Maine Sea Grant

Taylor Bailey Spencer joined Maine Sea Grant in 2025 as a Coastal Processes Postdoctoral Research Associate working on the NOAA Climate Resilience Regional Challenge: Resilient Maine project, a statewide initiative led by the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF). This collaborative effort supports the state’s Maine Won’t Wait Climate Action Plan and […]

Addressing a Data Gap and Community Questions Rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum)—an alga, not a fish, but still managed as a fishery by law—has been harvested for thousands of years on Maine’s coast, more extensively in the early 1900s, and on a commercial scale starting in the 1970s. When rockweed came to be harvested at a larger […]

A conversation with Dr. Douglas Rasher In 2018, Dr. Douglas Rasher (Bigelow Labs) was awarded $149,980 from Maine Sea Grant for a two-year project researching the return of Maine’s kelp forests with a specific focus on patterns, drivers, and implications for industry. This project is closely aligned with Maine Sea Grant’s mission to support and […]

It’s an overcast day in Brunswick, but silvery sunlight is shining down at Wharton Point. A cluster of red-winged blackbirds sings in the sumac trees above piles of clam shells by the town landing, evidence of one of many human activities here that has gone on for thousands of years and continues today. The tide […]

We’re excited to welcome three outstanding students to the 2025 cohort of the Maine Sea Grant – NOAA Fisheries Undergraduate Internships in Sea-run Fish Research! These interns will spend the summer supporting critical research and conservation efforts focused on sea-run fish populations across Maine. Olivia Ellis is an undergraduate at the University of New England […]

Maine Sea Grant is excited to welcome Alicia Gaiero to the Marine Extension Team as a Fisheries Extension Associate. Gaiero will be responsible for helping to coordinate a community engagement program for an Innovative Fishing Gear Library project led by the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), focusing on the American lobster industry. She will […]

Maine Sea Grant is pleased to announce that Michelle Brown has joined the team as the Lobster Research and Extension Coordinator. In her new role, Brown will be working on the American Lobster Initiative (ALI), helping to lead the Regional Lobster Research Program with Northeast Sea Grant members, and connecting harvesters, scientists, and managers in […]

Kara Chuang, University of Maine graduate, has recently been selected as a member of the 2025 cohort of the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship! Chuang is one of 88 students chosen nationwide, and the only graduate in Maine to receive this honor.  “This year’s Knauss Fellowship cohort exemplifies the passion and expertise necessary to […]

Maine Sea Grant is excited to announce that Jerelle Jesse, a doctoral student in marine biology at the University of Maine, is a recipient of the 2024 National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)-Sea Grant Joint Fellowship!  As a NMFS-Sea Grant Population Dynamics Fellow, Jerelle will focus on evaluating how biological reference points, which help determine stock […]