Darling Marine Center

Coral reefs are the world’s most diverse and endangered marine ecosystems, particularly in the Caribbean. For the past five years, ecologist Bob Steneck has studied and monitored coral reefs in the Dominican Republic. Steneck is a University of Maine faculty member in residence at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole. This year, trends revealed that the […]

Heather Leslie and Deborah Bronk lead scientific institutions that are advancing and collaborating on cutting-edge marine research from opposite sides of the Damariscotta River. Leslie, director of the University of Maine Darling Marine Center (DMC), and Bronk, president and CEO of Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, regularly look for opportunities to strengthen the longstanding partnership […]

Two new studies published by University of Maine scientists are putting a long-standing survey of the American lobster’s earliest life stages to its most rigorous test yet as an early warning system for trends in New England’s iconic fishery. The studies point to the role of a warming ocean and local differences in oceanography in […]

ORONO, Maine — Even with ocean warming, coral bleaching and an intense hurricane, local conservation actions helped a Caribbean coral reef ecosystem rebound in about a decade. Bob Steneck began studying coral reefs off the island of Bonaire, near Venezuela in the Dutch Caribbean in 2002. And for more than 15 years, the University of […]

University of Maine Semester by the Sea students from the Darling Marine Center ran the touch tank Sept. 29 at the Pemaquid Oyster Festival. The Pemaquid Oyster Company and Schooner Landing Restaurant host the annual festival in Damariscotta at the restaurant’s Main Street location. The free festival includes educational exhibits, vendors, music and plenty of […]

Kara Pellowe, who recently earned her doctorate at the University of Maine and now is a postdoctoral researcher, will present results of a summer shellfish project at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 18 at the Damariscotta Town Office. In July, Pellowe and others gathered data at low tide to assess the abundance, composition and size of soft-shell […]

Carl Huntsberger, who for three years studied the challenge of crustacean age determination, earned a Master of Science in marine biology at the University of Maine. Huntsberger grew up lobstering on the coast of Maine. After completing his bachelor’s degree in marine science at Roger Williams University in 2012, he worked at a nonprofit research lab […]

The University of Maine Darling Marine Center hosted a three-day orientation program the last week of August for 30 first-year students in the School of Marine Sciences. William “Wge” Ellis, associate director of UMaine SMS, leads the annual boot camp program. “We have an amazing facility on the midcoast, the Darling Marine Center, and I just love being able […]

For six years, Kara Pellowe studied the chocolate clam fishery and the coupling of socio-ecological systems in Loreto, Mexico. This summer, she earned a Ph.D. in ecology and environmental sciences at the University of Maine. Chocolate clams (Megapitaria squalida) are an economically and culturally important species in Loreto named for the shiny brown color of […]

Megan Driscoll wants to replace plastic made of petroleum with plastic made of algae. So this summer, the University of Maine intern made algae-based bioplastic and documented how it broke down over time in the Damariscotta River Estuary. Driscoll, a junior marine science major from Chelmsford, Massachusetts, presented her project Aug. 6 at the fourth […]