Fisheries – 91�� News

Media feature Staudinger’s new research new threat to lobsters

marcus.wolf — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 01:02:46 +0000

Michelle Staudinger, an associate professor of fisheries science at the 91��, was recently featured by , , and the for her new study to find out whether lobsters are being consumed by a long-known fish predator, cunner, in a new way.

Mainebiz highlights 91��’s Local Catch Network

marcus.wolf — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:26:54 +0000

reported on the , an organization anchored at the 91�� that offers free business and technical assistance, scientific research and networking opportunities for seafood businesses nationwide. The network’s goal is to grow community-based seafood systems by supporting businesses committed to the well-being of their coastal communities and marine ecosystems. The article also highlighted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced new funding for the Local Catch Network that allows it to continue its services and support more seafood businesses.

Media feature Steneck’s American Academy of Arts and Sciences election

Thu, 22 May 2025 14:32:10 +0000

The and featured the election of Bob Steneck, 91�� professor emeritus of oceanography, marine biology and marine policy, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Steneck helped reshape marine research in Maine during his 41-year career with the university.

91��-led team develops more holistic way to monitor lobster industry

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 20:14:37 +0000

Maine’s lobster fishery — one that supports thousands of jobs statewide — is extensively monitored. Management efforts are informed by biological monitoring surveys observing changes in abundance and distribution of the lobster population, and dealer and harvester reporting from the industry. Yet these statistics don’t tell the whole story of an industry shaken by supply and market disruptions and geopolitical conflict, or the welfare of the people and communities that rely on it.

Since the annual commercial lobster landings have declined 27% from 2016-2022, the Maine Lobsterman Association sought new ways to monitor the socioeconomic resilience of the industry and better position its leaders to respond to social, economic, environmental and regulatory changes.

After two years of data collection, quantitative and qualitative analyses, meetings and interviews with lobstermen and other stakeholders, a 91��-led team of researchers devised new indicators to holistically monitor the industry’s resilience. These metrics have the potential to offer greater insight into the well-being of fishermen and their families, haulers, processors, restaurateurs, other businesses and the communities in which they all reside.

“For far too long, fishery managers have lacked the data needed to consider the social and economic impacts of regulations on Maine’s lobster industry. This study provides a suite of indicators to fill that gap so that future regulations may address sustaining the resource, lobstermen and Maine’s coastal communities,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director for the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

Published in the academic journal , the team identified eight socioeconomic indicators: coastal accessibility, operational condition, business investments, community composition, financial health, risk taking, personal spending and physical and mental health. Coastal accessibility is the availability and affordability of waterfront housing; operational condition equates to business expenses and cost proxies; and community composition means demographic information.

Each indicator is backed by secondary data from state and federal agencies, as well as publicly available information from certain businesses and organizations. For example, the operational condition indicator uses landing, trip, crew and gear data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources; while coastal accessibility uses inventory, price and demographic data from the Maine Housing Authority, Realtor.com and Airbnb.com.

“These indicators define important socioeconomic components of the fishery that lobstermen have been describing for many years. Quantifying the indicators provides an opportunity for fishermen, local communities and managers to identify and quickly respond to changes in socioeconomic condition of the fleet,” said Theresa Burnham, a research associate with the 91�� School of Marine Sciences. Burnham co-led the study conducted to create these socioeconomic indicators with Joshua Stoll, associate professor of marine policy.

Diving into the data

When examining coastal accessibility, one of the team’s findings was that waterfront housing statewide is unaffordable for median income earners. Coupled with a spike in short-term rentals, the data confirms that coastal accessibility has decreased since 2016 statewide.

“The declines we are seeing in affordability of coastal housing can mean that lobstermen must travel further to the waterfront where they work, and may also be a barrier to people looking for seasonal work on lobster boats,” Burnham said.

Data and interviews also highlighted the regional differences in the lobster industry. Operational condition, a proxy for lobstermens’ costs and earnings, increased in eastern Maine — Washington and Hancock counties — but decreased in southern Maine — York and Cumberland counties, and the midcoast. Interviews and data also indicated that communities in southern Maine are the least dependent on the lobster industry for their socioeconomic well-being.

