Articles
North Haven to Alewives: Welcome Back!
A crowd was gathered at the North Haven ferry dock on a recent Saturday morning. A welcoming committee of sorts, they were there to greet two Maine Department of Marine Resources tanker trucks arriving via the Island Transporter. In the tanks were live, adult alewives taken from the Kennebec River. Their destination: Fresh Pond, which
Spring comes to the sea
Although less visible to us than the freezing and thawing that transform our local lakes from swimming holes to ice-fishing haunts, the waters off the coast of Maine undergo similarly dramatic seasonal cycles. And the physical transformations in the water trigger changes that create a sea of plenty-phytoplankton feeding zooplankton feeding tiny fish, larval lobsters,
Right whales spending winter in the Gulf of Maine
Dr. Moira Brown has spent the last 27 years following whales-our mammalian kin that long ago returned to the sea-as they travel throughout the North Atlantic Ocean. But the whale’s carefully evolved adaptation to ocean life makes them difficult for humans to comprehend. What we do know is that many of the less than 475
MSX strikes Maine oysters
A pathogen that has long plagued oysters in the Mid-Atlantic states caused an outbreak of disease in Maine oyster farms for the first time this summer, threatening a $3 million industry renowned for high quality and taste. MSX, shorthand for the spore-forming protozoan Haplosporidium nelson, is not harmful to humans, and can be present in
What is the story with wind power in Maine?
Suzanne Pude of the Island Institute said that the event was modeled after a similar conference organized in Massachusetts. “We wanted to give stakeholders the opportunity to learn about the goals set by the state, but also to take a step back to see the critical factors that are influencing development of wind power, such
An acid test for fisheries
The oceans cover 70 percent of Earth. At the surface, the ocean and the overlying air continually exchange energy and chemicals. Anything humans put into the atmosphere eventually ends up in the ocean, including carbon dioxide. Ocean uptake or “storage” accounts for approximately one-third of the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere in modern times.
The opportunity of disaster
Kruse lived in a place where, like Maine, tourism and fishing are major forces. What does it mean when disaster-either natural or unnatural-befalls a place that depends so heavily on the surrounding environment? Gulf Coast residents and Louisianans especially have a fierce, almost defiant, sense of place that is tied to the land and the
Fathoming: Taking the temperature of the shrimp fishery
Why does our local cold-water shrimp fishery undergo such huge ups and downs? Part of the variability in harvest from year to year is due to the shrimp’s life cycle. Pandalus borealis or northern shrimp are hermaphroditic: typically, they first mature as males at about 2 1/2 years of age, and then transform to females
Fathoming: Maine fish and birds in hot water?
Fishermen have been saying since early spring that the water this year has been warm. Mark Lazarri, an environmental monitoring scientist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), confirmed that daily temperature measurements in Boothbay Harbor indicated warmer-than-normal water in 2010, especially during March, April and July. Unfortunately, it is harder to pin down
Fathoming: Ancient Fish, Modern Methods
Like warblers and monarch butterflies, sea-run fish undertake fantastic migrations, traveling through the open ocean, up the crowded Atlantic Coast, eventually returning to the freshwater rivers and streams in which they were born. However little is known about where and how these fish travel. But in the last five years, new technology and regional collaborations