In December 2020, Congress passed the Young Fishermen’s Development Act (YFDA) “to preserve United States fishing heritage through a national program dedicated to training and assisting the next generation of commercial fishermen.”1 The Act directed the Secretary of Commerce, through the National Sea Grant Office, to establish and administer a program to prepare for the future. […]
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For an oyster farm to be a profitable enterprise, farmers need to get the product to market. The options that are available to them — especially new farmers — can sometimes be confusing. This sheet briefly summarizes some simple ways that holders of a valid Maine Aquaculture License can get their shellfish to market. This descriptive document […]
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Graduate student Jordan Snyder and Sea Grant Assistant Director for Research Damian Brady and their colleagues have a new paper in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science about their NOAA Sea Grant-funded research on developing tools for siting aquaculture operations. Here’s the abstract of the article: “Remote sensing data is useful for selection of aquaculture […]
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Between the head of tide above Bangor to where it widens into the bay at Searsport, the Penobscot River shifts from a flowing freshwater waterway banked by cedar and pine to a brackish, wave-lapped marsh with a rocky shoreline. In this estuary, salt concentrations fluctuate as the winds and tides push sea water and sediments […]
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from UMaine News Access to Maine’s beaches and coastal areas can sometimes be a challenge. According to the latest analysis of property ownership data by the Maine Coastal Program, the public owns just 12 percent of Maine’s 5,400-mile shoreline. Public rights to the rest of the coast vary considerably, from submerged areas below low tide […]
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It’s elver season in Maine. Funnel-shaped fyke nets have appeared in coastal rivers and streams; we’ve seen them in the Medomak, the Union, and Northeast Creek. Learn more about eels in The Secret Life of Eels (pdf), published in the March-April issue of Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors Magazine (online). Featuring photographs by Heather Perry Photography, the article describes […]
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We are excited to announce the release of what we hope will be the first in a series of animated videos about climate change in the Gulf of Maine, informed by our work on the Maine’s Climate Future project. Produced in partnership with Maine-based O’Chang Studios, “The Lobster Pot Heats Up” illustrates how climate change […]
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Researchers (including Sea Grant extension associate Dana Morse) are studying isolated oyster grounds in the Sheepscot River that may date back to the last ice age. Meanwhile, as the aquaculture industry has grown and coastal water temperatures have warmed, cultured oysters have begun to multiply on their own elsewhere, particularly in the brackish waters of the […]
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by Catherine Schmitt If the air is still and cold enough, great wisps of sea smoke hover and drift above the water surface. That “smoke” actually is water vapor that forms when really cold air moves over relatively warmer water and the thin boundary layer of warm air just above the surface. When the evaporating […]
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by Catherine Schmitt Multiple departments from the University of Maine came together on Saturday to discuss Jeffrey Bolster’s book, The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail. Hosted by the History Department, Sustainability Solutions Initiative at the Senator George J. Mitchell Center, School of Marine Sciences, Humanities Initiative, and Maine Sea Grant, […]
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