The development of these indicators lays the foundation for enhanced monitoring of the state’s lobster industry, but researchers are seeking more data to better utilize the indicators. While the coastal accessibility and operational condition indicators were deemed data rich, personal spending and physical and mental health were deemed data poor due to a lack of public, varied and no-cost data. Metrics with varied but insufficient statistics that were deemed data-limited include business investments, community composition, financial health and risk-taking.

Additional data sharing with private businesses and government agencies will improve the utility of several socioeconomic indicators and expand insight into the well-being of the industry and communities it supports. Future research can also reveal additional ways to use the indicators, including serving as a model to monitor other fisheries, such as clam and cod.

“This research will provide valuable data to help researchers and regulators understand the connection between the biological status of the resource and the socioeconomic wellbeing of the industry and the communities it serves,” said Kathleen Reardon, study co-author and senior lobster biologist at the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Organizations interested in sharing data or collaborating with researchers on enhancing these metrics can contact Theresa Burnham (theresa.burnham@maine.edu) or Joshua Stoll (joshua.stoll@maine.edu). Non-confidential data that was used in the study can be found .

In addition to Reardon and Burnham, the study was co-authored by Joelle Kilchenmann, a 91�� marine policy master’s student; Carla Guenther chief scientist, for the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries; and Maggie O’Shea; a Dartmouth College Ph.D. student.

This study is the latest example of how 91�� students and faculty are preserving and propelling the state’s blue economy, industries that use ocean resources for economic growth without jeopardizing the environment.

Through innovation and workforce development, the university broadens insight into ecological and socioeconomic changes that affect the state’s coastal communities and businesses. Its faculty and students are also exploring opportunities for new sectors and markets and investigating potential resources to mitigate the ramifications of climate change.

Bolstering these efforts is the 91�� Marine Aligned Research, Innovation, and Nationally-recognized Education (MARINE) Initiative, which fosters collaboration and synergy among researchers, industry, government and communities. Together, they integrate and innovate transdisciplinary marine research, education and outreach to enhance the socioeconomic well-being of people in Maine and beyond.

Contact: Marcus Wolf, 207.581.3721; marcus.wolf@maine.edu

Kerr receives $1.2M for climate-informed fisheries management and modeling project

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:08:05 +0000

Warming oceans due to climate change have a significant impact on fish in the Gulf of Maine. Fisheries in the region need to adapt to the shifting dynamics — and thanks to research led by the 91��, they will soon have science to show them how.

A research team led by 91�� scientist Lisa Kerr, associate professor of fisheries sciences, has received a $1.2 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to continue their work to find approaches that will help make fisheries management decisions that are more responsive to the changing climate.

The grant marks the second round of NOAA funding for the project, which began in 2019. This new phase of the initiative aims to expand the expertise of the researchers working on the project, and connect them even more closely with the fishery management professionals who will use the research to inform their choices in a changing climate.

The significance of NCLIM

The economic productivity of Northeast fisheries is threatened by the rapid changes in ocean ecosystems caused by climate change, most notably ocean warming and changes in the Gulf Stream.

As of right now, fisheries use limited climate data to inform their practices, which exacerbates the challenges facing the industry and the communities that rely on it.

The started in 2019 to develop research and tools for marine industries like fisheries to make climate-informed decisions for the Northeast U.S. shelf ecosystem, which includes New England and mid-Atlantic waters.

“The focus of the work is around bringing climate information into the fisheries management process and helping integrate it to inform our decisions,” Kerr said. “A lot of our work involves engaging with stakeholders in the region, and developing the modeling frameworks to test approaches to integrate climate into how we do things like fish stock assessments and set harvest advice for fisheries.”

NCLIM is one of five national projects focused on climate-integrated modeling, and the only one focused on the Northeast U.S.

Through NCLIM, Kerr works with colleagues at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Rutgers University, University of Delaware and University of Massachusetts Dartmouth as co–principal investigators. The team includes diverse expertise in climate science, fisheries stock assessment, economics and more.

