Stoll receives fellowship to support Maine’s lobster industry
The Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region (CINAR) has awarded Joshua Stoll, assistant professor of marine policy in the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine, a two-year fellowship in quantitative fisheries and ecosystem science.
Funding from the fellowship will be used to support a post-doctoral researcher who will work with Stoll and collaborators Lisa Colburn and Michael Jepson, researchers at the National Marine Fisheries Service, to develop quantitative social and economic indicators for the American lobster fishery.
A novel component of the project is that Stoll and his colleagues will use datasets that are spatially and temporally sensitive to capture socioeconomic changes in near real-time. This research will ultimately help policy makers and the industry monitor the resilience of this important fishery to longstanding and emerging challenges.
Social and economic indicators are tools of growing importance in fisheries management, but do not currently exist for the American lobster fishery. Lobster is the single most valuable species harvested in the United States, supporting thousands of jobs in Maine. The fishery is particularly important in rural areas of coastal Maine where few alternative employment opportunities exist.
Stoll is one of three recipients of the fellowship, which is open to early-career scientists with appointments at CINAR-partner institutions. The award supports scientists researching how to improve and enhance the assessment and management of living marine resources in the Northeast region. A goal of the fellowship is to also foster collaboration between faculty at CINAR institutions and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The Maine Department of Marine Resources, Maine Center of Coastal Fisheries and Maine Lobstermen’s Association are all active partners on the project. This research is also supported by National Sea Grant’s American Lobster Initiative and the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions.
Contact: Erin Miller, erin.miller@maine.edu