personnel with information and training to enable them to adopt or change practices to improve profitability, sustainability or seafood safety.
  3. Provide Alaska’s developing shellfish aquaculture industry with information and training on advanced technology and operational practices for safe, economical farming, processing, transportation practices that also deliver the highest quality product to consumers, and marketing of shellfish.
  4. Inform and educate coastal community organizations and citizens about the occurrence and potential toxic effects of harmful algal blooms (HAB).
  5. Provide Alaska’s developing shellfish aquaculture industry with information and training on effective marketing.
  6. The seafood industry is aware of the standards for safe seafood (NSGSP 5.1).
Alaska Action Outcomes
  1. Increase utilization and economic value of seafood waste byproducts through research and outreach.
  2. Improve understanding of fisheries research by engaging fishermen and other stakeholders in research prioritization, planning, and implementation.
  3. Enhance sustainability of fish populations and fisheries in face of environmental and anthropogenic change through research and outreach in support of management needs.
  4. Support equitable and sustainable fisheries through research and outreach on the effects of access‐related management decisions on fisheries and communities.
  5. Support development and implementation of innovative and economical new handling and processing methods to expand the variety and quality of Alaska seafood products.
  6. Train and support local HAB monitoring programs.
  7. Produce appropriate educational products and make them available to processors, resellers and consumers.
  8. Fishermen employ efficient fishing techniques, including bycatch reduction (NSGSP 4.6).
  9. The seafood industry adopts innovative technologies and approaches to supply safe and sustainable seafood (NSGSP 4.8).
  10. The commercial fishing and aquaculture industries adopt innovative marketing strategies to add value to their products (NSGSP 4.9).
  11. The seafood processing industry implements innovative techniques and processes to create new product forms and ensure the delivery of safe and healthy seafood (NSGSP 4.12).
Alaska Consequence Outcome
  1. There is an expansion of the sustainable domestic fishing and aquaculture industries (NSGSP 4.14).

National Sea Grant Goals

Alaska Performance Measures
National Performance Measures

Resilient Communities and Economies (RCE)

Strategic Issues

About 70 percent of Alaska’s 700,000 residents live along the coastal zone or in coastal watersheds. These cities, small towns, and villages are culturally diverse and geographically widespread. In Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage, more than 90 languages are spoken in the school district, reflecting the cultural diversity of the state as a whole. Across the vast, geographically state, a variety of environmental, economic and social pressures increasingly threaten traditional lifestyles and local economies.

Alaska Sea Grant Goal

Alaska Learning Outcomes
  1. Encourage and assist coastal communities to plan for, prevent, and respond to hazardous substance spills and other marine pollution problems.
  2. Improve boating safety to help reduce drowning and injuries by providing training and educational materials.
  3. Build capacity within communities to plan for, mitigate, and respond to extreme events.
  4. Build capacity within communities to plan and develop new shellfish aquaculture, seafood production and other sustainable coastal enterprises.
  5. Increase the ability of coastal community residents to identify and take advantage of economic opportunities through leadership and vocational training, and professional development opportunities.
  6. Strengthen the voice of local residents and industry stakeholders through education about regulatory processes and training for improved presentation and communication skills.
  7. Communities are aware of the interdependence between the health of the economy and the health of the natural and cultural systems (NSGSP 6.1).
  8. Communities have access to information needed to understand the value of waterfront- and tourism‐related economic activities (NSGSP 6.2).
  9. Communities are aware of regulatory regimes affecting economic sustainability (NSGSP 6.4).
  10. Communities are knowledgeable about economic savings from energy planning and conservation (NSGSP 6.5).
  11. Communities understand the connection between planning and natural resource management issues and make management decisions that minimize conflicts, improve resource conservation efforts and identify potential opportunities (NSGSP 7.1).
  12. Residents and decision‐makers are aware of and understand the processes that produce hazards and climate change and the implications of those processes for them and their communities (NSGSP 9.1).
  13. Decision‐makers are aware of existing and available hazard‐ and climate‐related data and resources and have access to information and skills to assess local risk vulnerability (NSGSP 9.2).
  14. Communities have access to data and innovative and adaptive tools and techniques to minimize the potential negative impact from hazards (NSGSP 9.3).
Alaska Action Outcomes
  1. Foster diverse and sustainable local economic activity in coastal communities through technical assistance and training.
  2. Foster development and adoption of community climate response plans with strong involvement of residents.
  3. Foster incorporation of new shellfish aquaculture production and marketing enterprises in economic development and coastal management plans.
  4. Citizens are actively engaged in management and regulatory decisions (NSGSP 6.6).
  5. Communities engage in economic development initiatives that capitalize on the value of their natural and cultural resources while balancing resource conservation and economic growth (NSGSP 6.7).
  6. The public, leaders and businesses work together to implement plans for the future and to balance multiple uses of coastal areas (NSGSP 7.4).
  7. Communities apply best available hazards and climate change information, tools and technologies in the planning process (NSGSP 9.5).
  8. Decision‐makers apply data, guidance, policies and regulations to hazard planning and recovery efforts (NSGSP 9.6).
  9. Communities develop and adopt comprehensive hazard mitigation and adaptation strategies suited to local needs (NSGSP 9.7).
  10. Residents take action to reduce the impact of coastal hazards on their life and property (NSGSP 9.8).
  11. Communities adopt a comprehensive risk communications strategy for hazardous events (NSGSP 9.9).
Alaska Consequence Outcomes
  1. Communities have diverse, healthy economies and industries without displacing traditional working waterfronts (NSGSP 6.8).
  2. Quality of life in communities, as measured by economic and social well‐being, improves without adversely affecting environmental conditions (NSGSP 7.5).