Kerr noted that program funding has been essential to the project.

“The NCLIM project will develop and test the next generation of tools we need for effective fisheries management in a changing climate,” said Jon Hare, director of the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “NOAA Fisheries is very pleased to partner with the multidisciplinary NCLIM team to advance climate-informed stock assessments and adaptation strategies to support sustainable fisheries and fishing communities in the Northeast.”

The next phase of NCLIM

The team received $1.2 million for a three-year funding period that started in February 2024. Kerr said that one of the primary goals of this phase of the project is to expand the NCLIM team’s expertise.

“It’s a really big undertaking,” Kerr said. “We started with our focus on climate impacts on fish populations and in this phase we’re expanding more to focus on the impacts to fishing industries and communities.”

This second phase of the project aims to grow the NCLIM community by engaging with stakeholders and scientists in the region. The team will work with fisheries managers and industry representatives to co-develop climate adaptation strategy scenarios. They will also expand their modeling to test different adaptation strategies and their socioeconomic impacts.

One way that they’re doing this is by determining the biological reference points — essentially, the benchmarks for fish stocks to determine whether they are healthy — in the changing environment.

Jerelle Jesse is a Ph.D. student in the School of Marine Science researching the impact of climate change on biological reference points using simulation studies through the NCLIM project.

“We know with climate change that we’re getting this gradual directional change that’s not taken into account with reference points at all, so you’re getting a lot of problems determining if stocks are overfished or not, or if they can rebuild at all,” Jesse said.

Jesse conducts research by making “simulation studies,” a sort of virtual world where she codes models for fisheries based on existing knowledge in order to test the effects of new management approaches.

Jesse said that being involved with the NCLIM project has given her access to networks and opportunities in the professional fisheries management world. She even had the opportunity to help lead and present her research at a workshop composed of scientists and fisheries management professionals.

“That, I think, is the best part of NCLIM from a student perspective,” Jesse said. “A lot of students don’t get that opportunity to meet and learn from actual fisheries managers and scientists. It’s such a good environment to get feedback and meet and be mentored by federal stock assessment scientists and professors from other universities that are doing this niche research.”

NCLIM in the field

NCLIM goes beyond modeling in the lab, though. Kerr said that her team has also participated actively in stock assessment and fisheries management processes, applying the modeling and research they do in the lab to real-life decisions.

“We’ve contributed to getting climate and ecosystem information integrated into several stock assessments,” Kerr said. “ This is really novel to this region.”

Kerr’s graduate students spend a lot of time in the field doing just this work.

“I think it’s sort of the ultimate hands-on research experience,” Kerr said. “I make a point of having them be the face of their work. We’ve had a great track record in my lab of folks getting hired and getting job offers due to that exposure and having strong working relationships with folks before they even graduate.”

Julia Barron, master’s student at the School of Marine Sciences, is one of Kerr’s students. Barron’s work focuses on understanding the effects of climate change on winter flounder population dynamics. She meets with monthly NCLIM meetings with professionals in the field to share progress on her work and gain feedback.

“My experience with NCLIM has been enriching for both my education and future career as a fisheries biologist,” Barron said. “Being able to work on my thesis alongside the working group for the upcoming winter flounder stock assessment has been essential in my learning within my masters program. By sharing my ongoing research with the working group, I hope to contribute to the overall assessment and make a positive impact on the fishery and the many people and communities who depend on it.”

The overall goal of the project is to support sustainable fisheries management in the Northeast U.S. by accounting for the changing ocean ecosystems in fisheries decision making, and to support making forward-looking decisions as people learn how to adapt to these unprecedented changes.

“There’s a real challenge in defining fisheries management that is effective in our dynamic ecosystem and a need for guidance on how to redefine approaches in a thoughtful way in a changing environment,” Kerr said. “It’s exciting that we have a big team and great partners to work on this challenge that we hope will have immediate impacts on our regional management.”

Story by Sam Schipani