Consortium Welcomes New Staff

Several new staff members have recently joined the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium:

Amanda Guthrie, Ph.D., Coastal Climate and Resilience specialist; Jocelyn Fifer, Living Marine Resources specialist; Emmi Palenbaum, Coastal Public Information coordinator; Morgan Treon, Marine Education program specialist; and Duncan Williamson, Coastal Resilience graduate assistant.

Extension Staff Win Prestigious National Award

During the Sea Grant conference in September 2022, April Turner, Coastal Communities program specialist, Emmi Palenbaum, formerly an Extension graduate assistant who is now the Coastal Public Information coordinator, and Liz McQuain, formerly an Extension graduate assistant who currently works for Louisiana Sea Grant, were recognized for Calling the Coast Home, a continuing education series for coastal South Carolina real estate professionals. The program was chosen by Extension peers to receive the Superior Outreach Programming Award, a national award honoring a team effort by Sea Grant Extension staff to produce an exceptional outreach program.

Calling the Coast Home, which launched in 2020, was developed in partnership with members of the S.C. Coastal Information Network. Four two-hour courses were created: Coastal Lifestyle for Clean Water, The Land-Water Connection, Living with Water, and Tidelands, Water, and Beach: Regulations and Rebuilding. Over the past few years, the program expanded coastwide and is now offered through three realtor associations; to date, Calling the Coast Home courses have been taught to nearly 850 participants.

Contact Emmi Palenbaum, Coastal Public Information coordinator, at (843) 953-2082 for more information about Calling the Coast Home.

Photo: Emmi Palenbaum and Liz McQuain with their Superior Outreach Programming awards from the Sea Grant Extension Assembly. Photo courtesy of Susan Lovelace, S.C. Sea Grant Consortium.

Consortium Helps Gullah Geechee Chamber Secure Grant for Seafood Trail

The S.C. Sea Grant Consortium assisted the Gullah Geechee Chamber Foundation with navigating the federal grants process, which resulted in a two-year award of over $280,000 from the NOAA Fisheries’ Saltonstall-Kennedy Program to the foundation for the development of a Gullah Geechee Seafood Trail. The trail will promote seafood businesses owned by members of Gullah Geechee communities in South Carolina, and will provide a vehicle for sharing their rich maritime cultural heritage experiences and stories with people visiting from around the world. Project leaders have eventual plans to expand the trail to the coasts of North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, which are within the nationally recognized Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.

Collaborators include the Gullah Geechee Chamber Foundation, WeGOJA Foundation, Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, Gullah/Geechee Fishing Association, and Coastal Carolina University, and with a potential $34 billion economic benefit from tourism in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (2020 report), it’s important that historically underserved communities realize some of this economic benefit.

In 2022, the Consortium supported the social-science research objectives of the project by hosting four focus groups in Georgetown, Charleston, Kingstree, and Beaufort. During these sessions, Gullah Geechee community members spoke about familial connections to water; seafood harvesting and preparation techniques; land stewardship; sweetgrass basket weaving; culturally significant locations; how knowledge is passed down to younger generations; and challenges facing heritage preservation as well as potential solutions to those challenges.

For more information about the Gullah Geechee Seafood Trail, contact Matt Gorstein, assistant director for Development and Extension, at (843) 953-2084.

Photo: Project team members host a focus group in Georgetown, S.C. Photo courtesy of Sarah Pedigo, S.C. Sea Grant Consortium.