Larry Mayer has long contributed to the mission of the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center and its community. In fall 2019, he retired after 43 years of research and teaching — but that doesn’t mean that he’s taking it easy. Shortly following his retirement, Mayer taught a senior college course hosted at the DMC. […]

How people fish matters perhaps as much as the quantity harvested, say University of Maine researchers Kara Pellowe and Heather Leslie. Their study published in Ecosphere details the impacts of size-selective fishing on an economically important species of clam in Baja California Sur, Mexico. The information is critical for fisheries managers to design policies that balance short- […]

  Maine’s coastal communities face multiple environmental and socioeconomic changes, including declining fisheries, loss of working waterfronts, and warming oceans. With more than 3,500 miles of coast, Maine people have important questions about how their communities are preparing for and adapting to these changes.    Marina Cucuzza, a graduate student in the University of Maine […]

UMaine shellfish study highlights changes in the Damariscotta River   WALPOLE, Maine — The rich ecosystem of the Damariscotta River estuary still holds many mysteries.  Some of its most visible residents — oysters, alewives, seals and birds — are counted regularly. But, until this year, the wild shellfish of the upper estuary, have gone uncensused.  […]

  A study published in Ecology and Society by University of Maine researchers Kara Pellowe and Heather Leslie found that regulations and financial resources that influence how people fish have as great an effect on how they deal with change as where and how they fish.    The ecologists, based at the Darling Marine Center […]