{"id":16661,"date":"2018-12-05T13:05:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T18:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/?p=16661"},"modified":"2018-12-21T08:59:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T13:59:30","slug":"tony-sutton-diana-davis-spencer-scholar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/2018\/12\/05\/tony-sutton-diana-davis-spencer-scholar\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Sutton – Diana Davis Spencer Scholar"},"content":{"rendered":"

In January 2017, the Mitchell Center\u00a0launched the\u00a0Strengthening Coastal Economies<\/a>\u00a0project as part of the Diana Davis Spencer Partnership for a Sustainable Maine.\u00a0The ultimate goal of this partnership is to inspire and equip a new generation of engaged, entrepreneurial leaders by providing students with transformative, hands-on experiences in the power of innovative partnerships to create a brighter future.<\/p>\n

The team is led by assistant professor\u00a0Bridie McGreavy<\/a>\u00a0of the Department of Communication and Journalism with help from assistant professor Damian Brady of the School of Marine Sciences, and assistant professor Keith Evans of the School of Economics.<\/p>\n

Six students were recruited for the project\u2014Tyler Quiring, Carter Hathaway, Gabby Hillyer<\/a>, Shuling Chen, Cassie Page<\/a>, and Tony Sutton.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Tony Sutton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sutton\u2019s Passamaquoddy Sustenance Project is \u201cabout shaping research that aligns with the values and perspectives of a community.\u201d The particular community Sutton is working with is Passamaquoddy at Sipayik, on the shores of Passamaquoddy Bay between the town of Perry and the city of Eastport. The project the community developed involves alewife conservation.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Healthy alewife populations support a number of groundfish species like pollock, haddock, and cod, which are important species for sustenance, as food and for supporting cultural practices\u2014the Passamaquoddy are known as \u201cPeople who spear pollock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut today,\u201d Sutton says, \u201cwe can\u2019t do that because there are\u00a0<\/em>no pollock, and the impetus for the work is to increase the alewife numbers in the hopes that they will help replenish other species like pollock.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his project, Sutton has conducted a series of interviews with Passamaquoddy members that were, he notes, \u201cco-developed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe objectives of the interviews were defined by the stakeholder in an effort to gain better understanding of tribal fisheries knowledge and what people did in the past. They also wanted to characterize when they first saw the fisheries starting to decline and what it\u2019s like now,\u201d Sutton says.<\/p>\n

He adds, \u201cWe think through issues and questions together. At the university, we are in the position of, \u2018discovering, creating, or validating knowledge\u2019 but I see First Nations communities as having great capacity to teach researchers about issues in the state, which only broadens our understanding of Maine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through his involvement in the project, Sutton has been trying to approach data in a way where it is analyzed together and shared back to communities. Through consultation with Passamaquoddy research partners, one theme from the interviews related to fisheries conservation is centered on a value of connectivity.<\/p>\n

\u201cConnectivity is sort of like the term food web, referring to everything being connected,\u201d notes Sutton. \u201cBut in this project, connectivity also includes the health of people, communities, and culture. The interviews with Passamaquoddy fishers describe many species absent from the Passamaquoddy Bay, such as pollock, cod, haddock, and salmon. Many have also observed the recent return of alewives, a keystone species historically supporting species like pollock. Connectivity drives this project by focusing on alewives to support groundfish populations and the native and non-native cultures around fishing in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sutton is currently working to integrate stories into coauthored writing, such as for potential publication in the Maine Policy Review. \u201cMy ultimate goal is to work together to shape data in ways that can support their\u00a0<\/em>current and future fisheries related projects,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Sutton adds, \u201cMy time with the Diana Davis Spencer Partnership has allowed me to contribute to this much-needed area of research by articulating key strategies for doing research that can be shaped from within\u00a0<\/em>community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014David Sims<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In January 2017, the Mitchell Center\u00a0launched the\u00a0Strengthening Coastal Economies\u00a0project as part of the Diana Davis Spencer Partnership for a Sustainable Maine.\u00a0The ultimate goal of this partnership is to inspire and equip a new generation of engaged, entrepreneurial leaders by providing students with transformative, hands-on experiences in the power of innovative partnerships to create a brighter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":963,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":3,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/author\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":3,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":606,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":606,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/963"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16661"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16704,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16661\/revisions\/16704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}