Marine aquaculture in the coastal zone has the potential to help solve several societal problems including contributions to the global food and energy systems. These systems are subject to complex and dynamic interactions among natural and human-driven processes.

A major challenge is to understand the dynamics of this coupled human-natural system in order to inform societal decisions about the intensification of marine aquaculture in the coastal zone. Such understanding requires integration of a broad range of disciplines from the natural, social, economic and behavioral sciences.

Faculty interested in joining us in the development of this proposal are invited to contact

Dr Ian Bricknell (ian.bricknell@umit.maine.edu; 207-581-4380) or

Dr Anne Langston (anne.langston@umit.maine.edu; 207-356-2982)

Our lovely Brianna Hughes is in the news (again)! Well done Brianna!

http://www.pressherald.com/news/enrollments-growing_2012-09-26.html

Well done to our colleagues Dana Morse and Sarah Redmond on a superb seaweed workshop!

http://www.wabi.tv/news/32998/researchers-hold-workshop-in-belfast-on-growing-seaweed-industry

Hear our director, Prof Ian Bricknell, talk about bait risks on MPBN radio

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mpbn.net%2FHome%2Ftabid%2F36%2Fctl%2FViewItem%2Fmid%2F3478%2FItemId%2F23633%2FDefault.aspx&h=DAQF8oBtA&s=1

A note to all fellow seaweed enthusiasts: our colleagues at Maine Sea Grant have created a new page called Maine Seaweed Social. It is a place to connect and share ideas, photos and experiences. The link is below; please spread the word so that we can move this industry forward!

http://www.facebook.com/MaineSeaweedSocial

ARI Graduate Student Kevin Neves has recently completed his research project looking into the question of ….What caused hundreds of Atlantic cod in a UMaine research project at CCAR in 2004 to develop severe cataracts at higher rates than expected?  He found that cod living at high densities were exposed to higher levels of carbon dioxide, causing them to grow cataracts and eventually go blind. Fish that cannot see to locate their food cannot grow.  Kevin expects to defend in Fall 2012.  More information on the project can be found at the following link.

http://umaine.edu/news/blog/2012/06/06/graduate-student-explores-link-between-carbon-dioxide-and-blindness-in-cod/

Jim Killarney and John Ahern have been working with the Aquaculture Research Institute on development of a gadget to monitor nitrates in recirculation systems and bioremediation sites.  They have recently been awarded an MTI seed grant on their project Chemiluminescence Detection of Nitrates and THMs. The ability to detect nitrates and disinfectant byproducts in place and in real-time greatly improves process controls and pollution monitoring for aquaculture and drinking water treatment.  The University of Maine is developing a sensor that takes advantage of a novel spectrometer design that measures the chemiluminescence of these compounds.  The scope of this project is to obtain the technical and customer requirements of a chemiluminescence based sensor which will allow us to design our beta prototype device.  The lightweight, durable monitoring device will be deployable and provide pollutant concentration data in real-time to end users.

Drs Tim Bowden and Ian Bricknell of the Aquaculture Research Institute, UMaine have been awarded a new MTI seed grant for novel vaccine development.

Vaccines are a key method of controlling disease in finfish aquaculture. However, most fish vaccines consist of crude bacterial suspensions where the mechanisms of protection are not well understood. Recent research by the applicants has identified a novel group of proteins that are expressed by bacteria during the end stages of an infection. Vaccines that include these proteins were very protective against the fish pathogen Aeromonas salmonicida in small-scale laboratory trials.

Open House 2012

August 24, 2011, 8:30am-4pm

Wells Conference Center

University of Maine, Orono

Agenda

August 23, 2012, 1pm

Come and find out more about our aquaculture research facilities at:

The Darling Marine Center, Walpole and The Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research, Franklin.

The Darling Marine Center, Walpole  

In the early 1970′s Dr. Herb Hidu was hired by the University of Maine to establish a shellfish aquaculture facility at that Darling Marine Center. For 30 years he taught and trained students in the art and science of growing the Eastern oyster in the cold waters of our coast. Many of his early students were the first entrepreneurs of Maine’s thriving oyster industry. The Darling Center shellfish research has expanded beyond Maine’s oysters to a wider variety of species including mussels, scallops, whelks, European oysters, razor clams and quahogs. Both Basic and applied research is supported at the center with the goal of improving knowledge of shellfish and sustainable methods for the fishing and culture of shellfish. There are a number of state-of-the-art facilities at the Darling Marine Center to support the University of Maine’s aquaculture research.  Including:

• UMaine Shellfish Hatchery - built in 2001, it is a flowing seawater lab, or an open tank space, ambient as well as chilled and heated seawater and instrumentation bays.
• Broodstock Conditioning Room - Allows the researchers to feed, condition and spawn shellfish out of season, and is isolated for quarantine purposes.
• Shellfish hatchery - Algal culture systems, which are efficient and productive for the main purpose of feeding the many filter-feeding shellfish at the center.
• Temperature controlled room - used for the culture of larval stage shellfish.

Hatchery based research at DMC is often conducted in collaboration with industry partners, the shellfish working group, and the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center.  These collaborations provide the University of Maine researchers access to some of the most pristine and productive culture sites in the Northeastern United States.

The Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research, Franklin

The facility (CCAR) is located on Taunton Bay in Franklin, Maine.  After taking over the property in 1999 we set about modernizing and expanding the facilities, upgrading the systems to include innovative recirculating technologies, waste water treatment systems and to comply with all relevant building and safety codes. In 2003 we built the “MTI Cluster Enhancement” funded buildings to add multipurpose space for business incubation and R&D. In 2005 we added the EDA funded marine fish hatchery, to enable us to produce a variety of marine fish for the industry. In addition to having the facilities, experience and knowledge, we are able to assist industry partners in applying for outside funding for their R&D projects and will help design and manage R&D projects from basic research, all the way through to the design of full scale commercial farming. The flexibility of the facilities allows for a wide range of work on a wide range of species.  These include: cold water marine fish, including Atlantic halibut and Atlantic cod; tropical marine fish, such as Clown fish; a variety of invertebrates including polychaete worms and sea urchins; and marine algae.

Please register if you wish to attend a tour.