The future of Maine’s lobster industry may depend on a creature the size of a sesame seed. Researchers at the University of Maine have discovered that planktonic baby lobsters, or larvae, preferentially feed on Calanus finmarchicus, a tiny, calorie-rich zooplankton species, during one of the most vulnerable stages of their lives. Their new study upholds […]
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Wildlife ecology major Jordan Anderson spent the summer tagging Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon in the Penobscot and Kennebec rivers through a Maine Sea Grant internship While paddleboarding on the ocean last summer, Jordan Anderson was startled when a massive animal leaped from the water nearby. She assumed it was a porpoise. Instead, it was an […]
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Local Catch Network will lead outreach, co-host informational sessions and gather industry input to help shape national seafood strategy. American fishermen, aquaculture producers, processors and seafood businesses now have a path for improved access to federal funding, technical assistance and new markets through a national collaboration involving the Local Catch Network, based at the University […]
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Watch experts from the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station explain here.
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For beverage coolers to keep drinks cold on a hot summer day, manufacturers rely on polyurethane foam, which is made from raw chemicals that are hazardous to handle before processing. To reduce health and environmental risks associated with this material, a University of Maine graduate student is designing an insulation component for coolers from an […]
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Beneath Maine’s salt marshes, an invisible transformation is constantly underway. Water moves through soil and rock. Chemicals react. Tiny microbes living underground help determine whether minerals dissolve or form, how fluids move and whether pollutants break down or spread. Existing computer models used to guide decisions about energy infrastructure and contamination often treat microbes as […]
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The University of Maine is a lead partner in a new $15 million National Science Foundation (NSF) Regional Innovation Engine that will strengthen New England’s seafood industry through cutting-edge research, technology innovation and workforce development. The NSF Seafood Engine in New England is led by the Portsmouth-based nonprofit Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing […]
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American woodcock, short, plump shorebirds with long, thin beaks, are widely known for their bobbing stride and nasally “peent” calls, but not for being aggressive. Yet one April afternoon, when a deer sniffed around a woodcock hen’s ground nest looking for food, the hen lunged at it, scaring it away. University of Maine researchers captured […]
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When low-level flames spread across five acres of forestland in Old Town one June afternoon, University of Maine students Logan Quinn of Braintree, Massachusetts, and Mar Wiltz of Bloomington, Indiana, helped keep them under control while gaining hands-on experience that could shape their future forestry careers. The two-hour prescribed burn at UMaine’s Dwight B. Demeritt […]
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Mehdi Tajvidi, a professor of renewable nanomaterials at the University of Maine, has been named the 2026 recipient of the FiberLean Distinguished Scientist Award from the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI) Advanced Renewable Materials division. The award recognizes individuals whose work has significantly advanced scientific and engineering knowledge within the renewable […]
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