Press Herald, MPBN Interview Bricknell About Sea Lice Conference
The Portland Press Herald and Maine Public Broadcasting Network spoke with Ian Bricknell, a University of Maine aquaculture biology professor, about the 10th annual Sea Lice Conference he helped organize. More than 200 researchers from the around the world are attending the Portland conference. This is the first year the conference is being held in the United States. Sea lice — a parasite that grazes on the skin of fish — are estimated to cost the global aquaculture industry about $300 million a year, Bricknell said. The Press Herald also mentioned the establishment of the Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Network, or SEANET, at UMaine, thanks to a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant’s goal is to turn Maine’s 3,500-mile coast into a “living laboratory” to study social and environmental interactions among sustainable ecological aquaculture and coastal communities and ecosystems.