Life Sciences Commons^™

Save Maine Lobstermen Website, June 2023, Maine Lobstermen's Association, Sutherland Weston

History of Maine Fisheries

Screen capture of the #SaveMaineLobstermen website created on June 2, 2023. The screen capture includes the web pages: "The Issue," "The Solution," "Join the Fight," "In Court," "Shop to Support," and "Contact." The website was created in reaction to the 2021 call by the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) "ten-year whale plan that requires the Maine lobster fishery to reduce its already minimal risk to right whales by 98 percent."

This document includes all material available through the website on June 2, 2023, regarding the September 2021 lawsuit filed by the Maine Lobstermen's Association (MLA) challenging the 10-year whale plan. …

Optimizing Strategies To Hydraulically Plant Atlantic Salmon Eggs Based On Fry Dispersal Patterns, Ernest J. Atkinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Gulf of Maine Distinct Population Segment of Atlantic Salmon has suffered from habitat loss and exploitation over the last century. Hatchery supplementation has prevented the extirpation of the species, but stocking methods represent tradeoffs between survival, domestication, and logistics. Egg planting, the use of eyed embryos, maximizes natural rearing opportunities which can be important for adaptation. This method, however, is logistically demanding and requires significant labor over large spatial, but short temporal, scales dictated by the ontogeny of the fish. However, the survival and dispersal behavior of Atlantic Salmon fry immediately after emergence from eggs planted in artificial nests …

Comparative Energetics Of Mammalian Thermoregulatory Physiology, Ana M. Breit

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Endothermy allows species to decouple body temperature from environmental
temperatures but does not equate to endothermic species maintaining those constant temperatures. Instead, heterothermy fluctuating body temperatures, both in and outside of torpor is common and allows endotherms to expand the limits of thermoneutrality. Thermolability is likely to be more common in the tropics and subtropics, where species live within or above their thermoneutral zone. My dissertation research focused on the heterothermic-homeothermic continuum, specifically quantifying where on the continuum different species fall at certain times and why those species have evolved to be at those points. I quantified the thermal profile …

Biophysical Factors Impacting Sea Lice Settlement And Survival, Eleanor R. Glahn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) aquaculture production in Maine is a valuable contributor to the economy, the expansion of which has been challenged by the parasitic salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis. As planktonic organisms, the life of the salmon louse is primarily dictated by the physical conditions of the environment: the temperature for development time, salinity for survival, and current velocity for transport. Salmon lice are obligate parasites for whom the successful infection of a suitable host is critical to completion of their life cycle. However, little is understood about the effects of current velocity on infection success. Hydrodynamic …

Post-Harvest Treatment Effects On Physicochemical Quality Attributes Of North Atlantic Squid Doryteuthis Pealeii And Illex Illecebrosus, Caitlin M. Hillery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Doryteuthis pealeii (longfin inshore squid) and Illex illecebrosus (Northern shortfin squid) are the two most commercially important species of squid harvested in the United States. They are also the only two species of squid in the world certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Despite their pivotal role in the U.S. seafood industry, very little research has been performed on their quality in decades. Two common methods of freezing and secondary processing applied to squid in the U.S. industry are blast-freezing either at sea or on land; and leaving the squid whole, or fully cleaning and then brining them. To …

Expression Of The Rag-1 Gene In Larval Yellowtail Kingfish, Gabriella Peluso

Honors College

Aquaculture has taken over from capture fisheries as a primary global provider of seafood products. Seriola lalandi, or Yellowtail kingfish, has become a species of interest, as it is a fish notable for its marketability and culinary desirability. With the expansion of aquaculture and the increased amount of high-level operating facilities comes an increased risk of disease outbreaks. There are methods commonly used within these facilities for disease control, including incorporating nutritional feeds into the fishes’ diets, safe husbandry practices, and vaccinations. While these methods can be effective, they have caveats that must be considered. Adequate diets and improved …

Barriers To And Opportunities For Adoption In Maine’S Aquaculture Industry, Caitlin Cleaver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aquaculture, or the farming of marine species, can diversify coastal economies, but development of this industry is hindered by negative perceptions or regulatory constraints. Commercial fishers are logical adopters of aquaculture, but can also mount opposition to its growth. This dissertation utilized innovation theory to understand fishers’ perceptions of and willingness to adopt aquaculture and drivers of and barriers to scallop aquaculture development in Maine (USA). Through a mail survey, lobster fishers’ perceptions of Maine’s aquaculture industry and their willingness to adopt aquaculture were assessed (Chapter 2). Individuals who were more satisfied with government management of aquaculture held more positive …

