A Summer of Science: Field Season Preview

Tidings | Apr 20, 2020

A small white boat moving to the right in a wide open, blue ocean, beneath a blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds.

Warmer weather is here again, and with it comes field season at GMRI. Our research team has several projects that kick into gear around this time each year. Let’s preview a few of them as we look forward to another summer of science:

Monitoring Casco Bay

This summer marks the fourth year of sampling for our Casco Bay Aquatic System Survey (CBASS). Our field crew is ready for another season of jigging, seining, river sampling, and more in their effort to monitor and describe changes in this ecosystem. The long-term nature of the study will give us an unprecedented view of how this critical ecosystem functions, and how it is changing — essential information for fisheries and coastal resource management.

The CBASS field team gathers a lot of data, but they also have a lot of fun. As always, we'll share some of their unique experiences on our Facebook page all summer long. 

The CBASS team encounters a large ocean sunfish.

Stripers on Their Way

Each year, striped bass migrate from Chesapeake Bay and the Hudson River to Maine. The first migratory stripers tend to show up around late May, and our researchers are interested in how that population relates to resident striped bass that spawn in the Kennebec River. This summer will be the fifth season of our partnership with the Maine chapter of Coastal Conservation Association, local anglers, and charter captains to gather data through the Snap-A-Striper program.

Last summer, we talked to one Snap-A-Striper contributor about his passion for stripers, science, and the Gulf of Maine: 

Voices of Maine: The Charter Boat

Love fishing for stripers? Interested in citizen science? Learn more and participate yourself.

Summer Interns Set to Join Us

The stripers aren’t the only ones migrating to Maine for the summer; college students also travel here from universities across the country to participate in our internship program. They’ll soon join us in the lab to support a variety of science, education, and community projects.

Last year, author Rich King joined a couple of our interns for a day of sampling. His reflections on that experience were later published in a piece for Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors.