The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has highlighted work by the Maine Sea Grant College Program at the University of Maine in the U.S. Government’s Climate Resilience Toolkit. The project, led by Esperanza Stancioff of Maine Sea Grant and University of Maine Cooperative Extension and funded by NOAA’s Climate Program Office, focused on the state’s lobstering communities. The study gathered lobstermen’s understanding of biology, markets, environment and expenses and translated the insights into a systems dynamics model to evaluate ways to improve industry-wide management options, especially during ocean heat wave events.

See related article on climate.gov.

The fourth class of the Aquaculture in Shared Waters program is underway in Thomaston, Maine. The class of 30 students, including a number of commercial fishermen, meets weekly to learn about the business of aquaculture.

Maine’s nascent scallop aquaculture industry will receive a boost through technology transfer funds from the USDA’s Northeast Sustainable Agriculture, Research and Education program. The project focuses on the Japanese technique of ‘ear-hanging’ scallops in Maine’s coastal waters.

Experience Maritime Maine holds their third bi-annual Stakeholder Meeting Thursday, 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm at the Sail, Power & Steam Museum, 75 Mechanic Street in Rockland. Guest speakers are Kerry Altiero, Chef/Owner of Cafe Miranda, and Olga Oros and Chip Holmes of Damariscotta River Cruises.  For more information or to RSVP email [log in to unmask].  The meeting is open to anyone with a stake or an interest in Maine maritime cultural heritage tourism.

Maine Farm Service Agency and University of Maine Cooperative Extension are offering a new workshop on crop insurance and financing programs for shellfish growers on Monday, April 25 in Belfast.

Marine extension associate Keri Kaczor presents twice Wednesday, April 13 at the U.S. EPA Recreational Waters Conference in New Orleans, LA.

Sarah Redmond reports that seaweed is “growing like crazy” on the experimental farm and in the lab at the Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research.

Maine Sea Grant has awarded funds to three new research projects. Hamish Greig, an assistant professor of stream ecology in the School of Biology and Ecology, is lead investigator on a project that focuses on how habitat variation influences competitive interactions among salmon, native brook trout, and non-native smallmouth bass in Maine streams, which are getting warmer as a result of global climate change. Alice R. Kelley, Joseph Kelley, Daniel Belknap and Brian Robinson of UMaine’s School of Earth and Climate Sciences and the Climate Change Institute will investigate the development of a noninvasive, rapid method of assessing coastal archaeological sites. Richard Wahle of the School of Marine Sciences will continue to study the larval or juvenile “settlement” phase of the American lobster. The new project will examine factors behind the unprecedented surge in small lobsters in the historically cold eastern and deeper parts of the Gulf of Maine in the last decade, or juvenile lobsters settling in shallow nurseries and then moving into deeper water. These projects will be presented at the 2016 Maine Sea Grant Biennial Research Symposium on April 14.

In the coming weeks, the Maine Legislature will consider several bond proposals, including a bipartisan measure to address ocean acidification  in the Gulf of Maine. LD 998, sponsored by Rep. Wayne Parry (R-Arundel) and Rep. Mick Devin (D-Newcastle), would ask voters to approve a bond to borrow $3 million to be used to collect data, monitor waterways and test ocean acidity along the Maine coast and study its impact on wildlife and commercial shellfish species. 

The Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center (MAIC), a non-profit research agency, is soliciting grant proposals from individuals or organizations who are interested in conducting innovative aquaculture research or technology transfer that will provide near term benefit to the Maine aquaculture industry. Application deadline is 5:00 PM, Friday, April 29, 2016.

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