New Look for Sea Grant Website

Maryland Sea Grant has launched a wholly reconfigured website. "This is more than a face lift," said Sea Grant Director Jonathan Kramer. "We have designed an entirely new way to present our information."

Showcasing a large store of information can be daunting. Research results. Technical syntheses. How-to fact sheets. Profiles on life in the Bay. Warnings about coastal hazards. The list goes on. With the rapid growth of available information over the past decade, users face the threat of information overload. The challenge, Kramer said, is to offer a logical pathway, so that information-seekers are not quickly overwhelmed.

The web designers solved this challenge with a front page that offers two portals to Sea Grant's wealth of resources. One door leads to programs in research, education, and outreach. These include scientific studies, summer training for teachers, and technical information on oyster gardening, water quality, and aquaculture.

Maryland Sea Grant's new website features an interactive
food web that explores the interconnections of important
species in the mid-Chesapeake Bay. Based on a scientific
model by Dr. Robert Ulanowicz and Dr. Daniel Baird, the
food web follows how energy from carbon flows through
the food web by way of what eats what.

The second portal leads to Chesapeake Bay and watershed issues. Here users can access background information on the Bay's important living resources - including oysters, crabs, and finfish. They can learn about challenges facing coastal communities, whether economic or environmental. They can find video documentaries that describe Bay restoration efforts or the mysteries of toxic algae. They can see a graphic depiction of the Bay's complex food web and how energy flows from single-celled algae all the way to trophy-sized striped bass.

The launch of the new website is one of several events planned for the 30th anniversary of the Maryland Sea Grant College. Information on future events will be posted on News and Notes in the coming months.

Maryland Sea Grant is administered by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science on behalf of the University System of Maryland. It is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the State of Maryland and forms part of a network of 30 Sea Grant Colleges at universities nationwide. The law creating the National Sea Grant College Program was passed by Congress in 1966.

-- Jack Greer