Using Reflex Actions To Predict Delayed Post-Harvest Mortality Of American Lobster (Homarus Americanus) In Maine’S Lobster Supply Chain, Cassandra Leeman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In live seafood industries, maintaining product quality and survivorship are critical aspects of the supply chain infrastructure. Post-harvest mortality in the American lobster (Homarus americanus) fishery can result in a significant loss in revenue for the largest single species fishery in North America. In Maine, the wholesale lobster distribution supply chain directly and indirectly supports state and local economies, providing almost $1 billion in revenue and dominates the fishery, producing 82% of the total lobster landings in the USA (Donihue, 2018; NOAA, 2021). However, at least 2% of the lobster landed in Maine die before they reach consumers, representing an …

An Overview Of The Potential Effect Of Climate Change On American Pine Marten, Jordyn Morel

Honors College

The impacts of climate change are only increasing, and yet not all those impacts have been studied on certain species. The American pine marten Martes americana (Turton, 1806) is one of the species potentially vulnerable to climate change. They are an important component of biodiversity as they hunt a variety of small mammals and feed on numerous plants. Martens are also important prey to many winged and terrestrial species. In Maine, they are an umbrella species that co-occur with eleven other species and their presence is also a good indicator of a healthy forest environment. I conducted a literature review …

Landings, Vol. 30, No. 12, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance, Melissa Waterman, Patrice Mccarron, Patrick Keliher

Landings: News & Views from Maine's Lobstering Community

Landings content emphasizes science, history, resource sustainability, economic development, and human interest stories related to Maine's lobster industry. The newsletter emphasizes lobstering as a traditional, majority-European American lifeway with an economic and social heritage unique to the coast of Maine. The publication focuses how ongoing research to engage in sustainable, non-harmful, and non-wasteful commercial fishing practices benefit both the fishery and Maine's coastal legacy.

For more information, please visit the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) website.

Seabirds As Proxies For Past El Niño Events In Coastal Peru: An Archaeo-Ornithological Approach, Heather A. Landazuri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis sets an initial foundation for an archaeo-ornithological approach to understanding past El Niño events on the coast of Peru and the use of avifaunal remains as proxies for ecological conditions. Although faunal remains from archaeological sites do not provide exact representations of past environmental conditions, and bird remains can be especially challenging environmental indicators, their presence does reflect decisions made by human occupants in response to environment. Additionally, zooarchaeological data offer a reflection of past animal availability and use, much of which is at least in part determined by environmental conditions. Here I examine the extent to which …

Landings, Vol. 30, No. 11, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance, Melissa Waterman, Patrice Mccarron, Robin Alden

Landings: News & Views from Maine's Lobstering Community

Landings content emphasizes science, history, resource sustainability, economic development, and human interest stories related to Maine's lobster industry. The newsletter emphasizes lobstering as a traditional, majority-European American lifeway with an economic and social heritage unique to the coast of Maine. The publication focuses how ongoing research to engage in sustainable, non-harmful, and non-wasteful commercial fishing practices benefit both the fishery and Maine's coastal legacy.

For more information, please visit the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) website.

Landings, Vol. 30, No. 10, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance, Melissa Waterman, Patrice Mccarron, Patrick Keliher

Landings: News & Views from Maine's Lobstering Community

Landings content emphasizes science, history, resource sustainability, economic development, and human interest stories related to Maine's lobster industry. The newsletter emphasizes lobstering as a traditional, majority-European American lifeway with an economic and social heritage unique to the coast of Maine. The publication focuses how ongoing research to engage in sustainable, non-harmful, and non-wasteful commercial fishing practices benefit both the fishery and Maine's coastal legacy.

For more information, please visit the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) website.

Landings, Vol. 30, No. 9, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance, Melissa Waterman, Patrice Mccarron, Patrick Keliher

Landings: News & Views from Maine's Lobstering Community

Landings content emphasizes science, history, resource sustainability, economic development, and human interest stories related to Maine's lobster industry. The newsletter emphasizes lobstering as a traditional, majority-European American lifeway with an economic and social heritage unique to the coast of Maine. The publication focuses how ongoing research to engage in sustainable, non-harmful, and non-wasteful commercial fishing practices benefit both the fishery and Maine's coastal legacy.

For more information, please visit the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) website.

Developing And Characterizing A Novel Tempo Cnf Hydrogel Adjuvant And Delivery System For Aquatic Vaccines, Kora Kukk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aquaculture is a large part of the food production sector which is greatly expanding. One of the largest losses in aquaculture is due to pathogens. Current solutions for protecting farmed finfish from pathogens can be very expensive with variable efficiency. Current disease prevention strategies include vaccination. Types of vaccines include immersion vaccines, feed vaccines, and injectable vaccines. The most popular solution is oil-based injectable vaccines due to its protection. However, the oil-based adjuvant used in most of these formulations causes adverse reactions in the fish including reduced growth. These vaccines require multiple administrations throughout the fish’s lifetime causing unwanted handling …

Landings, Vol. 30, No. 8, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance, Melissa Waterman, Patrice Mccarron, Sam Belknap

Landings: News & Views from Maine's Lobstering Community

Landings content emphasizes science, history, resource sustainability, economic development, and human interest stories related to Maine's lobster industry. The newsletter emphasizes lobstering as a traditional, majority-European American lifeway with an economic and social heritage unique to the coast of Maine. The publication focuses how ongoing research to engage in sustainable, non-harmful, and non-wasteful commercial fishing practices benefit both the fishery and Maine's coastal legacy.

