Summer Workshops & Courses

2-day High School Workshop:

Exploring Careers in Marine Science

Monday and Tuesday, June 24th & 25th, 2024

Cost: $200, includes housing and meals

Come spend two days engaged in immersive programming at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole, Maine. The beautiful DMC campus operates along the Damariscotta River, on land that once operated as a farm belonging to the Darling family.

This workshop will introduce students to DMC professionals specializing in topics ranging from aquaculture, SCUBA & scientific diving, marine fisheries, social science, education, the lobster industry, oceanography & more!

Space is limited, and all forms must be completed and filed prior to confirmation.

Fill out this form to receive necessary paperwork and secure your spot in the workshop!

Aquaculture Boot Camp

Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center & Aquaculture Research Institute

May 20-24, 2024 daily from 8am-5pm

Deadline: April 14, 2024
Click here to apply!

The Aquaculture Boot Camp will deliver essential skill-building training to prepare new entrants to sea farming as practiced in Maine. Based at the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center in Walpole, the student cohort, working together in small groups, will engage in hands-on activities fundamental to working safely on farms and around the water. Participants will be taught by industry experts and have opportunity for shared learning or networking with their student cohort. This Spring 2024 Aquaculture Boot Camp is hosted in partnership with the Aquaculture in Shared Waters training program, which has helped people start and improve their aquaculture businesses in Maine since 2012.

Who is this training opportunity for?
With this Aquaculture Boot Camp, we are targeting the following groups: new employees on aquaculture farms (less than 1 year of experience), recent employees on aquaculture farms (1-3 years experience), small-scale operators/farm owners (1-3 years of farm operations), students pursuing an aquaculture degree or aquaculture training certificate, and current participants in Maine-based aquaculture pre-apprenticeship, internship, or externship programs. Any Maine resident over 18 is welcome to apply, but in the case of strong interest we will prioritize applications from the above named groups. We are striving to create a diverse cohort as much as possible.

What is required to participate?
The course is free of charge to all participants and will run from 8am – 5pm daily, May 20-24, 2024 at the Darling Marine Center. You must be a full-time resident of Maine and aged over 18 years to participate. Participants must commit to attending the full week of training. Housing will be provided to attendees as needed and lunch will be provided each day. Students will be responsible for their own breakfasts and dinners and will have access to a shared kitchen to prepare their own meals if they choose.

What will be covered?
Curriculum will include a variety of topics related to farm operations, shellfish and seaweed husbandry, and maritime skills such as:
• small vessel handling and maintenance
• knots, lines and splicing
• basic inshore navigation
• mooring system design/construction
• shellfish husbandry systems operations
• seeding and harvesting kelp lines
• shellfish and seaweed biology
• … and more!

SMS 491: Sharks Form & Function

July 22-26, 2024

UMaine’s Summer University

Sharks and their relatives are of major importance to the oceans, not only as apex predators but as indicators of the ocean’s general health. As the oldest living group of fish, they are considered by many to be primitive animals. Yet to have been so successful from an evolutionary perspective their body plan and biology is actually very advanced and give the elasmobranchs a significant evolutionary advantage. Although their general anatomy is similar to what it was when they first evolved 420 million years ago, they can be considered to be very advanced fish. Sharks and their relatives have the longest evolutionary record of any vertebrate evolving over 420 million years ago.

Students taking this course explore the anatomy, histology and body plan of a shark relating their basic vertebrate body plan to the fundamental anatomical structures found in all vertebrates and why the body plan of sharks is so successful 420 million years after they first evolved.

As Sylvia Earle said “Sharks are beautiful animals, and if you’re lucky enough to see lots of them, that means that you’re in a healthy ocean. You should be afraid if you are in the ocean and don’t see sharks”. Sharks’ importance to our ecosystem must not be underestimated and one of this courses’ main deliverables is to show how important such flagship species are to the history of vertebrate life on earth.

Darling Marine Center