New Solar Array Mounted on the Boathouse

In the fall of 2013 we continued to develop our power system by moving the solar panels from a portable rack-mounted system to a permanent roof-mounted array on the south-facing roof of the boathouse. This will allow us to maintain access to energy production year-round and provide us with opportunities to develop other systems and programs that rely on the power that is produced in every month of the year.

In early October 2013, a construction crew from Harbor Builders Associates put a new roof on the boathouse in preparation for the solar panel mounting rack and began renovating a room in the boathouse that became the “control center” for the power system. The control center is intended not only as a functional space for monitoring and maintaining the system components, but also as an educational resource to teach others about how this system works. 

Later in October, Hurricane Island staff Sam Hallowell, with the expertise of Trevor Reiff from Lyman Technologies and with the help of Ben Hoops, installed the roof-mounted rack and began installing and wiring the solar panels.  We expect that the system will be functional by the time that we open the island early in the spring 2014.

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Proctor Academy helps close down Hurricane

With the help of a great crew of students and staff from Proctor Academy we were able to finish up some critical end-of-season close-up tasks. Thanks, as always, for your enthusiasm and your help Proctor!

Eastern Maine Skippers Program NH/VH

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Students from Vinalhaven and North Haven gathered on Hurricane in October 2013 for a two-day intensive trip as part of the Eastern Maine Skippers Program--a new curriculum thread in coastal Maine schools that is designed to make high school education more relevant for students participating in the lobster industry.  This program was focused on introducing students to different ways they can do science to improve their knowledge of lobsters at the larval, juvenile, and adult stages.

Our experiments included a transect and quadrat survey of juvenile lobsters in Hurricane's low intertidal, towing for larval lobsters and other planktonic organisms with plankton nets, deploying tethering platforms with juveniles on them to study lobster predation, and finally designing, implementing, and collecting underwater footage of modifications to three of Hurricane's demonstration traps to see if we could improve the traps ability to retain legal-sized lobsters. 

For this project, we collaborated with Noah Oppenheim, a graduate student who came to Hurricane earlier in 2013 to conduct research on juvenile lobster predation. This allowed students to learn about and replicate Noah's experiment, how scientists collect data, and how science and scientists fit into the grand scheme of managing the lobster fishery.

The skippers program (which also includes George Stevens Academy, Deer Isle Stonington High School, Harraguagus High School, and Mount Desert Island High School), is now in the process of designing and testing the viability of a trap fishery for winter flounder in Maine. You can read more about their project here.

Eastern Maine Skippers Program

Students from Vinalhaven and North Haven gathered on Hurricane in October 2013 for a two-day intensive trip as part of the Eastern Maine Skippers Program--a new curriculum thread in coastal Maine schools that is designed to make high school education more relevant for students participating in the lobster industry.  This program was focused on introducing students to different ways they can do science to improve their knowledge of lobsters at the larval, juvenile, and adult stages.

Our experiments included a transect and quadrat survey of juvenile lobsters in Hurricane's low intertidal, towing for larval lobsters and other planktonic organisms with plankton nets, deploying tethering platforms with juveniles on them to study lobster predation, and finally designing, implementing, and collecting underwater footage of modifications to three of Hurricane's demonstration traps to see if we could improve the traps ability to retain legal-sized lobsters. 

For this project, we collaborated with Noah Oppenheim, a graduate student who came to Hurricane earlier in 2013 to conduct research on juvenile lobster predation. This allowed students to learn about and replicate Noah's experiment, how scientists collect data, and how science and scientists fit into the grand scheme of managing the lobster fishery.

Bowdoin Geologic Studies

Students from Bowdoin College's Earth and Oceanographic Science Department came out to Hurricane Island to learn about the geologic history of Hurricane and to help us better understand Hurricane's granite, soil horizons, and groundwater. Led by Dr. Collin Roesler and Dr. Emily M. Peterman, students traveled around Hurricane looking at the different pocket beaches and how they formed and analyzed the ice pond and the quarry for dissolved oxygen, temperature, salinity, and pH. Students also took sounding information to create a bathymetry map of these surface water sources. We had a great time hosting them and learning about Hurricane's granite landscape in the process!

The Bowdoin Daily Sun wrote an article about this program that can be viewed here. 

Belfast Homeschoolers visit Hurricane

Eight middle-school aged homeschool students from the Belfast, Maine, spent four days on Hurricane learning about geology, birds, mammals, and the intertidal communities commonly found on our island. 

Re-roofing the Lab

Looks like Ricketts' Lab will remain safe and dry through the winter because we got the chance to re-roof it! It is exciting to see all these old Outward Bound buildings repaired and repurposed! Thanks, Addison!

Pre-roof

Apprenticeshop Orientation Expedition

We recently finished a five-day sailing expedition for six new apprentices at the Apprenticeshop along with two current apprentices, Apprenticeshop staff, Hurricane staffer Sam Halowell, and Sarah Nutt. Participants sailed The Twins (two identical 28-foot lapstrake plank on frame boats designed by Nigel Irens of Scotland that are outfitted with multiple dagger boards and modern, interchangeable carbon-fiber sailing rigs) as an orientation expedition that focused on teamwork, community building, sailing, navigation, and seamanship.  This orientation marked the beginning of a nine-month Core Apprenticeshop program focused on concepts of boatbuilding. The expedition started on Hurricane Island and finished at the Apprenticeshop in Rockland, Maine.