Saving Seafood

U.S.-Canada dispute over fishing grounds focus of film

September 6, 2019 — Award-winning Boston filmmaker and journalist David Schwab Abel’s documentary “Lobster War: The Fight Over the World’s Richest Fishing Grounds,” about the conflict between the United States and Canada over waters that both countries have claimed since the end of the Revolutionary War, will be shown at 7 p.m. on Tuesday Sept. 10, in the Moore Auditiorium on the Schoodic Institute campus. Admission is free.

Abel, who was part of The Boston Globe team covering the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombing, covers fisheries and the environment for The Globe.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Celebrate International Year of the Salmon with Us on February 28 in Bangor, Maine

February 22, 2019 — The following was published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

In partnership with NOAA Fisheries’ Maine Field Station and the Maine Discovery Museum, the Maine Science Festival is hosting a pop-up event called Salmon in Maine as part of the International Year of the Salmon.

We hope you will join us at the Maine Discovery Museum on Main Street in Bangor for a special after-hours event featuring artist Karen Talbot’s Maine’s River Run Fish. Karen’s exhibit features 15 beautifully created paintings of 12 diadromous fish (those that spend part of their lives in both fresh and saltwater) along with three other important river run fish in Maine.

Details
When: Thursday, February 28, 7-9 p.m. The talks will begin at 7:45 p.m.

Where: Maine Discovery Museum, 74 Main Street, Bangor, Maine.

What: The Museum, in partnership with NOAA Fisheries, will open its Main Street Gallery for this special after-hours gallery event, featuring artist Karen Talbot’s Maine’s River Run Fish.

In addition to the art exhibit, the event will include brief presentations on the history of salmon in Maine by Catherine Schmitt from the Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park, words from retired biologist Ed Baum about salmon recovery efforts, and information from Karen Talbot about her work melding the scientific with the artistic to tell the story of Maine’s river run fish, and salmon in particular.

The event is free and open to the public, and you are encouraged to bring guests.

We hope to see you there!

Questions? Contact Sarah Bailey, Maine Field Station, 207-866-7262

Eastern Maine Skippers event focuses on rapid changes in fishing industry

October 4, 2018 — Commercial fishing is one of Maine’s oldest industries. It is also facing rapid adjustments based on environmental changes and emerging technologies.

More than 100 Downeast area high school students gathered at the Schoodic Institute last week as part of the Eastern Maine Skippers Program to learn about these changes.

The event was the first of four “cohort” days for the program, in which students from the participating high schools meet one another, hear from industry leaders and begin shaping projects they will work on during the coming school year.

“This brings in kids from all these different communities and they get to know each other work together,” said Mike Thalhauser, a fisheries science and leadership advisor with the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries.

The Eastern Maine Skippers Program started in 2012. Since then it has expanded to over 120 students and nine schools. New this year is Sumner Memorial High School in Sullivan, which has eight students participating.

“The students will spend the next couple of months figuring out what they want to work on for the year,” said Sumner science teacher Morgan Forni, who is supervising the program at the school. “There’s a really broad range of interests for the students.

The theme for this year is technology. Over the course of the year students will look at how technology contributes to a safe and healthy fishing industry, to sustainable fishing practices, to a better future understanding of fisheries and to a thriving local fisheries economy.

In addition to the cohort meetings, participating students work on individual or group projects based on applying technology to a safe and sustainable fishing industry.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American