Portfolio II: Applications of Technology

Our Response

Maryland Sea Grant has a strong history of supporting integrated programs of research, outreach and education in technology-based programs, particularly aquaculture. Our strategic plan identifies aquaculture enhancement and improvement of grow-out systems and improved husbandry as high priorities for continued emphasis. In assessing research and outreach support projects that propose other innovative uses of technology, we are guided by our strategic plan, which reflects both state and national priorities, peer review and evaluations by Sea Grant Extension faculty on potential applicability.

Aquaculture

Maryland Sea Grant support of aquaculture programs has been designed to advance productivity and meet the needs of key constituent interests, among them, the aquaculture industry, resource management agencies, policymakers, researchers and educators. Our investment in research has aimed at developing the methodological capabilities to optimize aquaculture production of fish and shellfish. Enhancing Maryland Aquaculture: The University of Maryland System Action Plan (1991) outlines key research goals on such issues as reproduction and genetics, disease control, nutrition, water quality, profitability, extension and education; Sea Grant Extension faculty were influential members of the coordinating committee that prepared the report, which Maryland Sea Grant produced.

While striped bass has been the primary focus of finfish research, it also serves as a model for other teleost species. Over the last decade, we have made substantial research investments in understanding reproductive processes in order to gain better control over the spawning of captive broodstock in hatcheries. We have also made substantial investments in research for improving finfish and shellfish growth rates, combating disease under high density stocking, improving nutrition and assessing profitability. In addition, since 1996 we have been helping to support research aimed at the cryopreservation of fish embryos; if successful, this capability could significantly help resource restoration and commercial culture of diverse species. While cryopreservation of eggs has been accomplished for most domesticated animals, birds and some wildlife species, it has so far proved to be a major difficulty for fish.

Biological and Chemical Technologies

Maryland Sea Grant has made targeted investments in research efforts to foster the application of new technologies for development of bioprocesses and bioproducts that can best address strategic concerns in Maryland and, in many instances, that have regional and national implications as well. These investments have been made through a variety of funding mechanisms including support from our core omnibus award, national initiatives (e.g., in Marine Biotechnology), and project development funds. A brief summary follows.

• Studies by Saul Roseman (Johns Hopkins University) and Greg Payne (University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the Univ. Maryland Biotechnology Institute) have addressed the issue of crab waste remediation by focusing on wholly different processes to obtain chitin-based products from crab shell that show promise of economic profitability; a third study by Ronald Weiner (R/BT-07) (University of Maryland, College Park) has employed a newly discovered bacterial species to degrade numbers of complex polysaccharide waste products, including chitin.
• A variety of microbiological pathogens exist in Chesapeake Bay as in all ecosystems and present varying degrees of risk to the general public and to natural populations of economically important stocks. Sea Grant has invested in projects to develop better technologies to assess such risks. An award helped Theodore Graczyk (R/F-88) (Johns Hopkins University) develop a battery of methodologies to accurately identify pathogenic Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts. The focus of these studies was to determine if oysters could accumulate the oocysts and become a vector for spread of disease to humans ingesting them.
• Frank Hetrick (R/F-70) (University of Maryland College Park) examined the sequence of microbiological and pathological changes that occur when striped bass are infected with selected microbial pathogens.
• Recently, Sea Grant has used program development funds to help leverage an award from the National Environmental Biotechnology Initiative to Daniel Fisher (R/BT-09) (Univ. Maryland Wye Research and Education Center), who is using a suite of biomarkers to detect possible disruption of endocrine function in estuarine fish exposed to runoff from fields fertilized with poultry waste. This practice is widely employed on Maryland's Eastern Shore where extensive poultry breeding takes place. Poultry manure is known to contain endocrine disrupters specifically 17 B-estradiol. Maryland Sea Grant's contribution will facilitate a collaboration with researchers in Virginia who are currently developing new assays.

In the early 1990s, Sea Grant supported two studies, a bioprospecting project by John Cardellina (National Cancer Institute) and Fred Singleton (UM Center of Marine Biotechnology) (R/MP-02), and a basic study by Robert Burchard (R/MP-01) (University of Maryland Baltimore County) for characterizing a novel inhibitor of biofilm formation.