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Getting green crabs on the plate: Meet Chef Ali Waks Adams

Manomet’s work with invasive green crabs in the Gulf of Maine aims to create a value-added product that would provide a new source of economic opportunity for fishers and coastal communities. Our focus has been primarily on ways to use the green crabs for food, modeling our work on the soft-shell crab fisheries in Venice, Italy. To achieve our goals, we need talented chefs who can take these tiny little crabs and transform them into appealing food that consumers love. That’s where our partner  Chef Ali Waks Adams, Coast Bar + Bistro, located in The Daniel Hotel, in Brunswick, Maine, comes in! Chef Ali has been working with Manomet’s Senior Fisheries Scientist Marissa McMahan for nearly two years to find...

Examining opportunities to create shorebird habitat on ranchlands

This article was co-written by Rob Clay, Director, WHSRN; Laura Chamberlin, Assistant Director for North America, WHSRN; and Monica Iglecia, Assistant Director of Shorebird Habitat. Shorebirds are, by definition, birds of shorelines. Although many shorebirds breed in grasslands and similar habitats (e.g. the Arctic tundra), a select group of species is dependent on grassland habitats during the nonbreeding season. Grassland habitats are one of the most threatened habitat types in the Americas because of conversion to crops (especially corn and soy), but also overgrazing and too frequent fires, along with invasive non-native plants (e.g. African grasses). “Grass pipers,” as these shorebirds are affectionately called by many shorebird lovers, include some of the most threatened shorebird species, from the most-likely extinct...

What we’re thankful for

The holiday season is an important time of the year to stop and appreciate the people around us and the experiences that we've shared. Our staff at Manomet has so much to be thankful for as we look ahead to 2019 and our 50th anniversary. We are especially appreciative of all the supporters, partners, and volunteers who make our work possible. Read on to hear from Manomet's amazing staff about what they are thankful for this year. “I’m thankful for the idea of Manomet. It’s the idea that our children and grandchildren will see birds migrate, will harvest wild fish from the sea, and will look up at night and ponder their relation to the stars in the sky. I’m...

A way of life and a path forward: fisheries here and abroad

I recently represented Manomet and the Downeast Fisheries Partnership at an international fisheries meeting in Thailand. It was an unparalleled opportunity to share our experience developing sustainable fisheries here in the Gulf of Maine and to learn from fishermen, scientists, policymakers, and managers from all over the world. The focus of the meeting was on small-scale fisheries, characterized by smaller vessels working closer to shore. Much of the fishing activity in the Gulf of Maine falls in this category. Globally, small-scale fisheries generate about 50% of the catch from wild fisheries and support 90% of fisheries-based employment. In the developing world, small-scale fisheries are the main source of animal protein for millions of people. In the Gulf of Maine, they...

Why do birds do what they do?

Over the course of a year—or even a single month—we see a notable variety of bird species pass through the Northeast. In just September and October, you could potentially see hundreds of different species in Massachusetts alone; from shorebirds big and small in mid-September, to warblers and thrushes in early October, to sparrows later in the fall. What causes all of these different birds to move at different times in a single migration season? What are these birds doing? What do they eat? How do they do it?? The answer to these questions, to put it simply, comes down to biology. Birds have a dazzling array of adaptations that allow them to live almost everywhere. Take, for example, the Chimney...

The Museum of Science, Boston and GMRI’s Future of Seafood

The Museum of Science, Boston and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (Portland, ME) are co-organizing this one-day, invitation-only conference with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Did you know that more than 90% of seafood is imported into the United States, and more than 70% is eaten in restaurants? More than 33% of fish and seafood is estimated to be lost to waste. The oceans and its wildlife are changing at an alarming rate and the Gulf of Maine is the "canary in the coal mine." Innovations and entrepreneurship are needed to change our broken food system, and seafood can play a major role in sustaining and nourishing the world. This conference features expert speakers and panelists who will lay out...

Connecting to the Arctic through technology

While our field work in the Arctic is over for this year, it doesn’t mean that the work is over. In fact, we are actively receiving data from our trip to the Canning River Delta and participating this week in the Arctic Refuge Virtual Festival of Birds. Our team on the Canning River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge put satellite transmitters on Semipalmated Sandpipers and Dunlin last year, and then used ‘tundra stealth’ to attempt to recapture the returning birds so we can collect their transmitters and learn vital secrets about where they have spent the past year. We also deployed new tracking tags on Pectoral Sandpipers and American Golden-Plovers. This collaborative project is led by Rick Lanctot from...

Don’t miss The Arctic Refuge Virtual Festival of Birds

In late September, Manomet will be joining with its partners, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Audubon Alaska, Friends of Alaska Wildlife Refuges and Manomet, to fete the world’s most remarkable athletes, navigators and survivalists: the thousands of birds that migrate annually to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Arctic Refuge Virtual Festival of Birds, held online from September 24-28, will take participants to a place few will ever visit in person – to the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge. Through videos, photos, live events, games, contests and other activities, festival “goers” will get an insider’s look at the short but incredibly productive summer season in the Arctic Refuge through the experiences of biologists, conservationists and the birds themselves....

Warming waters and migrating fish stocks could cause political conflict

Manomet's Marissa McMahan is quoted in this Seafood Source article by Aaron Orloski. "The Gulf of Maine is already experiencing major migrations. Lobster are moving towards Canada, cod are shifting deeper, and black sea bass are showing up north of Cape Cod. “The Gulf of Maine is really ground zero for mitigating and adapting to climate-induced change,” Marissa McMahan, a senior fisheries scientist at Manomet, a New England science nonprofit that works on environmental issues, including by partnering with fishermen, told SeafoodSource. "

Strengthening New England’s fisheries one bite at a time

To accomplish our goal of creating a more sustainable world, Manomet seeks to get more people to join in—to learn, to care, to take action. At our Future of Fishing seafood tasting last Thursday in Boston, we were able to bring together new and old friends to learn about—and taste—how we can strengthen the fisheries in the Gulf of Maine. From scientists to fishermen to chefs, many of the attendees at The Future of Fishing had a story to tell about how they were playing a part in sustaining this critical ecosystem. “This event proves that there are a lot of people who are looking to do the right thing going forward,” said Jared Auerbach, the CEO of Red’s Best...