For more information, please visit the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) website.

Weaving An Interdisciplinary Microbiome Career Using Threads From Different Ecosystems, Sarah Hosler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Animals have trillions of microorganisms living in or on many body sites, these communities of microorganisms are called microbiomes. Microbiomes are typically host-specific, and a lot of information about the host can be determined from investigating them. Microbiome research has many real-world applications, and this thesis utilizes the One Health perspective, which acknowledges the connection of humans, animals, and environments, and emphasizes the need for collaborative, interdisciplinary research. The first interdisciplinary project is an investigation into the bacteria in wild and cultured Atlantic deep-sea scallop, Placopecten magellanicus larvae. Adults in hatcheries can be induced to spawn, but the last two …

The Effects Of Rising Ambient Temperatures On Thermoregulation And Range Shifts Of Northern Flying Squirrels, Elise K. Gudde

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate change may potentially alter a species’ range distribution and thus the relationship between environmental temperatures and animal performance as a response to climate warming has become an important area of research. Two species of flying squirrel in North America, the southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) and the northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) have undergone northward range shifts, with climate warming being the suspected driver. Because they are nocturnal and tree nesting, flying squirrels may be particularly susceptible to warmer temperatures, as they will experience the highest daily ambient temperatures during their resting phase. I used G. sabrinus as a …

Landings, Vol. 30, No. 7, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance, Melissa Waterman, Patrice Mccarron, Patrick Keliher

Landings: News & Views from Maine's Lobstering Community

Landings content emphasizes science, history, resource sustainability, economic development, and human interest stories related to Maine's lobster industry. The newsletter emphasizes lobstering as a traditional, majority-European American lifeway with an economic and social heritage unique to the coast of Maine. The publication focuses how ongoing research to engage in sustainable, non-harmful, and non-wasteful commercial fishing practices benefit both the fishery and Maine's coastal legacy.

For more information, please visit the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) website.

Landings, Vol. 30, No. 6, Maine Lobstermen’S Community Alliance, Melissa Waterman, Patrice Mccarron, Craig Stewart

Landings: News & Views from Maine's Lobstering Community

Landings content emphasizes science, history, resource sustainability, economic development, and human interest stories related to Maine's lobster industry. The newsletter emphasizes lobstering as a traditional, majority-European American lifeway with an economic and social heritage unique to the coast of Maine. The publication focuses how ongoing research to engage in sustainable, non-harmful, and non-wasteful commercial fishing practices benefit both the fishery and Maine's coastal legacy.

For more information, please visit the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance (MLCA) website.

Many Questions Remain Unanswered About The Role Of Microbial Transmission In Epizootic Shell Disease In American Lobsters (Homarus Americanus), A Perspective Article, Suzanne Ishaq, Sarah M. Turner, M. Scarlett Tudor, Jean Macrae, Heather Hamlin, Joelle Kilchenmann, Grace Lee, Deborah A. Bouchard

Journal Articles

Despite decades of research on lobster species’ biology, ecology, and microbiology, there are still unresolved questions about the microbial communities which associate in or on lobsters under healthy or diseased states, microbial acquisition, as well as microbial transmission between lobsters and between lobsters and their environment. There is an untapped opportunity for metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and metabolomics to be added to the existing wealth of knowledge to more precisely track disease transmission, etiology, and host-microbe dynamics. Moreover, we need to gain this knowledge of wild lobster microbiomes before climate change alters environmental and host-microbial communities more than it likely already has, …

Leveraging The Transparent Zebrafish To Test For Conserved Gene Function Between Mammals And Fish, Lena Stasiak

Honors College

Throughout the United States and Europe, Candida albicans remains the most clinically significant fungus. While fungi account for thousands of deaths annually, the most clinically significant bloodstream infection in ICU patients, causing as high as 50% mortality, is disseminated candidemia. This systemic infection occurs when the normally commensal and harmless fungi, Candida albicans, becomes pathogenic in immunocompromised individuals. Many factors of the immune system can be paralleled between humans and zebrafish, which can be a useful model host to understand the cellular immune responses to infection. One particular gene known as myeloid differentiation factor 88 (myd88) has been previously found …

