Lab News & Views Archives - Leslie Lab: Marine Conservation Science

Apply now! July ’25 SES workshop

Heather is leading a one week graduate-level workshop on social-ecological systems science at the UMaine Darling Marine Center between July 14-18, 2025. This workshop is designed for graduate students, postdocs, and marine science professionals interested in learning more about interdisciplinary methods related to social-ecological systems science. Learn more at https://dmc.umaine.edu/2024/12/31/interdisciplinary-methods-for-social-ecological-systems-science-summer-2025/ Applications are due February 15th. […]

Heather reflects on science communication

Thanks to the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) for including our work in this story on science communication: https://www.neefusa.org/story/environmental-education/why-science-communication-important

Community Science Update

We had a long field season this year, starting with focus groups in the spring and then shellfish ecological studies that spanned the summer and fall. The last couple of months we also have been met with the Joint Shellfish Committee and other community members to share what we’re learning and to plan for 2025. […]

Congratulations, Dr. Phoebe Jekielek!

Congratulations to Dr. Phoebe Jekielek! On September 19th, Phoebe successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled Integrating life history and environmental DNA (eDNA) data to enhance detection of sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) populations, in partial fulfilment of her doctoral degree requirements for UMaine’s Graduate Program in Ecology and Environmental Sciences. Phoebe starts a postdoc with the Brady Lab next month and will be working with […]

Reflecting on the Maine Climate Council process

The Maine Climate Council Scientific and Technical Subcommittee recently released their 2024 report, which guides the work of the Council in finalizing the Maine Climate Action Plan later this year. Here, Leslie Lab affiliate Dr. Jess Reilly-Moman reflects on her experience supporting the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee over the last year. An Anthropologist and An […]

Connecting local and scientific knowledge

Earlier this spring, I traveled to La Paz, on the gulf coast of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur (BCS). It had been four years since I had last visited, in March 2020, as the pandemic was spreading across the globe. I was grateful to be able to travel with a close colleague and […]

Progress towards ecosystem-based management

Read on to learn about the progress of marine ecosystem-based management, in light of a recent publication in Ocean Sustainability that Heather contributed to. The team shared their findings in an article published in the academic journal Ocean Sustainability, published by Nature. “Even in the face of the challenges to coastal communities and ecosystems created by the […]

Scallop news

Check out this recent Portland Press Herald article about the collaborative work that Leslie Lab grad student Phoebe Jekielek is engaged in.

Community Science Update

This spring, as part of an ongoing community science project in collaboration with the Damariscotta-Newcastle Joint Shellfish Committee, we are hosting a series of focus group discussions to discuss values and visions for the future of the Damariscotta River. We will dig into questions like, “What do you value about the river?” or “How do […]

Our shared ocean

A special issue of Maine Policy Review – Our Shared Ocean – features work by multiple Leslie Lab members: Graduate student Sarah Risley (above) led publication of findings from the first four years of the Damariscotta Community Science project, in collaboration with former Leslie Lab grad students Kara Pellowe and Melissa Britsch; Professor Heather Leslie; […]