RICHARD A. WAHLE, PH.D

Rick is a Professor in the School of Marine Sciences is based at University of Maine's Darling Marine Center on Maine's midcoast. Rick arrived at University of Maine in 2009 after 15 years as a research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. In a split appointment since 2018, he also serves as director University of Maine's Lobster Institute. 

His research sits at the cross-roads of ecology, oceanography, and fishery science. He has a particular passion for trying to understand the uncertainties faced by marine life in a sometimes hostile environment. His field work has pondered the sex life of sea urchins on New England’s rocky shore and tsunami impacts in the Southeast Pacific, but he has an especially long-standing research program on the ecology of the American lobster, Maine’s premiere fishery. His lab serves as the hub for a US-Canadian monitoring program called the American Lobster Settlement Index, that since 1989 has kept a finger on the pulse of newly settled post-larval lobsters repopulating coastal nurseries each year. He and his graduate students work closely with fishery managers and the fishing industry in evaluating the forecasting power of the index for trends in lobster abundance.  

As director of the Lobster Institute he works to foster research and communication for a sustainable lobster fishery in the US and Canada. The Institute strives to maximize the engagement of University of Maine faculty and students with stakeholders in the lobster industry through collaborative research projects and outreach activities. Rick received his BA from the University of New Hampshire, MS from San Francisco State University, and PhD from the University of Maine.