Science for Everyone

Maine Fishermen’s Forum 2016

Dana Morse of Maine Sea Grant explains the ear hanging technique used for growing scallops.

Guest blog post by Research Assistant Bailey Moritz

It’s that time of year again, when people from all facets of the Maine fisheries community come together under the Samoset Resort roof in Rockland to make connections, share ideas, and discuss solutions. The place was bustling when I arrived at the annual Maine Fishermen’s Forum in early March, with pockets of small groups greeting old friends and introducing new ones. There are rooms of trade show exhibits and informational tables from groups working up and down the coastal waters. Hurricane Island had a booth and we spoke to potential students about the opportunities out on the island and the role the organizations research plays in the local fishery scene.

I picked up a booklet on seaweed species and took a seat at the first talk, titled Maine’s Scallop Fishery: An Overview and Open Discussion. After recent data was presented on progress towards rebuilding the fishery, a lively conversation began between policy makers and fishermen regarding catch limits and decisions surrounding closures. I knew Maine scallops were good, but I learned that they are considered some of the best in the world and therefore bring in top dollar. It’s an important fishery to keep an eye on, and another seminar delved into the growing potential for scallop aquaculture throughout the state. This was exciting to hear about, as we have been working on the first steps for setting up scallop aquaculture out on Hurricane.

Aquaculture was a clear theme. Emphasis was placed on diversifying fishermen’s on the water income and learning how to switch to or incorporate aquaculture into your business- in one panel, a new oyster farmer gave his account of the transition, while we later heard from a harvester trying out the first clam farming plots in the state in Georgetown. Read about another recent oyster farm here! There is so much excitement surrounding the potential that aquaculture holds in local waters. Of course, the day would not be complete without consuming some seafood ourselves; we all take a break for a fried halibut sandwich and soak in the atmosphere that’s created when you put a ton of people thinking hard about Maine fisheries in one room.

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Muscle Ridge Wrap Up

The early morning calm before getting gear onto the boat and setting off for adventure

Phoebe Jekielek, HICSL’s Outreach & Marketing Coordinator (and occasional fieldwork support!) and I wrapped up the 2015 Muscle Ridge field season with our last set of dive surveys off of Jim Wotton’s lobster boat, F/V Overkill. It was an absolutely beautiful day in early October – almost two months sooner than when we finished the 2014 field season (I have to admit that I was grateful that I was not diving in my 7 mm semi-dry wetsuit on November 29th with snow on the ground and a brisk, chilly breeze like last year!). In the Sprucehead Coop harbor, the sea state resembled an August morning – completely glassy with little to no wave action; however the air temperature reminded us that fall had arrived. Mauricio Handler, an underwater videographer from AQUATERRA Films and Darryl Czuchra, joined us for the day and were tasked with documenting the work that we do to make the collaborative scallop project happen!

The Scallop Crew! (Left to right: Cait Cleaver, Bailey Mortiz, Erik Waterman, and Phoebe Jekielek)

Overall, it was another great season that could not have been accomplished without the help of a number of people, including, Tad Miller, Jim Wotton, Erik Waterman, Dan Miller, Jamie Kaizer, Skip Connell and Kristofer Koerber for their on-the-water expertise and assistance with dive and drop camera surveys and spat bag recovery and deployment. Dr. Kevin Stokesbury’s lab at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth organized another awesome three days of drop camera surveys from Tad’s dragger, F/V Julianne.

