Why Hurricane Island?
Quick Facts
Hurricane Island, part of the Fox Islands Archipelago in Penobscot Bay, Maine, is approximately 10 miles offshore from Rockland.
The 125-acre island is situated at the confluence of the Eastern Maine and Western Maine Coastal Currents.
The discharge from the Penobscot River to the north of the island forms a gradient of estuarine and marine habitat.
To the southwest, the western Maine coastal current causes water stratification and a zone of upwelling that affects the local ecology, and there is striking diversity in the bedrock geology to the west.
Hurricane Island is perfectly positioned to establish and participate in monitoring studies and research on climate change, fisheries biology and management, and alterations in Penobscot Bay and the wider Gulf of Maine ecosystem.
Habitat
We have access to a wide range of ecological diversity and have the singular distinction as the only research station in Penobscot Bay.
Some of Hurricane’s particular biotic communities include:
Lower elevation spruce-fir forest, cattail marsh, granite outcrops, seaside goldenrod/ goosetongue open headland, and rose/bayberry maritime shrubland.
The sub-tidal bottom habitat is rugged, high-relief seafloor, dominated by bedrock outcrops with accumulations of coarse-grained sediment in low-lying areas.
Hurricane is surrounded by a number of ledges with seal haul-out areas.
Our intertidal zone includes areas with dense rockweed, exposed high-impact beaches, small sand deposits, and artificially built-up granite faces from the quarrying-era. With a tidal range around 9.3 feet, Hurricane contains exposed habitat with crisp zonation to explore intertidal biological processes and the opportunity to observe and collect marine organisms.
Field Research Station
Our sustainable shore-based facility will serve as a visual epicenter for our mission, sustainable campus, and commitment to science research and education on Hurricane Island. It will increase capacity for year round research in Penobscot Bay.
The facility will contain:
A Flowing Seawater Lab: Resident and visiting researchers, students, and teachers can sort and examine collections, keep organisms alive for study and experiments, and house & use monitoring and analytical equipment;
A Dry Room: This space will be maintained as a dry area for microscopes, scales, a small field library, and computers for data entry, analysis, and access to spatially and topically relevant scientific literature.
A Teaching Space: Researchers and educators will have a space to teach concepts and methods, share results, and offer a classroom component to field operations for classes up to 20 students.
A Research Vessel: Our research vessel will be available for research that takes you beyond the shores of Hurricane with the ability to deploy and retrieve equipment, conduct at-sea data collection, support dive operations
Aquaculture Research Site
Our Experimental Research Lease aquaculture farm is 3.2 areas and is located to the North of the island.
On this farm we currently have the capacity to grow five species – sugar kelp, winged kelp, scallops, mussels, and oysters – with options to approve additional species for research purposes.
At this time, the aquaculture farm maintains ~10,000 scallops of ages 0-4yo and two lines where sugar kelp is grown annually.
A 20’ x 10’ float is being added in 2020 for research and education work space on the farm.
Main Campus
Each year we welcome over 1,300 people to Hurricane as program participants, visiting researchers, cruisers, and friends family.
We have the capacity to house approximately 70 people in our five participant cabins, five wall tents, two yurts, and a 25-person capacity bunkhouse.
There are currently three designated conference and teaching facilities: a 20-person capacity classroom, a 70-person capacity meeting room (the Swallow’s Nest), and a 70-person meeting and eating space (the Galley).
Our small education laboratory for grades 6-12 is equipped with research equipment for up to 20 students such as field guides, binoculars, water quality testing equipment, microscopes, and transect tapes.
The four miles of trails that follow the island's perimeter and cross the ridgeline offer access to the intertidal zone and unique terrestrial ecosystem.
Our infirmary is equipped with wilderness medical kits and our staff are required to become certified in a range of wilderness medical training.
Equipment
4 weather stations (make/model/data collected)
Tide gauge (make/model)
Ocean Temperature loggers (HOBO loggers)
Vessels
Hurricane owns 4 vessels that service the island and the research facility. Two vessels are explicitly equipped to support our aquaculture site and dive research. We employ Coast Guard licensed captains to operate the boats for paid program participants. We envision future leasing of boat time to visiting researchers, with the capacity to fully support their educational and research needs in Penobscot Bay.
More detailed descriptions of vessels, capacities, and amenities to follow