Life Sciences Commons^™

Ontogeny Of Size-Specific Prey Selection And Handling Behavior Of Larval Lobster (Homarus Americanus), Evelyn M. Layland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The American lobster (Homarus americanus) plays an integral role in the coastal Northwest Atlantic as a benthic consumer and the target of the most valuable single-species fishery in North America. In the past decade, benthic recruitment of juvenile lobster has declined, even as egg production has increased, suggesting heightening levels of larval mortality. Recent correlative studies in the Gulf of Maine further suggest early stage larval survival may be related to the supply and composition of planktonic foods. Despite these correlative studies and the economic importance of the species, relatively little is yet known about how larval lobster …

Comanagement In Maine: Integrating Fishermen’S Ecological Knowledge Into Government Oversight Of Fisheries, Anne Hayden

Maine Policy Review

Comanagement is the sharing of responsibility for management between fishermen and fisheries agencies. It shifts fishermen’s incentives to include longer term conservation goals, generates fine-scale information for management that would not otherwise be available, and develops fishing strategies that are consistent with conservation. Analysis of comanaged fisheries in Maine, for lobster, clams, river herring, and scallops, indicates that comanagement improves fisheries productivity and is more effective than standard, top-down, broad-scale fisheries management.

Strategies To Promote Value And Resilience In The American Lobster (Homarus Americanus) Industry, Nicole Orminski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The American lobster (Homarus americanus) fishery is the most valuable single-species fishery in the United States and Canada (DFO, 2021; NOAA Fisheries, n.d.). Coastal communities on both sides of the border rely on the American lobster supply chain, which economically links the two countries with one another and with other countries around the globe. Ongoing disruptions (or shocks) threaten the functionality of the supply chain, and increased globalization leads to greater exposure to shocks as they are transmitted between systems. One research study described in this thesis aims to add value to the industry via post-harvest treatment of …

Lobster Institute_Covid-19 Public Health Links Webpage, University Of Maine Lobster Institute

Lobster Institute

Screenshot of University of Maine's Lobster Institute webpage with guidance regarding lobster fishing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lobster Institute_Covid-19 Related Articles Webpage, University Of Maine Lobster Institute

Lobster Institute

Screenshot of University of Maine's Lobster Institute webpage with articles regarding lobster fishing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Look Into Millstone Nuclear Power Plant: Attitudes On Sustainability And Prevalence Of Epizootic Shell Disease, Emily Craig

Honors College

Epizootic Shell Disease in Homarus americanus

American lobster populations along the northeastern U.S. coast have been experiencing increased prevalence of Epizootic Shell Disease (ESD) over the past two decades. Several reports have correlated this increase with warmer water temperatures. My thesis examined the distribution of diseased lobsters surrounding Millstone Nuclear Power Station (MPS) in Long Island Sound. Lobsters in this area have seen a rise in Epizootic Shell Disease (ESD) that parallels the broader trends. To determine if the thermal plume from MPS had a local effect on ESD prevalence, the spatial distribution of diseased lobsters was analyzed at three …

Shell Game: Improving The Shell Quality And Value Of Maine’S Most Valuable Fishery, Abigale Shaughnessy

Honors College

The American lobster is Maine’s most valuable export commodity. Hard-shell lobster commands the highest price because they survive shipping to overseas markets, but much of Maine’s summer production comes as perishable, low-value, softshell lobster. Lobster processors would like to know whether they can enhance profitability by holding over low-quality lobsters to increase their hardness instead of the standard process of receiving and shipping lobsters in under 48 hours. In a collaborative experiment with Ready Seafood Co. (Portland, Maine), we conducted week-long trials to evaluate the joint effects of temperature and feeding on shell hardness and hemolymph protein levels, an indicator …

Linking Rising Pco2 And Temperature To The Larval Development, Physiology And Gene Expression Of The American Lobster (Homarus Americanus), Jesica Waller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic warming and ocean acidification are occurring as CO₂ continues to accumulate in the atmosphere (OA). Few studies have evaluated the joint effects of elevated temperature and partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO₂)on marine organisms. In this study we investigated the interactive effects of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted temperature and pCO₂ for the end of the 21st century on key aspects of larval development of the American lobster, Homarus americanus, an otherwise well-studied, iconic, and commercially prominent species in the northeastern United States and Atlantic Canada. Our experiments showed …

The Cost Of Useful Knowledge And Collective Action In Three Fisheries, James A. Wilson, James M. Acheson, Teresa Johnson

James Wilson

In a complex environment knowledge is valuable and its acquisition is costly; as a result people are careful about what to learn and how to learn it. We suggest that the dynamics of the “local” environment strongly influences the method that individuals choose to acquire useful knowledge and is one of the principal determinants of the way they compete and cooperate. We focus on theway different environments lead to different costs, especially the relative opportunity costs of search and communication and, consequently, to the emergence of different patterns of persistent cooperation and competition. In predictably regular and in predictably random …

Costly Information And The Evolution Of Self-Organization In A Small, Complex Economy., James A. Wilson

James Wilson

tThe core idea of evolution is that order in living systems emerges from a simple process of variation and selection. In biological systems we usually understand the source of variation as best described by the mechanisms of genetics. If human social systems are evolutionary systems, however, it would seem the variation that most explains the sources of change in these systems, occurs not from a genetic mechanism, but from individual learning. We use an evolutionary computational methodology to explore the way individual learning and adaptation lead to the evolution of persistent, self-organized social and economic activity. The basic idea behind …