 

 

 

The 2015 stats:

  • Dive surveys:
    • Muscle Ridge – 14 dive sites completed with two 50 m belt transects done at each site (Read about Bailey’s dive experience here)
    • Ocean Point – 6 dive sites completed with two 50 m belt transects done at each site
  • Drop camera surveys: The Stokesbury crew joined us once again and completed 192 sites (same number as last year!).
  • Spat Bags:
    • We recovered 7 of the 16 lines that were deployed in the fall of 2014 inside and outside of the Ocean Point and Muscle Ridge closed areas. Bailey, our scallop project research assistant, counted 17,772 juvenile scallops (Bailey, please come back next season, I promise, we’ll subsample! You can read about the spat bag processing here)
    • In September and early October, we deployed 4 lines on Ocean Point with the help of the Maine Department of Marine Resources scientists and Marine Patrol and 12 lines on Muscle Ridge.
  • Shell growth rate analysis:
    • In January, Rosemary, a Casco Bay High School student, joined us to help analyze the scallop shells we’ve collected over the years. We analyzed approximately 450 – still have quite a few more to go, but we made a good dent!  (You can read about Rosemary’s experience here)

Stay tuned for updates about next season. We’re hoping to hit the ground running as soon as we can!

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Update on the Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance (NeCSA)

On November 23rd and 24th, we hosted a meeting in partnership with Bates College at the Coastal Center at Shortridge, Bates’ field station in Phippsburg, ME.  The meeting was funded by our National Science Foundation Field Stations and Marine Laboratories Program planning grant, which we were awarded to develop a strategic plan for the Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance (NeCSA). Many of the people who attended the September meeting on Hurricane were in Phippsburg. On Hurricane, we focused on the “what” we should be researching in collaboration to understand environmental change in the Gulf of Maine and learning more about the activities of each institution represented.

NeCSA meeting at the Coastal Center at Shortridge (Photo credit to Robin Hadlock Seeley of Shoals Marine Lab)

At the November meeting, we focused on how to go about implementing a shared research program and work together to implement other initiatives such as a shared undergraduate course that travels to the various field stations or a shared artist-in-residence program. We concluded the meeting without outlining a draft proposal for the next grant deadline in early January 2016; however, we did decide to continue working together and that this type of collaboration makes sense. We plan to meet again in February or April 2016.

A number of other, similar initiatives are underway at different geographic scales and with slightly different focuses. The Integrated Sentinel Monitoring Network (ISMN) is an effort that’s been underway since 2012 and involves a much wider range of institutions. ISMN has created a framework within which NeCSA fits. I attended a few of the ISMN’s workshops around this time last year (you can read about it here). The ISMN is in the process of reviewing comments and making changes to their draft implementation plan. They expect to release the final implementation plan in early 2016. At the Maine state level, the Maine Coastal Observing Alliance (MCOA), formed in 2014, is made up of local citizen groups that coordinate water quality monitoring efforts across Maine’s estuaries. They recently released their first report and we’re hoping to discuss with them the potential of Hurricane Island and Rockland Harbor becoming additional sites next year.

It's exciting to see efforts being coordinated at the State and regional level to help us better understand change across the Gulf of Maine! Stay tuned as NeCSA continues to develop!

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HICSL Attends Atlantic Partners EMS Seminar

This fall we partnered with Wilderness Medical Associates to host a booth at the 35th Annual Atlantic Partners EMS Seminar! The purpose of the Seminar is to bring together emergency medical professionals from all over New England, and to offer courses that fulfill continuing education hours.

So what was Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership doing there? Because Hurricane Island is considered a “wilderness context” we are very aware of the importance of the local medical services that we have available to us 12 miles out in Penobscot Bay. We are grateful to have Vinalhaven’s Islands Community Medical Services center close by for minor injuries, and luckily have a landing pad on the South End if we ever need to activate Life Flight. Members of our staff are trained in First Aid and CPR, Wilderness First Response, and Sam, HICL’s Director, is an EMT. In short, safety is extremely important to us!

In an effort to run a diverse set of programs on the island we offer a variety of wilderness medical training courses through Wilderness Medical Associates. Everything from Wilderness First Aid to those who simply want to be prepared while enjoying the outdoors, to Wilderness Advanced Life Support for licensed medical professionals. It was our hope in attending the EMS seminar to spread the word to local EMS practitioners about the courses that we provide on Hurricane, especially since as of right now Hurricane is currently one of only two places offering Wilderness Advanced Life Support in the entire United States! We met some incredible people who volunteer with their local fire department and EMS crews. Thank you for all that you do for your communities and beyond!

