National Sea Grant, the command center of the nation’s Sea Grant network, came into existence on October 17, 1966, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the National Sea Grant College and Program Act. The act’s goal was to make the oceans more productive in the service of people and the nation. Reduced to its essentials, Sea Grant was to figure out how to best use the ocean and how to best preserve it—a delicate balancing act we continue to struggle with today. In those early years, Sea Grant supported a handful of research activities scattered on campuses throughout the state.

            With a vision of pooling the state’s resources, Scripps Director William A. Nierenberg aptly championed the University of California—and in particular Scripps—as the place California Sea Grant should call home. In large part because of Nierenberg’s support, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), our parent organization, formally designated the University of California an official Sea Grant “College Program” at an awards ceremony in Berkeley on October 25, 1973.

National Sea Grant College Program

California Sea Grant College Program

CALFED Science Fellows Program

Seafood NIC

SGEP Surveys