Maine Sea Grant

Dwayne Shaw Downeast Salmon Federation PO Box 201 Columbia Falls, ME 04623 207.483.4336 dsf@panax.com As coastal fish populations disappear, so too do the fishing communities they once supported. Fisheries heritage projects seek to highlight and conserve fishing traditions past and present, through education and information provided to residents and visitors. The Downeast Salmon Federation occupies […]

Jennifer Atkinson Quebec-Labrador Foundation, Inc. PO Box 335 Waldoboro, ME 04572 207.832.8109 jatkinson@qlf.org Atkinson calls circulation “the geography of the ocean,” because it influences virtually every aspect of a marine area. Yet local circulation dynamics are not always understood, hampering our ability to manage local uses and monitor movements of marine organisms. Muscongus Bay is […]

Sarah Nelson Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental & Watershed Research 5710 Norman Smith Hall Orono, ME 04469 207.581.3454 Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the United States. EPA and FDA seafood consumption advisories suggest that shrimp is a low-mercury food, however this information is based on data that represent only a few […]

Jennifer Brewer Penobscot East Resource Center PO Box 27 Stonington, ME 04681 207.367.2708 brewerj@ecu.edu Traditional fishery management approaches have failed to sustain a diverse fishing industry in eastern Maine. New approaches are attempting to increase participation of fishing communities in management, by enhancing local leadership and knowledge. The Penobscot East Resource Center developed the Community […]

Rob Snyder Island Institute P.O. Box 648 386 Main Street Rockland, Maine 04841 207.594.9209 www.workingwaterfront.com Recognizing an increased demand for scientific and technical information about current issues facing coastal communities, and a concomitant fragmentation of media outlets, the Island Institute and Maine Sea Grant are collaborating on a new science feature in The Working Waterfront […]

Hilary Neckles USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center 196 Whitten Road Augusta, ME 04330 207-622-8205 ext.119 hneckles@usgs.gov Eelgrass (Zostera marina L) is the dominant seagrass occurring in eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, where it often forms extensive meadows in coastal and estuarine areas. Eelgrass beds are extremely productive and provide many valuable ecological functions […]

Pat White Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation PO Box 523 Kennebunk, ME 04043 207-985-8088 The commercial lobster fishery, the economic engine for so many coastal communities in the Gulf of Maine, is undergoing extreme changes. In 2008, an apparent drop in landings, lower prices paid to lobstermen for their product, and rising fuel and bait […]

Scott Hall Research Coordinator Audubon Seabird Restoration Program Belfast, ME 04915 Most information about Atlantic puffins is derived from studies of their breeding colonies on Maine's outer coastal islands. Where they go during the winter, when they are thought to roam the ocean from the Gulf of Maine to Greenland and Iceland, however, is still […]

Heather Koopman Biology and Marine Biology University of North Carolina Wilmington 601 S. College Road Wilmington, NC 28401 910.962.7199 koopmanh@uncw.edu This project continued exploratory work funded by Sea Grant in 2007 (DV-07-009) to evaluate various factors influencing the quality of eggs produced by American lobsters. Larger lobster eggs have been shown to have higher lipid […]

Jean MacRae Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering University of Maine Orono, ME 04469 207.581.2137 Jean.macrae@umit.maine.edu Marine and freshwater environments are vulnerable to pollution from spills, shipping and boating activity, runoff, and waste discharge. Many organic contaminants accumulate in sediment where they can affect habitat and the health of marine organisms. Once in the sediment, […]