Maine Sea Grant

Contributor: Natalie Springuel, Marine Extension Program Leader The sea breeze is keeping us cool this unusually hot day on the waters of Boston Harbor. We have left the Islands behind, including the gigantic egg-shaped sewage treatment towers on Long Island, and the recreational boats zooming to and fro. Our tour boat enters the inner reaches […]

Author: Ruby Dener is a marine research technician working with Maine’s Department of Marine Resources on a research project supported through the National Sea Grant American Lobster Initiative. As you dig into a lobster roll, drench a tail in butter, or pick some sweet claw meat, do you ever wonder how that lobster grew to […]

Author: Abbey Greene is a graduate student at the University of Rhode Island and the 2021 Rhode Island Sea Grant Fellow based at the Coastal Resources Center. She has been working with Azure Cygler on an extension project supported through the National Sea Grant American Lobster Initiative. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant challenges for […]

Author: Evie Layland is a University of Maine graduate student working with Drs. Rick Wahle and David Fields on a research project funded through the National Sea Grant American Lobster Initiative  Living in Maine, it is clear that the American lobster is a major player in the Northwestern Atlantic. Not only is lobster one of […]

This text is excerpted from the recently published Maine Shellfish Handbook, which contains information on the history, management, and biology of the soft-shell clam, northern quahog, American and European oysters, and blue mussels. For millennia, Wabanaki people have used soft-shell clams for food, trade, and cultural purposes, and continue to do so today. Historian George […]

Contributor: Tessa Rock, Maine Sea Grant Undergraduate Scholar When you wade in the ocean and let the salty water flow around you, what is running through your mind? Is your mind relaxing, are you looking for fish, or maybe you’re anxious a crab is going to pinch your toe? I bet you aren’t thinking about […]

Contributor: Natalie Springuel, Marine Extension Associate “It’s really cool to watch them grow.” That was David Wilson, a shellfish harvester and chair of the Harpswell Marine Resources Committee, talking about the quahogs that he and his fellow committee members are growing to help their town’s shellfish populations thrive. Wilson explained that they are using an […]

Contributor: Justin Stevens, Maine Sea Grant Marine Extension Associate and Sea-run Fish Ecosystem Project Coordinator Last week was National Estuary Week, and normally I would have been out in the field to survey the Penobscot River estuary, a 30 mile stretch where the river meets the sea. Every year for the past 10 years, I […]