Walter Golet University of Maine 207.228.1695 walter.golet@maine.edu Crustaceans, including lobster and crab, support Maine’s commercial fishing industry and the coastal economy. Monitoring lobster health and behavior is crucial to anticipating future changes in the fishery, and lobsters serve as a kind of indicator of the overall health of the Gulf of Maine. Observing the physical […]
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Carrie Byron Marine Sciences Department University of New England 508.498.4515 cbyron@gmri.org Cobscook Bay hosts a diverse marine ecosystem, many components of which support commercial, recreational, and sustenance fisheries as well as aquaculture and tidal energy generation. With some of the fisheries on the decline, local communities and resource managers could benefit from a clearer picture […]
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Dan Belknap School of Earth and Climate Sciences University of Maine 207.827.7598 belknap@maine.edu The current explosive population growth of the non-native European green crab (Carcinus maenus) is implicated in the widespread destruction of juvenile clams, eelgrass beds, and possible impacts on mussels and lobsters in Maine. Each of these effects has critical consequences for seafood […]
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John Anderson William H. Drury Chair in Ecology and Natural History College of the Atlantic 207.801.5717 Herring gulls and great black-backed gulls, once so ubiquitous they were routinely killed by wildlife officials, lately have experienced catastrophic declines throughout their range. Because both species of gull are found across much of the northern hemisphere, little has […]
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Ian Medeiros College of the Atlantic 774.218.8426 Nishanta Rajakaruna College of the Atlantic Seaweeds harvested and grown off the Maine coast support a strong and expanding seafood industry. Marine macroalgae have many unique characteristics, including the ability to absorb or bioaccumulate heavy metals. Whether or not these metals are available to consumers or have toxic […]
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Anna Bass University of New England 207.602.2481 Like other ground or bottom-dwelling fish such as cod, haddock, and flounder, hake is a popular food fish. The name “hake” describes a number of different species—red, white, and long-finned hake, which are more closely related to cod, and silver hake or whiting—yet markets and menus typically just use […]
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Deborah Bouchard Animal Health Laboratory University of Maine 207.581.2767 deborah.bouchard@maine.edu MSX (Happlosporidium neslonii) is a parasite that infects adult oysters, killing as much as 30% in a single oyster bed. Although MSX has been present in Maine before, in 2010 a large-scale outbreak occurred in the Damariscotta River, the heart of Maine’s oyster growing […]
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William G. Ambrose, Jr. Professor of Biology Bates College Lewiston, ME 04240 207.786.6114 wambrose@bates.edu Brian Beal Professor of Marine Ecology University of Maine at Machias Machias, ME 04654 207.255.1314 bbeal@maine.edu Soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria) are one of the most important commercial marine species harvested in Maine. In the last decade, clam landings averaged $14 million […]
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Erin Owen Husson University 1 College Circle Bangor, ME 04401 207.941.7744 Email Erin Owen Maine’s small but unique coastal scallop fishery has been a lucrative source of income for fishing communities, only second in value to the state’s lobster fishery. In response to a steady decline in landings, the Maine Department of Marine Resources initiated […]
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Porter Hoagland, Di Jin, and Hauke Kite-Powell Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution John Duff University of Massachusetts-Boston Investigators will examine various legal and fiscal/economic mechanisms employed by coastal communities in the Northeast to formulate and carry out disaster response and mitigation programs. Local responses to flooding and erosion, such as beach nourishment and armoring, will be […]
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