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Perspectives from an Arctic shorebird field camp in the Central NPRA
Each summer, Manomet scientists and partners travel to multiple field sites across the Arctic to better understand the factors driving dramatic declines in shorebird populations. Through this research, we are working to unlock the mysteries of these long-distance migrants and generate the science needed to guide conservation efforts across the Western Hemisphere. Manomet Conservation Sciences has been working in Arctic shorebird science for 25 years. In this first field blog entry of the 2026 season, we take you to the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPRA)—also known as the Western Arctic—a vast 22-million-acre landscape and the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the United States. Here, researchers from Manomet and partner organizations are conducting breeding bird surveys as part of the...
The Small Sit | Caring for Herring: Stewarding a Sea-run Resource
WEBINAR AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH | WEBINAR DISPONIBLE EN ESPAÑOL E INGLÉS Manomet's Sea Run Fisheries Monitoring Coordinator, Anne Zegers, will introduce you to river herring, a group of small, sea-run fish that play an outsized role in coastal ecosystems, then lead you on a brief tour of the history of river herring stewardship, with stops in Maine and Massachusetts, and discuss Manomet's research into river herring stewards and stewardship. How does stewardship vary from river to river? Who are river herring stewards and what motivates them? What structures support or hinder them? Through a series of interviews with river herring stewards across the coast of Maine, Manomet and our partners at Colby College, the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, and...
From Problem to Plate: Manomet Co-Hosts Green Crab Working Summit During Green Crab Week 2026
When researchers, chefs, harvesters, and seafood suppliers gather in Portland, Maine, this June, they'll be tackling one of coastal New England's most stubborn ecological crises with a fork. Manomet Conservation Sciences will join GreenCrab.org, Eating with the Ecosystem, and NH Sea Grant as a co-organizer of the Green Crab Working Summit, returning to O'Maine Studios in Portland on June 24th. The summit is the centerpiece of Green Crab Week, running June 22–28, 2026, and reflects a growing movement to fight an invasive species not just with traps and monitoring data, but with menus. A Pest With a 200-Year Head Start The European Green Crab (Carcinus maenas) is widely considered one of the world's worst invasive species, and its populations and...
The Green Crab Working Summit
On June 24th, join GreenCrab.org, Manomet Conservation Sciences, NH Sea Grant, and Eating with the Ecosystem for the second Green Crab Working Summit at O’Maine Studios in Portland, Maine! The Green Crab Working Summit aims to support the growth of green crab markets by: Fostering collaboration and innovation among seafood suppliers, harvesters, chefs, and researchers across the Northeast Identifying knowledge gaps and challenges associated with harvesting, distributing, cooking, processing, and marketing green crabs Strengthening green crab supply chains Showcasing green crab markets, products, and culinary efforts The Green Crab Working Summit is hosted during Green Crab Week: a week dedicated to eating green crabs in partnership with restaurants across the US. Summit elements include: Panels and Presentations: Featuring harvesters, product...
Ruddy Turnstone Tagged on Cape Cod Spotted in Brazil After Tracker Signal Is Lost
We have an exciting update to share, fitting perfectly into the celebrations of World Migratory Bird Day. Last spring, on the tidal flats of Cape Cod, a Ruddy Turnstone paused to rest and refuel as many thousands of shorebirds do in Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Researchers from Manomet Conservation Sciences carefully fitted it with a tiny satellite transmitter, a numbered band, and a pale green leg flag with the code >C0, and released it back to the wind. Below, you can see a slow-motion video by biologist and videographer Benjamin Clock capturing the very moment >C0 receives its leg flag and transmitter. What followed was extraordinary. Signals from the transmitter revealed that >C0 flew north to breed in the Canadian...
Staying On Top of the Mud | From the Ground Up
I grew up in a fishing family in a small coastal community in Maine called Georgetown. One of my most vivid memories as a child was going clam digging with my family in Sagadahoc Bay. The Bay is massive. On a low draining tide, you walk for over a mile to get from the beach at the head of the Bay to the low tide line at the mouth. We would Tidal mudflats may seem like a bare and desolate landscape, but they are teeming with life: Clams, worms, snails, crabs, amphipods, and many other species thrive here. At high tide, when the flats are covered with water, they are an important feeding ground for fish, ducks, and other marine...
The Red Knot That Flew to the Moon and Back
"On April 1, 2026, humans launched Artemis II toward the Moon. But one small bird had already logged that journey on its wings. In February 1995, on a beach at Río Grande on the Atlantic coast of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, scientists banded hundreds of Red Knots (Calidris canutus rufa), each with a small, numbered flag. One of them—B95—would become a legend. Banded by Argentine biologist Patricia González, it was resighted many times over the years, from Lagoa do Peixe in Brazil to Delaware Bay, and recaptured at least three times. In 2007, when at least 14 years old, it was described as “as fit as a three-year-old.” Every year, rufa Red Knots travel nearly 9,000 miles from the southern tip of South America to the Arctic—and back again. B95 kept going. Year after year. Through storms, across continents, in a...
New Tools Track the Return and Future of River Herring
Each spring, river herring begin a remarkable journey from the ocean back into freshwater rivers and streams to spawn. Tracking that movement and understanding what happens next are critical to rebuilding populations that have declined across much of their range. To support that effort, Manomet and partners in the Gulf of Maine River Herring Network have developed two new data platforms that bring together monitoring efforts across the region, offering a clearer picture of both returning adults and the next generation of fish. The first platform, ECOFISH, compiles data on adult river herring returning to freshwater habitats each year. By aggregating counts from monitoring sites along the U.S. East Coast, it helps track migration patterns and population trends over time....
A Transformative Nine Weeks on the Bluff: a Reflection from Intern Julia Beyer
I’ve been incredibly lucky to work as the Education and Outreach intern at Manomet in the summer of 2025 through my Smith College Praxis internship. I’m double majoring in Environmental Science and Policy and Latin American Studies, and I spent nine weeks immersed in conservation outreach, environmental education, and fieldwork. One morning during those nine weeks, I woke up before dawn to accompany banding intern Grace Whitten to MAPS banding at Myles Standish State Forest. We walked the net lanes at precisely timed intervals, moving quietly through the morning, talking with Grace and Andrew Single about banding experiences, plant evolution, and whatever else our slightly foggy brains drifted toward while we waited for the next net run. At the end...
Zoey Chapman
Zoey Chapman is a Research Specialist at Manomet Conservation Sciences, where she provides data analysis and logistical support for long-term monitoring of shorebirds across the Arctic. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from Clemson University, and has spent several field seasons collaborating with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on shorebird and waterfowl breeding ecology projects across the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Zoey is passionate about using emerging technology to advance conservation science, with a particular interest in developing computer vision models to monitor nesting birds. At Manomet, she is excited to support long-term data collection that deepens understanding of arctic breeding ecology. When she’s not in the field, Zoey can usually be found with...