Syracuse, NY, January 30, 2025 - In celebration of 40 years of Great Lakes science, The Great Lakes Research Consortium (GLRC) has released a new report (pdf).

Highlights of the report include ...

• Shipboard Science Workshops for Teachers (Page 5) — Teachers and environmental educators have worked alongside preeminent Great Lakes researchers during week-long Shipboard Science Workshops aboard the EPA Research Vessel Lake Guardian. The teachers collect water samples for analysis and other tasks on deck for analysis in the ship’s labs, and develop Great Lakes-focused curricula and lessons in the ship’s classroom with Sea Grant Great Lakes literacy specialists. GLRC has provided equipment and supplies.

• GLRC Outreach (Page 6) — The GLRC thanks Dave White for 10 years of service as GLRC Associate Director and 38 years as a New York Sea Grant Great Lakes extension specialist.

• Lake Trout Epigenetics Research & Outreach Team (Page 9) — Increasing evidence indicates that the unnatural conditions experienced by fishes during early-life stages in hatcheries cause epigenetic changes in gene expression in fishes and that the changes are heritable in offspring in the wild.

• Taking Fishery Research to School (Page 9) — New York Sea Grant Great Lakes Literacy Specialist Nate Drag and Great Lakes Fisheries & Ecosystem Health Specialist Stacy Furgal are incorporating the epigenetics project data and insights into lesson plans for grades 8-12 teachers.

• GLRC Alumni: Graduating to Environmental Careers (Page 18) — GLRC-funded research by Stacy Furgal, New York Sea Grant Great Lakes Fisheries & Ecosystem Health Specialist, which was conducted at the U.S. Geological Survey Lake Ontario Biological Station at Oswego, analyzed young-of-year alewife diets.

"My GLRC experience was great for building confidence and skills that would later be vital for my success in graduate school," said Furgal. "The project provided networking and skill-building opportunities that benefited me in my career path toward New York Sea Grant."

• Per a recent GLRC members’ survey (Pages 20-22) by the GLRC and New York Sea Grant, the GLRC’s original needs and goals remain pertinent. The results of this “Visioning the Future of GLRC” survey will help guide the Consortium forward to meet the legacy and emerging challenges to the Great Lakes’ ecosystem and economy. Special thanks to New York Sea Grant Associate Director Katherine Bunting-Howarth, Ph.D., J.D., for coordinating the GLRC member’s survey.

GLRC, housed at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY, encompasses 18 colleges and universities in New York with nine affiliate campuses in Ontario, dedicated to collaborative research and education on the Great Lakes. Nearly 400 member faculty conduct research in every facet of Great Lakes science.

Three principle goals guide the work at GLRC, which helps researchers across New York State to collaborate with each other: 1) To facilitate research and scholarship on the chemical, physical, biological, and social processes that affect the Great Lakes, 2) to provide opportunities for the training and education of students, and 3) to disseminate information and research findings.

For more information on GLRC, visit www.esf.edu/glrc.

More Info: New York Sea Grant

Established in 1966, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s National Sea Grant College Program promotes the informed stewardship of coastal resources in 34 joint federal/state university-based programs in every U.S. coastal state (marine and Great Lakes) and Puerto Rico. The Sea Grant model has also inspired similar projects in the Pacific region, Korea and Indonesia.

Since 1971, New York Sea Grant (NYSG) has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

NYSG historically leverages on average a 3 to 6-fold return on each invested federal dollar, annually. We benefit from this, as these resources are invested in Sea Grant staff and their work in communities right here in New York.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

New York Sea Grant, one of the largest of the state Sea Grant programs, is a cooperative program of the State University of New York (SUNY) and Cornell University. The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY Oswego, the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark, and in Watertown. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County on Long Island, in Queens, at Brooklyn College, with Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC, in Bronx, with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County in Kingston, and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County in Elmsford.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org, follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and YouTube). NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which it publishes 2-3 times a year.