Rusty Blackbird Use Of Commercial Spruce-Fir Forests Of Northern New England, Luke M. Douglas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) has experienced a steep population decline since the 1970s, with qualitative accounts suggesting that the species’ numbers have been falling prior to the 1950s. The reason for this decline is still not fully understood, though recent work suggests that habitat destruction and disturbance in the breeding and wintering ranges are likely causes. The species is a habitat specialist that relies on spruce-fir stands located near wetlands for breeding in the boreal and Acadian forests of North America. Historically, the natural disturbance regime in the Acadian region included biotic agents such as beaver and …

Riders On The Storm: Using Satellite Transmitters To Quantify American Woodcock Movement Behavior Following Extreme Weather Events, Katherine Trebilcock

Honors College

The American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) has experienced steady declines in abundance over the past fifty years, which has raised questions as to why (Sauer et al. 1991). Migration for many birds, woodcock included, is energetically intensive, and may be the cause for greater mortality compared to other times of the year (Newton 2007). Despite this, there remains uncertainty in how conditions encountered during migration affect their movements and survival. One obstacle that birds must face is extreme weather, which has been increasing in intensity and occurrence due to climate change. How these events impact a migrating woodcock has been speculated …

Abundance Of Shell-Boring Polychaete Worms And Other Fouling Organisms In Aquacultured Oysters From Maine Used For Reef Restoration In Great Bay, Nh, Haleigh Wright

Honors College

Restoration projects on the oyster reefs in Great Bay, NH have been active since 2009 with the most recent involving the transfer of oysters from Maine oyster farms into the Bay. In an attempt to prevent the transfer of non-native species from oyster farms to the reefs, samples of oysters from each farm were inspected for shell-boring polychaete infestations. Polydora websteri, a common shell-boring species worldwide, was in high abundance in reference samples from oyster farms in Great Bay and in samples from the restoration grounds, themselves. A second shell-boring species, provisionally identified as P. onagawaensis, is present on oyster …

Variations In Plumage Wear In Three Closely Related Tidal Marsh Sparrow Species, Maeve Studholme

Honors College

Tidal marsh sparrow species like Saltmarsh Sparrows (Ammospiza caudacuta), Nelson’s Sparrows (Ammospiza nelsoni) and Seaside Sparrows (Ammospiza maritima) are particularly vulnerable to the environmental stressors related to climate change and human activity like sea-level rise, warming temperatures, and increased coastal development, as they nest in the grasses of tidal marsh ecosystems where the principal mode of nest mortality is flooding. With increased sea-level rise, these species may not be equipped to adapt to changing tidal cycles, and thus have reduced fitness and population sizes. Saltmarsh Sparrows are experiencing sharp declines in population, so it is more vital than ever to …

Quantifying Equine Behavior Utilizing Gps, Vanessa M. Cote

Honors College

GPS tracking systems have been around for many years and are used to track, map, determine precise locations, navigate, and get precise time measurements on a number of different animals, devices, vehicles, and much more. The use of GPS tracking systems on animals has been a huge breakthrough in the cattle industry since this means farmers no longer have to monitor their cattle manually, but can do remotely. The research that has previously been done on cattle tracking can now be applied to horses, although as horses are used in a much different manner than cattle the data will go …

Using Thermography To Determine Mechanisms Of Heat Loss In The Southern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys Volans), Colin Flynn

Honors College

Climate change is one of the biggest factors currently affecting the health and energetics of animals. Species evolve to operate optimally under certain environmental conditions and changes in those conditions can be detrimental to the species. Previous studies have shown increased evaporative cooling in flying squirrels at higher temperatures but not much is known about their ability to use other avenues of heat loss such as thermal windows; areas of the body that exchange heat with the environment via convection. For example, the patagium of southern flying squirrels may also serve as a thermal window to aid in heat dissipation. …

How Weather Affects Total Mixed Rations And Why It Is Significant To Dairy Cattle, Juliana Baranowski

Honors College

The objective of this study was to determine how weather affects the dry matter percentage of a TMR fed to dairy cattle. Daily feed samples were collected from the University of Maine’s J.F. Witter Teaching and Research Center and stored in a freezer until dry matters could be determined. The feed samples were later thawed out, then placed in an oven at 60oC for a minimum of three days. This allowed all the moisture to be evaporated so the DM could be calculated. The maximum, minimum and average temperatures, as well as the precipitation and humidity were obtained daily from …

The Incidence Of Staphylococcus Aureus Mastitis In Maine Dairy Cattle, Morgan Belvin

Honors College

This project investigated the factors surrounding the incidence of Staphylococcus aureus (SA) mastitis in Maine dairy cattle. This type of mastitis is driven by an antibiotic resistant pathogen that is very contagious among cattle, though farmers are often unaware of how common this type of mastitis is and that it could be present in their herds. My hypothesis was that specific farm factors, like milkers performing other tasks during milking, as well as the act of pre-dipping versus not pre-dipping, would explain the increase in SA mastitis. A thirty-seven-question IRB-approved survey was subsequently distributed to farmers in the University of …