Maine Sea Grant

Monique Coombs Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association   In 2017, Bert Jongerdon, General Manager of the Portland Fish Exchange, called the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association because he had a load of cusk and could not find a buyer. MCFA couldn’t identify a buyer, either, and the fish ended selling for pennies. Shortly after, MCFA discussed the […]

Alice Kelley School of Earth and Climate Sciences University of Maine More than 2,000 historic Wabanaki shell middens are located on the coast of Maine.  These human-created accumulations of shells, faunal remains, and artifacts were once seen as trash heaps, but are now viewed as archives of over 4,000 years of coastal lifeways and environmental […]

Darren Ranco Coordinator of Native American Research University of Maine   Katherine Allen School of Earth and Climate Science University of Maine   The flow of water across Maine’s landscape, through its rivers, and into the sea represents a key link in the regional water cycle, impacting both terrestrial and marine environments. River runoff contributes […]

Carolyn Tepolt Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution   Genetic adaptation may play an important role in the ability of lobsters to adapt to changing environmental conditions in the Gulf of Maine. Earlier research has suggested that lobsters may have evolved genetic variation related to temperature. However, the potential of rapid genomic adaptation to contribute to lobster […]

Kathleen Thornton Darling Marine Center University of Maine Citizen groups, aided by new technologies such as autonomous buoys, sondes, and other hand held instrumentation, as well as an expanding network of volunteer monitors, are obtaining a steadily increasing volume of coastal and estuarine water quality data. Even as the amount of data increases, there exist […]

Meredith White Mook Sea Farm   Some of the greatest risks facing oyster growers in Maine stem from ecosystem changes including increased temperature and changes to seawater chemistry that affect abundance of Vibrio species, an illness-causing bacteria. Illnesses linked to consumption of shellfish from cooler northeast waters had historically been rare but has increased in […]

Sarah Gladu Damariscotta River Association Damariscotta, ME The Maine Coastal Observing Alliance (MCOA) consists of nine coastal citizen monitoring groups who collect water samples and analyze pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, nutrients (total nitrogen), salinity, and turbidity in eight coastal estuaries and embayments between Casco Bay and Penobscot Bay. This coastwide survey, initiated in 2013, of […]

Sara Rademaker American Unagi LLC PO Box 81 Thomaston, ME Email Sarah Rademaker Maine’s multimillion dollar juvenile eel fishing industry currently ships elvers or glass eels to farms in Asia, where they are grown to marketable size and exported back to the U.S. Recognizing an opportunity to provide local, sustainable seafood, Sara Rademaker has made […]

Patrice McCarron Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance Kennebunk, Maine 207.967.6221 Lobsters are alive as they move through the supply chain, from the ocean to the kitchen, and an unfortunate percentage become stressed or injured. According to lobster health expert Dr. Jean Lavallée, between 8% and 15% of lobsters die before they can become food. Lobstermen are […]