Maine Sea Grant

Ben Letcher Silvio O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center Very little is known about the life history of sea-run brook trout in Maine. Yet knowing how brook trout utilize marine habitat is important information for fisheries managers who are charged with maintaining and protection brook trout populations. This project will attempt to identify the range […]

Robert Snyder Island Institute P.O. Box 648 386 Main Street Rockland, ME 04841 P. 207.594.9209 The Island Institute in Rockland, Maine, coordinated an assessment of climate change impacts on the Maine lobster fishery. They completed several months of research on fishermen’s observations regarding trends in weather, climate, water temperature, runoff, and salinity in relation to […]

Steven H. Jury MariCal, Inc. 400 Commercial St. Portland, ME 04101 207-773-2500 sjury@marical.biz Returns of Atlantic salmon have been in precipitous decline over the past 20 years. Despite major fisheries restoration and enhancement efforts, the fish remain endangered in eight Maine rivers. The Penobscot River, the only watershed with significant returns of adult salmon, remains […]

Heather Koopman Biology and Marine Biology University of North Carolina Wilmington 601 S. College Road Wilmington, NC 28401 P. 910.962.7199 koopmanh@uncw.edu Lobster larvae that are released in the waters around Grand Manan Island are picked up by tidal currents and distributed hundreds of kilometers from the Bay of Fundy and southwestern coast of Nova Scotia […]

Stephen Fegley Maine Maritime Academy 101 Andrews Castine, ME 04420 207-326-2396 sfegley@mma.edu Although sandy beaches in Maine are relatively scarce, they attract tourists and coastal development and generate substantial annual revenues. Unfortunately, beaches and their associated dune systems are fragile and, in many areas, have been reduced or lost through natural events and human activities. […]

Scott Richardson and James Dochtermann Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve 342 Laudholm Farm Road Wells, ME 04090 P. 207.646.1555 Coastal Fishes of Southern Maine and New Hampshire is a field guide to the fish commonly found in the coasts and estuaries of southern Maine and New Hampshire. Dochtermann’s illustrations of each species are accompanied by […]

Aimee Phillippi Unity College 90 Quaker Hill Rd. Unity, ME 04988 207-948-4313, x 282 aphillippi@unity.edu Invasive species can have serious impacts on ecosystems in which they are introduced and on human commercial interests. The Asian shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus , is an invasive species first documented in Maine in 2000. There has been only one […]

Doug McNaught Assistant Professor of Marine Ecology Science 117 University of Maine at Machias 9 O’Brien Ave. Machias, ME 04654 207.255.1206 dmcnaught@maine.edu After a rapid boom-and-bust in the 1990s, the Maine sea urchin fishery continues to rely on a depleted resource, especially in southern Maine. Without urchins, many areas became colonized with kelp and other […]

Theodore Willis University of Southern Maine theowillis06@aim.com Willis and his colleagues analyzed the diets of anadromous fish to assess their role in nearshore food webs. Yet diet analysis only presents a snapshot view of what fish are eating at any given time. Stable isotope analysis, which measures the amount of marine- versus freshwater-derived nutrients, will […]

Alison Sirois Maine Department of Marine Resources P.O. Box 8 West Boothbay Harbor, ME 04575 207-633-2430 alison.sirois@maine.gov The volunteer phytoplankton monitoring program in Maine works as an early warning system for Maine Department of Marine Resources’ Biotoxin Program in detecting harmful algal blooms. Learning to correctly identify Alexandrium cells, the cause of paralytic shellfish poisoning, […]