Fall 2024 Newsletter
Message from the Director
As winter approaches we are reminded of the storms that dominated our lives, some so much more than others, over the winter of 2023-2024. As those events unfolded, Maine Sea Grant sought input from our National Sea Grant Network colleagues in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and South Atlantic regions, who have been dealing with increased hurricane frequency. They shared their valuable insight about best practices for working with coastal communities during and after storms that have upended people’s lives. We used their advice to engage partners in Maine to explore how to respond and prepare for future storms. Beginning this month and running through January, we will be hosting convenings organized collaboratively with local leaders to create space for community members across diverse sectors to take stock of their working waterfront needs and opportunities and help to improve resilience to future storms. The convenings will provide a space to: share experiences; discuss resilience and working waterfront planning (recent, underway, or future); learn about resources for public and private working waterfront support; and identify systems and networks that would be useful to have in place locally to support waterfront community planning, communication, and response networks in anticipation of future storms.
For more information and to join these conversations please see find more information here.
– Gayle Zydlewski
Program Updates
Welcome, Fiscal Officer, Rachel!
Maine Sea Grant is thrilled to welcome Rachel Boynton to our team. Rachel is our new Grants Manager and Fiscal Officer. She comes to us with
extensive operations management experience and great enthusiasm for our
mission-driven work. Please help us welcome Rachel!
Meet Rachel here.
Fishermen’s Forum call for proposals
The Maine Fishermen’s Forum is now accepting seminar proposals for the upcoming Forum on February 27 – March 1, 2025 at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine. All proposals are due by November 30, 2024.
Learn More.
Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship Application
Applications are now open for the 2025 Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship. The Hollings Scholarship Program provides successful undergraduate applicants with awards that include academic assistance for two years of full-time study and a 10-week, full-time paid internship at a NOAA facility during the summer.
Learn more about the opportunity here.
Research
University of Maine Graduate Student Selected for NOAA/Sea Grant Fellowship
Maine Sea Grant would like to congratulate Jerelle Jesse on receiving a 2024 National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship! Jerelle is one of ten population dynamics fellows that will embark on critical fisheries research with support through this national program.
Meet Jerelle here.
Maine Sea Grant continues to support the American Lobster Initiative
We are happy to share that the National American Lobster Research Program has selected emerging research projects in 2023 and 2024. Seven projects will be funded in Maine, exceeding $2M, filling vital data gaps in our understanding of biological and socioeconomic aspects of lobster populations in the Gulf of Maine and how these data can be best captured in management scenarios. Researchers are taking a collaborative approach with partnerships among industry, state agencies and academia. The projects were chosen through a competitive process that included review by subject matter experts, and the projects require at least a 50 percent match in non-federal funds.
Stay tuned for more and read about the funded projects here.
2024 Biennial Research Symposium
In October, Maine Sea Grant hosted the 2024 Biennial Research Symposium, an event that began taking place back in 2008! Highlights of the symposium included presentations and discussions, a poster session, and a networking time to facilitate new collaborations and partnerships within and among Maine research institutions, industry groups, coastal communities, and education and outreach organizations.
Sea Grant researchers who are completing recent projects discussed their outcomes and Sea Grant researchers funded in our 2024-2026 biennial competition discussed the goals and objectives of their new projects.
Congratulations to all of the students and researchers involved in this year’s symposium!
Extension and Community Engagement
Meet the MET – Chris Bartlett
On this season’s “Meet the MET (Marine Extension Associate)”, we’re introducing Chris Bartlett, our Senior Extension Program Manager!
Meet Chris through his video here.
Aquaculture Supplemental Funding
Maine Sea Grant, along with other Sea Grant programs, has been awarded funding to support and improve aquaculture capacity across the country. With this award, Maine Sea Grant will further aquaculture outreach and education activities such as hands-on farmer training workshops, provide opportunities for Maine residents to learn about sea farming and its impacts, and conduct applied research in partnership with farmers that addresses topics of emerging interest.
Learn about other funded projects here.
Marine Debris Challenge
As part of the Maine Coastal Cleanup 2024, Maine Sea Grant staff, researchers, and students from the Marine Debris team engaged in marine debris removal and data entry activities around the coast of Maine. Marine debris is any kind of solid material (primarily plastic) that finds its way into marine and coastal ecosystems, which can injure and kill marine life, interfere with navigation safety, and pose a threat to human health here in Maine and around the world. The Maine Coastal Cleanup 2024 effort that aligns with the objectives of the project was an opportunity for the marine debris team members to directly see the effect of marine debris on the sensitive coastal ecosystems of Maine and understand ways in which they can integrate the lessons learned into their project components.
