Campaign Priorities

First Response Fund for Lobster Health

Creating a graduate student assistantship and progressing to a post-doctoral fellowship in lobster health & environmental monitoring — $1,000,000

  • Naming opportunity for Fund available with gift of $500,000
  • Naming opportunity available for fellowship at $250,000

Your support of a post-doctoral fellowship within the Lobster Institute will make a significant contribution through research and teaching. Endowed research funds, our “First Response Fund,” will allow us to respond rapidly to crises facing the lobster industry without being bound by the long lag time encountered when trying to secure grant funding.

This fellowship will allow for vigilant monitoring of environmental conditions and study on the impacts of environmental toxins on lobster stocks. The once productive lobster stocks in Long Island Sound have been virtually wiped out as of fall of l999, and much of the evidence points to environmental causes. Environmental contaminants such as pesticides have subtle effects on the physiology of the lobster that are not fully understood at this point. Establishing a post-doctoral fellowship in lobster health and environmental monitoring provides the essential support that will allow us to find the origins of and develop ways to control these problems… protecting the lobster and its environment, and minimizing the impact to the industry. The lobster health focus will allow the Lobster Institute to be proactive in identifying and controlling emerging pathogens in lobster. In the past 10 years we have seen a bacterial problem affecting lobsters, as well as shell disease developing on a large scale in Southern Massachusetts to Long Island Sound. A virus has also been seen in Florida lobsters. Research is vital to help isolate the cause and contain the spread of these pathogens.

This position could begin as a post-doctoral fellowship and be elevated to an assistant professorship as funding allows. The fellowship will provide two-year appointments, with special emphasis rotating between the areas of lobster health and environmental monitoring as needed. Work would be conducted in University labs, our Bunker’s Harbor Field Station and other coastal locations. This named fellowship may carry the donor’s name, or the name of any other person the donor wishes to honor.

University Chair

Lobster Institute Executive Director & Lobster Research Professorship — $2,000,000

  • Naming opportunity available with gift of $1,000,000
    • *$1,000,000 to create chair
    • *$1,000,000 to complete endowment and provide support

This is an opportunity to direct your gift to strengthen and secure the position of Lobster Institute Executive Director and to ensure that an outstanding researcher with expertise in the area of lobster science will always fill this role on a full-time basis. You will be providing continuity to and enhancing the integrity of the Lobster Institute. This named chair may carry the donor’s name, or the name of any other person the donor wishes to honor.

Unrestricted Endowment for Operations, Communications and Outreach

$1,500,000

  • Naming opportunities available for the Lobster Institute Senior Associate staff position with a gift of $250,000 and the Lobster Institute Associate staff position with a gift of $100,000
    • The Unrestricted Endowment for Operations, Communications and Outreach will secure the institutional longevity of the Lobster Institute by providing necessary operating funds. It will give us the security, and thus the freedom, to pursue those endeavors most directly related to our mission; and will allow us to respond rapidly to challenges facing the lobster industry.
    • The Institute brings together fishermen and other members of the industry, scientists, resource managers and community members to share information, discuss issues, and define research priorities. The Institute provides a means for all interested parties to work together toward a common goal and links industry expertise with academic resources to solve problems and face challenges. This fund will keep the communication lines open, information flowing, and the quality work of the Lobster Institute staff ongoing day-in and day-out.
    • Employing a proactive approach, the Lobster Institute is dedicated to its founding principles of cooperation industry. Your contribution to the Lobster Institute’s Unrestricted Endowment for Operations, Communications and Outreach will safeguard these principles for a lifetime.

Lobster Stock Assessment and Modeling Initiative

$80,000 over three years =$240,000 (one time non-endowed) or
$1,500,000 (ongoing endowed project)

  • Naming opportunity available with gift of $250,000
    • Your contribution to fund the Lobster Stock Assessment Initiative will ensure that the voices of the lobstermen will be heard. For the past 40 years fisheries managers in the U.S. and Canada have predicted the demise of the lobster fishery, yet this is at odds with what fishermen see in their traps and the record catches of the past decade. The Lobster Institute believes the evaluation of models and data collection for stock status assessment and forecasting must center on the fishermen’s records and observations. The need for stock assessment is ongoing. This three-year initiative will build a new foundation for further work in this area.

FOR THE FUTURE:
Lobster Institute Graduate StudentAssistantship/New Product Development — $1,000,000

  • Naming opportunity available at $250,000
    • By creating a Graduate Student Assistantship in New Product Development you are demonstrating an entrepreneurial spirit. Developing and promoting value-added lobster products represents an opportunity to create jobs and also enhance sales of lobster in various forms, thus maximizing the resource. The sale of live lobsters is the traditional mainstay of the industry. There is, however, a growing trend toward marketing processed lobster – as frozen tails and cooked lobster meat. More than half of the Maine catch and large proportions of other landings, including the Canadian catch, are now processed. We can maximize the resource by develop processing innovations and new lobster-based food products that use virtually all of the processed lobster, right down to the shell. A Graduate Student Assistantship in New Product Development is an investment in the creativity of talented students fortified by industry expertise. This named assistantship may carry the donor’s name, or the name of any other person the donor wishes to honor.