Darling Marine Center news

A photo of boats along a pier

State’s future economy anchored in the sea, University of Maine president says

Joan Ferrini-Mundy highlighted the university’s leadership at today’s Maine Blue Economy Innovation Summit. ‘You don’t get to focus on an economy without thinking about the people who make and drive that economy,’ she said. On Maine’s rugged coast, where shipbuilding, fishing and working waterfronts have defined generations, leaders say the future is once again tied […]

Read more

CBC highlights research to help track right whales

With only 370 endangered right whales remaining in the world, University of Maine researchers have joined together with the New England Aquarium in Boston to create honing models on where the whales will appear next. Lead researcher Camille Ross, an associate research scientist at the New England Aquarium and former UMaine graduate student, told the […]

Read more

Mainebiz highlights role of UMaine in successful scallop aquaculture invention

Mainebiz highlighted the University of Maine’s partnership with a local company out of Thomaston that raises scallops — Seascale, founded by Charles Walsh and Jon Steuber. Seascale’s core innovation, the Maine Scallop Pot, is a modular aquaculture system designed to be used around the established routines of working lobstermen, enabling fishermen to cultivate scallops without […]

Read more

A photo of a person on the coast of Maine

Darling Marine Center documents local shellfish harvesting trends, changes

By studying the Damariscotta and Medomak River estuaries, University of Maine researchers have formally documented shifts in shellfish populations, from soft shell clams to oysters. Because Maine’s intertidal mudflats, such as those found in these estuaries, are difficult to study, this work filled an important gap in information about shellfish harvesting. Research documented how tidal […]

Read more

A photo of scallop lines underwater

UMaine research examines best methods for growing Atlantic sea scallops

A new study from the University of Maine’s Aquaculture Research Institute (ARI) and Darling Marine Center is helping to refine best practices for growing Atlantic sea scallops (Placopecten magellanicus), a species of increasing interest to Maine’s aquaculture sector. Published in the academic journal Aquaculture, the research compares two scallop farming methods, ear-hanging and lantern net […]

Read more

UMaine experts participating in 2025 Maine Science Festival

University of Maine faculty and students will present at several events during the Maine Science Festival, a program of the Maine Discovery Museum in Bangor that will include more than 70 events and activities from March 18-23.  The five-day celebration will showcase science and technology happening in Maine in the format of an arts or […]

Read more

BDN, CBS 5 interview Brady on threats to aquaculture from climate change

The Bangor Daily News and WABI (CBS 5 in Bangor) interviewed Damian Brady, professor of marine sciences at the University of Maine, on the threats climate change presents to the aquaculture industry. Brady said challenges to the industry extend beyond the Gulf of Maine’s warming waters — which he explained also presents new opportunities — […]

Read more

Media highlight lobster habitat research from UMaine

The Portland Press Herald, Mainebiz, Maine Public, Earth.com, News Center Maine, Penobscot Bay Pilot, WGME (CBS 13 in Portland) and Seacoastonline highlighted a new study by researchers at the University of Maine that revealed lobsters in the Gulf of Maine are abandoning their traditional rocky habitats for open areas. This significant behavioral shift, potentially driven […]

Read more