As NOAA keeps refining its mission and goals, as they seek to focus on its unique strengths, so must the National Sea Grant College Program strive to optimize the way we do business.

With this in mind, the Sea Grant Association voted in September 1998 to support the concept of Thematic Areas and Theme Teams. These teams would be responsible for the development of a number of products that could enhance the way in which the entire Sea Grant College Program operates. A thematic area approach also offers the following benefits:

• Helps organize all Sea Grant activities under common areas of interest
  
• Serves as a method for synthesizing thematic area efforts on a national scale.
  
• Creates opportunities and new directions for initiatives and investments
  
• Catalyzes cooperative efforts between: the various Sea Grant College Programs nationwide, individual programs and the National Sea Grant College Program, Sea Grant and NOAA, and Sea Grant and the Department of Commerce.
  
• Provides opportunities for cooperative ventures with other agencies.
  
• Provides a forum to organize communications, extension, education and research efforts on a national scale
  
• Provides a mechanism to further solidify Sea Grant’s local, regional and national identity
  Provides a strategically useful method for providing information to policymakers.

New York Sea Grant supports six of these Theme Areas, which are listed in the sidebar to the right, along with links to their individual pages. These pages include background information on each topic as well as links to related NYSG publications and Web sites.