Congratulations to Ron Beard, a member of Maine’s Marine Extension Team, recipient of a Gulf of Maine Council 2013 Visionary Award. The award is presented annually to an individual or organization within each of the Gulf of Maine jurisdictions of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, and recognizes innovation, creativity, and commitment to marine protection. Beard, who is based in Hancock County, focuses his education on community development through work with local organizations and citizens.

Extension associate Dana Morse is coordinating an effort to develop methods to culture native sea scallops in response to declines of wild populations. With support from Sea Grant and the Maine Department of Marine Resources, shellfish growers and fishermen in Stonington, Blue Hill, and Casco Bay have been growing sea scallops in underwater enclosures. Since June 2012, the scallops have grown to two inches (the harvestable size of wild scallops is four inches). Limited initial tests have found biotoxins well below regulatory limits. Sales and marketing trials are planned for the near future.

Media coverage, session notes, and presentations are now available for the Maine Beaches Conference held at Southern Maine Community College in July.

The National Working Waterfront Network recently developed “talking points” to help those who communicate about the value and importance of the nation's working waterfronts. The talking points cover a diverse array of working waterfront topics, including: economic and cultural value, access to public resources and for shoreside operations, high profile marine industries, threat of loss, natural disaster mitigations/prevention, changes and trends, and regulatory and financing tools.

In June, members of Maine's Climate Change Adaptation Providers' Network, coordinated by Maine Sea Grant and UMaine Extension, met with the NH Climate Adaptation Workgroup. Both groups are working in their states to facilitate community efforts to address local impacts of climate change. The two groups shared approaches to operating as effective networks, discussed current initiatives in communities, and identified next steps for advancement of their own networks and for collaboration between the two networks in regional efforts. 

Marine Extension Team leader and Sea Grant director Paul Anderson has been assisting the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center with outreach related to offshore wind energy development. Anderson has been serving as a liaison between fishermen and university engineers and researchers, facilitating conversations about siting infrastructure at times and locations of least impact to local fishing activity.