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Presentation in Bar Harbor on Restoring Downeast Maine’s Fisheries

With sharp declines in fish populations and severe federal restrictions on allowable catch, the New England fishing industry is in dire straits. Last month, the Boston Globe reported that the number of federally licensed groundfishing boats in the Northeast had fallen from 1,019 to 344 between 2001 and 2011.   On July 30th Manomet will hold an event in Bar Harbor, Maine, to introduce the Downeast Fisheries Partnership, a regional partnership focused on restoring healthy fisheries and fishing communities in Downeast Maine.   In eastern Maine the fishing industry is crucially important, according to Manomet’s Anne Hayden.   Manomet is working with two other Maine nonprofits, the Penobscot East Resource Center and the Downeast Salmon Federation.   “Fishing is responsible for feeding...

Arctic Research Teams Race to Tag Semipalmated Sandpipers

Manomet researchers on Coats Island in Canada's Hudson Bay have tagged 19 Semipalmated Sandpipers with geolocators, more than half of the 36 they brought for the expedition.   Coats Island, the largest uninhabited island south of the Arctic Circle in the Western Hemisphere, is one of two locations where Manomet researchers are camped: the other is by the Canning River Delta on the northern coast of Alaska.   Both sites are part of the Arctic Shorebird Demographics Network (ASDN), an international collaboration to determine the causes behind declining populations of shorebirds. The project is led by Manomet, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Kansas State University.   The Semipalmated Sandpiper is a small shorebird that the teams at Canning...

Shorebird Research Team Departs for the Arctic

A four-person Manomet team left this week for Coats Island, a remote sub-Arctic island in Canada’s Hudson Bay, to study troubling developments in Semipalmated Sandpiper populations.   This small, migrant shorebird is one of the most common species in the Arctic and spends its winters in northeast South America.   “There has been about an 80 percent decline in the population of this bird in its core wintering areas according to surveys by the New Jersey Audubon Society, without a correspondent decline, as far as we can tell, in its Arctic populations,” said Stephen Brown, director of Manomet’s Shorebird Science Division.  “We don’t know if the species is declining rangewide, or just in some areas, and we need to understand...

Clear Water Carbon Fund Plants 1,000 Trees This Spring

The Clear Water Carbon Fund planted approximately 1,000 trees this spring in New England, more than doubling the program’s total output.   “This spring has been a huge step forward for the Fund,” said Ethel Wilkerson, the Manomet program manager who leads the project. “We’ve been able to plant these trees and reforest riverbanks because we’ve had so much enthusiastic support. One hundred people made contributions and many of them bought more than one tree.”   The Fund restores deforested river and stream banks to protect water quality and provide wildlife habitat. Each tree that is planted also removes 570 pounds of carbon from the atmosphere. All the trees planted, including white birch, red maple, sugar maple, and pine, are native to...

Iconic Red Knot B95 Resighted on the Delaware Bay

The iconic Red Knot shorebird B95 – named for the number on his leg band – has been spotted again on the Delaware Bay.   B95 is at least 20 years old, making him the oldest Red Knot on record. He is nicknamed “Moonbird” because in his lifetime he has flown the equivalent of the distance between the earth and the moon and at least halfway back.   He was spotted May 16 in Delaware’s Mispillion Harbor. He then flew over to the New Jersey side of the Delaware Bay, making appearances at Cooks Beach, Fortesque, and Kimbles Beach.   B95 was featured in a book by author Phil Hoose last year, the critically-acclaimed "Moonbird: A Year on the Wind...

Cape May County Herald: NJDEP Creates New Program to Help Horseshoe Crabs

  This article was originally published in The Cape May County Herald on May 24, 2013. View the original article here. CAPE MAY, NEW JERSEY - The Wetlands Institute, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of N.J., and the Manomet Center for Conservations Sciences, in cooperation with The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, have launched a new program to help recover horseshoe crabs populations in the state. The program, “Re-turn the Favor,” invites volunteers to rescue horseshoe crabs that have been turned over by wave action or that have become trapped behind bulkheads or other human-built structures. The name reflects the key role that horseshoe crabs play in protecting human health, as well as their irreplaceable role in the Delaware Bay ecosystem....

Oxford Hills Sun Journal: Trees planted in Androscoggin watershed to protect water quality

This article was originally published in Oxford Hills, Maine, Sun Journal on May 19, 2013. View the original article here. BETHEL, MAINE — The Clear Water Carbon Fund planted 250 trees along the Pleasant River, a tributary of the Androscoggin River, in West Bethel this month. Saplings are planted along the Pleasant River in West Bethel this month as part of the Clear Water Carbon Fund's effort to improve water quality and remove and store carbon emissions from the atmosphere. The fund is a program that enables individuals and businesses to sponsor tree plantings to protect clean water, remove and store carbon from the atmosphere, and improve habitat for fish and wildlife. The trees planted along the Pleasant River were...

The Philadelphia Inquirer: B95, the Moonbird, spotted on Delaware Bay

  This article was originally published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on May 17, 2013. It was written by Sandy Bauers. View the original article here. A rare bird that has defied all the odds has been spotted yet again on Delaware Bay.   The bird is B95, after the number on his leg band. But his nickname is, perhaps, more to the point. He’s the Moonbird, because in his lifetime, researchers figure he had flown the equivalent of the distance to the moon. And at least halfway back.   This, for a bird that weighs about as much as a stick of butter.   The bird is a red knot, one of the most imperiled shorebirds now arriving on Delaware...

Shorebird Research Team Prepares for Arctic Expedition

In June, a team of Manomet scientists will return to the Arctic to research and band shorebirds on their breeding grounds.   This expedition will be conducted as part of the Arctic Shorebird Demographics Network (ASDN), an effort coordinated by Manomet, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Kansas State University to help determine factors limiting shorebird populations.   The demographic network was co-founded by Shorebird Science Division Director Stephen Brown and is organized by Manomet staff. It features 17 organizations working at 16 sites across 3,000 miles of Arctic tundra in Alaska, Canada, and Russia.   Manomet scientists will be on the ground at two different sites in the Arctic this year.   One team will spend two weeks...

NJSpotlight: Restoring Sandy-Ravaged Shore to Protect Rare, Migratory Red Knot

This article was originally published on NJspotlight.com on April 8, 2013. It was written by Jon Hurdle. View the original article here. Endangered red knot feeds on horseshoe-crab eggs, crabs spawn on the gently sloping sands washed away by the superstorm. Thousands of tons of sand are being dumped on the Delaware Bay shoreline in a last-minute effort to restore beaches that were destroyed by superstorm Sandy but could now provide a lifeline for New Jersey’s most endangered shorebird. Contractors are working to repair a 2.5-mile stretch of coast from Moore’s Beach south to Piece’s Point in Cape May County where the monster storm washed away the gently sloping sand that provided a haven for horseshoe crabs to lay their...