The Marine Debris team in Maine consists of students and faculty members from the UMaine Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Department of Anthropology/Climate Change Institute, and Maine Sea Grant, formed as part of NOAA’s Marine Debris Program to address the prevention and removal of marine debris in the Gulf of Maine.
Learn more about Maine’s Marine Debris team here.
Storm response in working waterfront communities
With funding from the National Sea Grant Office and in partnership with Maine Coastal Program, UMaine MARINE, Island Institute, and local partners, Maine Sea Grant is planning 10 local convenings focused on storm response in working waterfront communities.
Register here.
Education and Workforce Development
Maine Sea Grant announces 2024 undergraduate scholarship recipients
Maine Sea Grant is excited to announce that 12 students will receive a 2024 Maine Sea Grant Undergraduate Scholarship in Marine Sciences to support tuition or other academic or research-related expenses!
Meet the recipients here.
Maine Knauss Fellows share their experience with the John A. Knauss Fellowship Program
Gabrielle Hiller – Finding the Ocean in Washington, DC
Aubrey Jane – A Year in the Life of a Knauss Fellow
Emily Nocito – From Washington, DC, to Rhodes, Greece
Congratulations to our 2025 Knauss Fellow!
Kara Chuang, a University of Maine graduate, has recently been selected as a member of the 2025 cohort of the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship! The fellowship provides a unique educational experience to students interested in ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources.
Meet Kara here.
Maine Sea Grant Learning Landscapes Internship – Summer 2024
University of Vermont undergraduate student, Tori Harris, spent the summer of 2024 as a Maine Sea Grant Learning Landscapes Intern, where she was able to work alongside various members of the Maine Sea Grant team to help expand Signs of the Seasons, discover different ways to bridge the gap between humans and nature, and develop relationships with partners across the state.
Read Tori’s blog here.
In the News
- Maine Sea Grant’s Annie Fagan was interviewed about the 2024 Women in Aquaculture workshops for the series feature on page 16 of Aquaculture North America.
- With storms worsening in Maine, MaineBiz shared an infrastructure report as well as announced 10 community meetings this fall and early winter that will explore how to better respond to and prepare for future storms.
- A new study led by researchers at Bigelow Laboratory and funded by Maine Sea Grant documents complex changes to Maine’s kelp forests, as explained by Penobscot Bay Pilot.
- News Center Maine covered a roundtable meeting held by the Island Institute that allowed Maine state legislators to discuss storm recovery processes for Maine’s working waterfronts.
- Maine Sea Grant, in partnership with Saltwater Classroom and Nauti Sisters Sea Farm, received an eeBLUE mini-grant and are using the funds to create an interactive oyster-based curriculum for third- to sixth-grade students in Southern Maine, as announced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
- With Maine sea farmers putting whole scallops on the market, and since Maine’s fished scallops are of the highest quality available, Maine Sea Grant’s Dana Morse, in collaboration with local partners, traveled to France to learn more about how to put these industry-leading products to best use for chefs, restaurateurs and consumers. Read about what they learned on their trip on page 82 of Yankee Magazine’s November/December issue.
- WMTW 8 spoke with Maine Sea Grant’s Natalie Springuel at the first storm response convening in Damariscotta, Maine.
Mark your Calendars
Tune in to WERU Community Radio ((89.9 FM in Blue Hill and streaming online at WERU.org) from 4:00 to 4:30 PM the fourth Friday of each month for Coastal Conversations, a public affairs program hosted by Marine Extension Associate Natalie Springuel that explores current issues facing Maine’s coastal communities through conversations with people who live, work, and play on our coast. Coastal Conversations is supported by Maine Sea Grant, in partnership with co-hosts at Schoodic Institute and The First Coast.
Want to Connect?
- Aquaculture Research Development & Education Summit, January 9
- Lobster Town Hall Meeting, January 29 & 30, 2025
- National Working Waterfront Network Conference, February 4 – 6
- Fishermen’s Forum, February 27 – March 1, 2025
- 2025 Maine Sustainability and Water Conference, March 27, 2025
Tune in to WERU Community Radio (89.9 FM in Blue Hill and streaming online at WERU.org) from 4:00 to 4:30 PM the fourth Friday of each month for Coastal Conversations, a public affairs program hosted by Marine Extension Program Leader Natalie Springuel that explores current issues facing Maine’s coastal communities through conversations with people who live, work, and play on our coast. Coastal Conversations is supported by Maine Sea Grant, in partnership with Schoodic Institute and The First Coast.