Ph.D. student featured in Island Institute film series ‘A Climate of Change’

Samuel Belknap, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology and the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, was featured in a four-part film series produced by the Island Institute.

“A Climate of Change” highlights fishing communities threatened by the effects of a changing climate and what they are doing to adapt. The final film in the series focuses on the future of Maine aquaculture, and explores how some fishermen are turning to sea farming to stay afloat in a rapidly changing environment and economy.

Belknap’s research is focused on how climate-driven changes in the Gulf of Maine impact the region’s fishermen. In the fourth film, Belknap comments on the viability of aquaculture in Maine, and the work he is doing to ensure fishermen have the tools necessary to diversify and be successful in their own aquaculture ventures.

“Fishermen are going to want to keep working on the water,” Belknap says in the film. “This allows them a way to invest in their future on the water. And I think that’s huge in maintaining Maine’s cultural identity. Especially when it comes to coastal communities”

UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences, Cooperative Extension and Maine Sea Grant partner with the Island Institute and several other fishing and aquaculture nonprofit organizations to offer the Aquaculture in Shared Waters project. The initiative provides classes to help the state’s fishermen diversify their business models to include various types of shellfish and seaweed aquaculture — “an opportunity for Maine’s iconic seafood harvesters to maintain their livelihoods, as well as the identity of their coastal communities, while facing unprecedented environmental changes,” Belknap says.

More about the Aquaculture in Shared Waters project is on the Maine Sea Grant website. “A Climate of Change: The Future of Aquaculture” also can be viewed online.