January 2021 - COVID 19 Response
Photo by Lisa Tossey
Delaware Sea Grant moved quickly to help address negative impacts to education, community resilience and local economies in the state due to the COVID-19 pandemic, implementing a number of responses almost as soon as the lockdown began in the spring and continuing through the fall of 2020.
These efforts include:
Helping seafood producers shift sales directly to consumers by creating a webpage (deseagrant.org/seafood) to help promote local, sustainable seafood options and connect the public with seafood providers; DESG also ran advertising campaigns in the summer and fall to promote the webpage and seafood consumption, especially of Inland Bays Oysters
Supporting a regional marketing campaign by the Southern Delaware Tourism Office to promote safe, timely travel back to coastal Delaware in a responsible manner
Soliciting proposals from Delaware communities for projects that would enhance local economies, create businesses and jobs, enhance quality of life and community livability, increase sustainability, and improve the quality of our coastal environments
Helping to form the Cape Community Coordination for COVID-19 (CCC4COVID)—the only grassroots COVID-19 response coalition of its size and scope in Delaware.
Creating a new, virtual Oceanography Merit Badge program for the Boy Scouts of America consisting of live Zoom sessions on four consecutive Saturdays, plus asynchronous videos for scouts to watch between live sessions.
In addition to the work listed above, DESG also collected resources for dealing with COVID-19 through remote learning, nature-based recreation and support for specific situations.
Notable Dates in January
January 5 — The Avian Welfare Coalition’s National Bird Day campaign aims to reduce the suffering of birds by raising public awareness of the destructive bird trade, the realities of cruel bird breeding mills, and ways to improve the welfare of birds already in captivity. Learn more at their official website.
January 14 — Delaware Sea Grant Research RFP Question-and-Answer Session. DESG is soliciting research proposals for the next two-year funding period that begins on February 1, 2022. Competition for funding from the Delaware Sea Grant College Program is designed to produce the strongest package of applied research, education, and outreach possible and should address coastal challenges and opportunities that are important to the state of Delaware. Interested researchers can join a Q&A session with Delaware Sea Grant Associate Director Christian Hauser to learn more about the proposal process and advice on completing it. Click here to learn more.
January 26 — Applications due for the NOAA Fisheries Service - National Sea Grant College Program joint fellowships in Population & Ecosystem Dynamics and Marine Resource Economics by 5PM. Check out the top two listings on this page for more information.