The Ohio Sea Grant College Program has worked with researchers and educators for over 30 years to protect Lake Erie’s environment, as well as the other Great Lakes. Based at The Ohio State University, it is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is a network of 33 sea grant programs across the country.

“We do research, education and outreach on our water resources. So in Ohio, our main coast is Lake Erie obviously,” Tory Gabriel, the extension program leader and program manager from the Ohio Sea Grant said, “That’s where we focus our resources and we do a variety of things. We fund researchers from other universities, we get external grants and do that ourselves. We have five of us extension educators that go around and help local businesses and schools and whoever we can with Lake Erie related topics.”

The Ohio Sea Grant’s goal is to improve Great Lakes Literacy, meaning the purpose behind its education methods are to help people understand the influence that humans have on the Great Lakes and the influence the Great Lakes have on us.

It also has a separate research facility on Lake Erie called Stone Laboratory. Stone Laboratory is OSU’s island based campus and houses researchers too.

Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab provide the data behind informed policy decisions on science education, the Lake Erie environment and the impact on the region.