Category Archives: Student Research

Christopher Kan, Class of 2013 Blueback herring are anadromous fish that live as adults in the ocean and migrate to spawn, in rivers from Florida to Maine. They are critical ecological link between marine fisheries and inland watersheds. Through their … Continue reading →

Min Lee, Class of 2014 The Gulf of Maine had once supported an economically thriving fishing industry with fish spawning grounds located within near shore sites. However, through human-induced factors such as over-fishing, industrial pollution, and the creation of dams, … Continue reading →

Jane Carpenter, Class of 2013 River herring, a collective term for the Clupeid fish species alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), have experienced great population declines over the past few centuries. River herring are anadromous, spending most of … Continue reading →

John Hobbs, Class of 2015 As a research group under the Professor John Lichter lab, our focus was to measure the ecological recovery of the Kennebec estuary and the nearshore environment. To acheive this goal, we quantified the recovery of … Continue reading →

Eric Chien, Class of 2014 Atlantic cod were historically key ecological and economic components to Gulf of Maine ecosystems and communities. Highly productive nearshore cod stocks that have been depleted since World War II have failed to recover despite decades … Continue reading →

Claude Patrick Millet, Class of 2014 Alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), which are collectively called river herring, constitute an important part of coastal Maine’s aquatic ecosystem, both inshore and offshore. As anadromous fish, they constitute an ecological … Continue reading →

Miguel Barajas ’13 (University of Southern Maine) An investigation of the functional relationship of river herring to the diet of nearshore groundfish of the Kennebec-Androscoggin river system. A diet study will be performed by catching nearshore groundfish using live bait … Continue reading →

Catherine Johnston, Class of 2012 Merrymeeting Bay is a freshwater tidal ecosystem in midcoast Maine that experienced ecosystem collapse in the mid-20th century. The focus of our study this summer was on two vital components of the ecosystem that were negatively impacted … Continue reading →

Daniel “Danny” Lowinger, Class of 2012 The Kennebec and Androscoggin Rivers in Maine provide a variety of ecosystem services, such as commercial and recreational fishing, boating and hydropower. Historically, alewives traveled upstream on the rivers to spawn, while supporting a commercial inshore cod … Continue reading →

Michele Kaufman, 2013 The Androscoggin and Kennebec rivers were historically low quality rivers due to excessive industrial waste and transportation use on the rivers. Since the Clean Water Act in 1972, work has been done on both rivers to improve their quality. … Continue reading →