National Sea Grant Goals

Alaska Performance Measures
National Performance Measures

Environmental Literacy and Workforce Development (ELWD)

Strategic Issues

The transmission of accurate, timely, and appropriate information to Alaska residents, visitors, businesses, scientists, and managers is fundamental to all of Alaska Sea Grant’s goals and objectives. This is particularly important as our communities face unprecedented kinds and rates of change, as pressures on coastal environments from resource extraction and international shipping increase, and as younger Alaskans continue to migrate from smaller to larger communities. Despite the urgent need for scientists and managers who are well trained in resource management, fisheries, climate, and related subjects, Alaska does not have a coordinated and comprehensive approach to education or professional development focused on marine resources and ecosystems. Students often enter adulthood with little background in the fundamentals of the marine, estuarine, and coastal watershed resources that are so valued in their state.

To maintain healthy, viable communities, Alaskans need easy access to current research and information, and the skills and understanding to make full use of those data and information.

Alaska Sea Grant Goal

Alaska Learning Outcomes
  1. Foster safe and sustainable use and enjoyment, by residents and visitors of all ages, of Alaska’s marine and coastal resources by providing appropriate information and educational opportunities.
  2. Work with Alaska’s youth to enhance their understanding, respect and stewardship of the marine and coastal ecosystems where they will live, hunt, fish, work and play.
  3. Lifelong learners are able to engage in informal science education opportunities focused on coastal topics (NSGSP 10.3).
  4. Students and teachers are aware of opportunities to participate in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and active stewardship programs (NSGSP 11.1).
Alaska Action Outcomes
  1. Create new educational opportunities, both formal and informal, to provide Alaska’s youth with education and training that is relevant and beneficial to their communities.
  2. Formal and informal education programs incorporate environmental literacy components (NSGSP 10.6).
  3. Formal and informal education programs take advantage of the knowledge of Sea Grant–supported scientists and engagement professionals (NSGSP 10.7).
  4. Lifelong learners make choices and decisions based on information they learned through informal science education opportunities (NSGSP 10.9).
  5. Graduate students are trained in research and engagement methodologies (NSGSP 11.3).
  6. Research projects support undergraduate and graduate training in fields related to understanding and managing our coastal resources (NSGSP 11.4).
Alaska Consequence Outcomes
  1. Alaska natives and residents are increasingly trained for careers that enable them to pursue productive careers in coastal communities.
  2. Members of the public incorporate broad understandings of their actions on the environment into personal decisions (NSGSP 10.11).

National Sea Grant Goals

Alaska Performance Measure
National Performance Measures
National Cross-Cutting Performance Measures

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