UMaine Professors to Receive National Saltonstall-Kennedy Grants for Fisheries Research

Three University of Maine researchers have been chosen to receive funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Saltonstall-Kennedy (S-K) Grant Program to pursue research that will benefit the U.S. fishing industry.

Two of the 40 grants were recommended to be given to projects led by UMaine researchers and one to a collaborative effort between UMaine, the University of Maine at Machias and a Massachusetts laboratory. UMaine professors Heather Hamlin, an assistant professor of aquaculture, and Yong Chen, a professor of fisheries population, are the principal investigators of the two UMaine-led studies. Paul Rawson, an associate professor of marine science and a cooperating assistant professor of biological sciences at UMaine, will receive an S-K grant as a collaborator of a study led by Scott Lindell of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass.

Hamlin’s study, “The Effects of Regional Temperature Cycles on the Development and Disease Susceptibility of the American lobster (Homarus americanus),” will receive $249,516. The project seeks to determine if increasing ocean temperature is a causative agent in the population decline of lobsters in southern New England.

“The American lobster is an iconic species whose fishery is steeped in tradition in New England,” Hamlin says. “Understanding the effects of increasing ocean temperatures is extremely important to Maine and its economy.”

For more than a decade, lobsters have been experiencing a dramatic population decline in southern New England, according to the project proposal. If the decline spreads into the Gulf of Maine, it would threaten the livelihood and culture of fishing communities, as well as the multibillion-dollar industry they support, the proposal states. The project will examine the effects of increasing ocean temperatures on lobster growth, development and disease susceptibility as they relate to the crustaceans’ population decline in the region.

Co-principal investigators of the project are Deborah Bouchard, a laboratory manager and research coordinator with the UMaine Animal Health Laboratory (AHL) and Aquaculture Research Institute; Robert Bayer, a professor of animal and veterinary sciences and executive director of the Lobster Institute; Ian Bricknell, a professor of aquaculture biology; and Anne Lichtenwalner, an assistant professor of animal science, Extension veterinarian and AHL director.

Chen will receive $229,326 for the project, “Improving survivability of cusk and Atlantic cod bycatch discarded in the Gulf of Maine lobster trap fishery.”

Chen’s study seeks to identify the time and areas where cusk and cod are likely to be caught in lobster traps; identify factors in handling which may significantly influence the survival rates of discarded cusk and cod; evaluate the effectiveness of recompression and venting in improving the survivability of released cusk and cod discarded from lobster traps; develop a protocol to reduce the discard mortality; and conduct an outreach program to educate stakeholders on the discarded groundfish in lobster fisheries.

Rawson is collaborating on a project with Brian Beal, a professor of marine biology at the University of Maine at Machias, and researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass. The researchers will receive $373,088 to use the experimental shellfish hatcheries at UMaine’s Darling Marine Center (DMC) in Walpole, Maine and the MBL to develop technology to cost-effectively produce mussel seed to meet the needs of the Northeastern United States mussel culture industry.

According to the group’s proposal, the Northeast’s mussel culture industry is poised for expansion. In past years, an inconsistent local supply of wild mussel seed has caused reliability problems for businesses both in the region and around the world. Moving toward hatchery-reared seed could improve the availability and volume of seed and help mussel farmers in the Northeast succeed.

“Our project is proactive in that we will develop cost-effective, steady and reliable hatchery-based seed production so the success of Maine’s blue mussel farms will not be hampered by problems associated with seed availability,” Rawson says.

The Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program is a competitive program administered by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce. The program provides financial assistance for research and development projects to benefit the U.S. fishing industry, according to the program’s website.

Contact: Elyse Kahl, 581.3747