Johnson Lab: Marine Social Science

Aquaculture in Shared Waters

Since 2013, Dr. Johnson and her team has conducted social science research as part of the Aquaculture in Shared Waters training program, originally funded by the National Sea Grant Program. Project partners include Maine Sea Grant, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Maine Aquaculture Association, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, Coastal Enterprises Inc.,  and the Johnson lab at the University of Maine. It has been a key activity of the Maine Aquaculture Hub. 

This project provides aquaculture training to fishermen and other fishing community members. The Johnson Lab has been conducting social science research to understand the attitudes, perceptions and knowledge of fishermen with respect to adding aquaculture to their fishing operations.

Related areas of research focus on the adoption of aquaculture by commercial fishers and factors influencing social carrying capacity. 

Cleaver, C., Johnson, T.R., & Hanes, S. P. (2024). Challenges and opportunities for integrating aquaculture with commercial fishing in Maine. Marine Policy, 170, 106407. 

Johnson, T.R., & Veo, J. (2023). Aquaculture in Shared Waters: Lessons for Diverse and Inclusive Workforce Training. Maine Policy Review, 32(2): 165 -169

Johnson, T.R. & Hanes, S.P. (2022). Conflicts and Communities: Marine Aquaculture and the Blue Economy. In J.E., D, Germond-Duret, and C.P. Heidkamp (eds.), In Blue Economy: People and Regions in Transition. Routledge.

Johnson, T.R. (2020). Reflecting on Maine’s Changing Productive Coastal Region. Maine Policy Review, 29(2):91-97.

Bricknell, I.R., Birkel, S.D., Brawley, S.H., Van Kirk, T., Hamlin, H., Capistrant-Fossa, K., Huguenard, K., Van Walsum, G., Liu, Z.L., Zhu, L. H., Grebe, G., Taccardi, E., Miller, M., Preziosi, B.M., Duffy, K., Byron, C.J., Quigley, C.T.C., Bowden T.J., Brady, D., Sappati, P.K., Johnson, T.R., Beal, B.F., Moeykens, S. Resilience of cold water aquaculture: A review of likely scenarios as climate changes in the Gulf of Maine. Reviews in Aquaculture. https://doi.org/10.1111/raq.12483

Johnson, T.R., Beard, K., Brady, D.C., Byron, C.J., Cleaver, C., Duffy, K., Keeney, N., Kimble, M., Miller, M., Moeykens, S., Teisl, M., van Walsum, G.P., & Yuan, J. (2019). A social-ecological system framework for marine aquaculture research. Sustainability, 11, 2522; doi:10.3390/su11092522

Johnson, T.R. & Hanes, S.P. (2019). Considering social carrying capacity in the context of sustainable ecological aquaculture. In J.E. and C.P. Heidkamp (eds.), Towards Coastal Resilience and Sustainability, Routledge.

Johnson, T.R., and Hanes, S.P. (2018). Marine Aquaculture in Restructuring Regions: Understanding a Key Coastal Sustainability Transition. Regions Magazine, 308.

Cleaver, C., Johnson, T.R., Hanes, S.P., & Pianka, K. (2018). From fishers to farmers: Assessing aquaculture adoption in a training program for commercial fishers. Bulletin of Marine Science, 94(3):1215-1222.