If you are interested in learning more about our WMA courses check out our website!

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Eastern Maine Skippers Program kicks off with amazing event

It feels like there is so much background to tell you on this story so just bear with me for a little bit as I fill you in. 

The Eastern Maine Skippers Program (EMSP) is an amazing effort that provides future commercial fishermen, and other students interested in marine careers, the knowledge and skills needed to be successful in the 21st century landscape.  This project is a collaboration among many schools in Maine’s Zone C fishing area and is currently spearheaded by the Penobscot East Resource Center (PERC).  Incredible amounts of curriculum and coordination support also come from the Rural Aspirations Project in addition to many other community partners including local fishermen, scientists, fisheries organizations and regulators.

Appropriately called the "spaghetti" model - all the possible paths of the hurricane that threatened to hit Hurricane Island in Oct 2015

Every year the Skippers have a driving question that guides their studies and this year it is a multi-part question: “Who and/or what eats/buys lobsters?” and “What impact can I/we have?”  In previous years, Hurricane Island has hosted the EMSP kickoff and that was the plan this year… until…. way back at the beginning of October, a hurricane threatened to head up the East coast and slam into New England much as it had just barreled through the Bahamas.  The end result saw the hurricane heading off the coast and across the Atlantic before its effects could truly be felt in the Gulf of Maine.  Unfortunately, the specter of a major hurricane was enough to seriously alter program plans on Hurricane Island (funny how that works!).  We were not surprised but still sad when we finally got the call from PERC that the oncoming weather was too unpredictable and potentially dangerous to push ahead with the kickoff on Hurricane Island.  We all lay on the floor of the mess hall for a while before we got our feet back under us and then proceeded to close up the Island for the fall.

Coming to grips with not hosting the EMSP kickoff

Lobster trap and oil gear relay!

Flash forward to November and our spirits were raised again when we got the opportunity to participate in the EMSP kickoff that was being held on the (much less unpredictable) mainland at the Schoodic Institute.  Schoodic was a wonderful host location and the weather was beautiful for students to be outside and moving between buildings for activities.  After a brief orientation the day started out with high energy as the students were put into mixed school groups to compete in the world renowned Stern Man/Woman Olympics.  Several students were veterans of the program and were eyed nervously by their new cohort as true Olympic threats but everyone gave their all across all events and it was a spirited way to spend the morning for sure. 

Students working on the map reading/navigation challenge

Olympics was perhaps a misnomer because the competition ran more like a biathlon… I mean triathlon… I mean…. What do you call a competition where people have to compete in 8 events?!   An octathlon?  Students cycled through a rope coiling/tying/stacking event, lobster trap pyramid and bait bag filling relays, and challenges in lobster trap part naming/function, mapping/navigation, boat hull identification, marine organism identification, and marketing/accounting. EXHAUSTING!

Students working on their dissection

The rest of the day couldn’t really be called restful by any means as the students moved through a variety of workshops they signed up for and ended the day with a wonderful Skype session with Trevor Corson, who is the author of The Secret Life of Lobsters.  I got to run one of the workshops that was a lobster dissection. It is amazing to actually dissect a lobster and realize that just because you cook and eat them all the time or catch them on your boat that there is still soooo much more that you don’t know about them!  For instance, did you know that lobsters pee at each other when they fight?  Its true!  Next time you eat a lobster, look for the urine ducts that face forward under each antenna.  Or did you know that lobsters have teeth in their gut?  You don’t want to really eat much up in the head region of the lobster but if you really get in there and follow the gut back from the mouth and into the body you will find the grinding teeth that help to break down the lobster’s meal (you might even find remnants of that last meal!).  Students had a great time learning new things about lobsters and those were frequently the items students referenced at the end of the day as ‘cool things they learned’ during the kickoff.

All told it was a busy but wonderful day and it was great to keep our involvement with the Skippers going.  I'm already excited to see how they address their questions this year and looking forward to continuing to work with EMSP, PERC, and Rural Aspirations even more in the future!

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