Maine Sea Grant and the Marine Extension Team will be represented at the Third National Working Waterfronts and Waterways Symposium in Tacoma, Wash., March 25-28. Kristen Grant will present the results of legal research on how tax policies can help or hinder working waterfront preservation. Natalie Springuel is moderating a session on the maritime heritage of working waterfronts, during which a panel of representatives from North Carolina, Florida, and Washington will discuss the social and cultural aspects of working waterfronts, places where culture, history, and business intersect. Maine Sea Grant is a founding member of the new National Working Waterfront Network, which emerged in the wake of the last national symposium (held in Maine in 2010) and was bolstered by a $297,643 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration. The grant supported a team of seven organizations located around the country to research historic trends impacting working waterfronts, to analyze the economic value of the nation’s working waterfront sectors, and to gather information on financing, law, and policy tools for preserving working waterfronts and waterways.

Maine Sea Grant helped start the Maine Fishermen’s Forum more than 30 years ago, and we continue to be involved in the annual gathering of Maine’s fishing industry, this year scheduled for February 28 through March 2. The Marine Extension Team will be co-leading sessions on tourism business opportunities for fishermen, ocean renewable energy, the basics of shellfish and seaweed aquaculture, ocean acidification, and Trade Adjustment Assistance trainings for enrolled lobstermen. We are also sponsoring a reading series at the Forum by New England authors with recent books on fisheries-related topics: Nancy Frazier, I, Lobster: A Crustacean Odyssey; Mary Cerullo, City Fish, Country Fish; Eva Murray, Well Out to Sea; W. Jeffrey Bolster, Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail; and Gordon Holmes, East of the Hague Line.

In November, Maine Sea Grant hosted the US-Canada Science Symposium, The American Lobster in a Changing Ecosystem. The full program with abstracts and media reports are available at http://www.seagrant.umaine.edu/lobster-symposium.

In partnership with Dartmouth College’s Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program, Maine Sea Grant produced the report, Sources to Seafood: Mercury Pollution in the Marine Environment, which summarizes the latest peer-reviewed research on mercury in the world’s oceans. The report was distributed at the January meeting of theIntergovernmental Negotiating Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, where governments agreed to the text of a global legally binding instrument on mercury.

2013 calendars, featuring historic and contemporary images from the Downeast Fisheries Trail, are available at no cost by calling 207.581.1435.

New updates, “The Year in Review” and “Predictors of Climate Trends,” are available on Maine Climate News.