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Institute
Provides Evidence for Law Enforcement Officers
This summer the Lobster Institute was contacted by the Maine Marine Patrol and NOAA Fisheries Enforcement to assist in a case. The Patrol was able to recover a lobster that was suspected of having had eggs removed. Also matter that appeared to be eggs was recovered from a washbasin. The Institute examined the evidence and captured images on film showing that the material contained lobster eggs, and the lobster had setal hairs with well-developed cement glands, typical of egg-bearing females. According to NOAA Enforcement Officer Ross Lane, “The Lobster Institute has always been an extremely important source of guidance for enforcement. [Their] information will play an important role in the trial of the suspect.” z
15
from the University of Maine Recognized as Lobster Institute Cooperating
Research Professors
Lobster
Institute–University of Maine
Cooperating Researcher Professors
James
M. Acheson, Professor of
Anthropology and Marine Science
Al Bushway, Professor of Food Science & Human Nutrition
Rod Bushway, Chair and
Professor of Food Science & Human Nutrition
Mary Ellen Camire, Professor
of Food Science & Human Nutrition
Yong Chen, Assistant Professor of Marine Science
William R. Congleton, Jr.,
Associate Professor of Animal Science
Habib J. Dagher, Professor
of Civil & Structural Engineering, Director of Advanced Engineered Wood
Composites
Darrell W. Donahue,
Associate Professor of Bio-Resources Engineering
Douglas J. Gardner,
Professor of Wood Science & Cooperating Professor of Chemical Engineering
Pauleena MacDougall,
Associate Director–Maine Folklife Center
Bryan R. Pearce, Professor
of Civil & Environmental Engineering
John Riley, Professor of Bio-Systems Science & Engineering
Denise Skonberg, Assistant
Professor of Food Science & Human Nutrition
Robert S. Steneck, Professor
of Marine Science
James A. Wilson, Professor
of Marine Sciences and Resource Economics
Cooperating
Research Associates
Tracy Nason Vassiliev, Research Associate MTI
Helping Mainers Bring New Products &
Technologies to the Marketplace
If you or your company has a new product idea or an inventive way of applying technology to the lobster industry, the Maine Institute of Technology (MTI) may
be able to help you find the capital to bring your product or technology to commercialization. MTI is a
non-profit organization created by the Maine State Legislature in 1999.
Its purpose, as defined by statute is “to encourage, promote, stimulate
and support research and development activity leading to the commercialization
of new products and services in the State’s technology-intensive industrial
sectors, to enhance the competitive position of those sectors and increase the
likelihood that one or more of the sectors will support clusters of industrial
activity, and to create new jobs
for Maine people.” (5 MRSA c. 407) One
of MTI’s seven targeted technologies is Aquaculture and Marine Technology.
Cash
awards are available to qualified applicants whose proposals have been selected
by (1) a review committee (made up of MTI Technology Board members) and (2) peer
reviewers
who are experts from
within the technical field of the proposal.
The review process is dependent on the type of award for which one
applies.
Seed Grant Awards are
competitive grants of up to $10,000 to support very early product development
activities, commercialization or business planning and development.
Development Awards of up to $500,000 support research and
development leading to the commercialization of new products or services…in
both “near-to market” and “far-to-market” categories.
Cluster Enhancement Awards of up to
$100,000 are available to seed efforts that will stimulate and support the
formation and growth of technology businesses.
The
Lobster Institute has successfully partnered with several businesses in
submitting proposals for MTI funding. Individuals
or companies with a product or service of benefit the lobster industry that
they would like to see brought to commercialization may contact the Lobster
Institute (207-581-2785) for a consultation.
z
Readers may contact the Lobster Institute for more
detailed information on any of the projects reported.
v
Updates on Lobster Institute Research Projects – Brief
updates on projects covered in previous Lobster Bulletins:
·
Stress
Level Indicators–Students
at the University of Maine continue to work with Dr. Bob Bayer of the Lobster
Institute on stress level indicators in lobsters.
Studies are focusing on blood pH and blood glucose levels.
University of Maine
students Shannon Colby(l) and Danielle Vollmuth(c) work with Lobster
Institute volunteer Danny Hodgkins(r) drawing blood samples for glucose
testing at
the A.S. Francis Lobster Co. in Steuben.
·
Crustacean
Processing By-Products in Seafood Pasta–work continues with the aid of a second Seed Grant
from the Maine Technology Institute. The
Lobster Institute is working with the University of Maine’s Department of
Food Science and Human Nutrition and a new collaborator, Hancock Gourmet
Lobster Company from Brunswick, Maine.
·
Alternative Bait Studies–Studies with soy-based alternative baits have been
conducted at the Lobster Institute’s Tidal Falls Field Station and at their
laboratory at the University of Maine. This
work is being led by Dr. Juan Carlos Rodriquez Souza. Experiments were
conducted using traps with closed (experimental) and open (regular) escape
vents. More than ten (10) different bait formulations were evaluated.
The most satisfactory formula produced total lobster catches of 280%
and legal size lobster catches of 200% as compared with the catches obtained
using the control (herring).
Production scale
evaluations with commercial fishermen, enhancement and adjustment for
multi-species utilization are the subsequent logical steps toward
commercially availability. The
Institute is currently seeking additional funding/investors to continue this
promising research.
v
Update
on eMolt and Ventless Trap Survey – excerpts
from an article by David McCarron in the August 2001 Maine Lobstermen’s
Association Newsletter. –The Gulf of Maine Foundation has taken responsibility for the
administration of three long-term cooperative data collection programs with
the lobster industry. Here are
some of the highlights from each program:
·
eMolt I (Temperature Probes) [funded
by Northeast Consortium]
o
over
125 probes have been deployed by lobstermen from Grand Manan Channel to
Southern Georges Bank
o
over a
dozen probes have already had data downloaded from them and have been
redeployed
o
eMolt
probes have already provided interesting data on lobster catch rates versus
bottom temperature; a Gulf Stream eddy colliding with Georges Bank; dramatic
tidal variations in bottom temperature; and weather events influencing bottom
temperature down to 50 fathoms
·
eMolt II (Salinity Probes) [funded
by Northeast Consortium]
o
expect
to purchase salinity probes and begin selecting/training participants in
September 2001
·
Ventless Trap Survey [currently not funded]
o
Pilot
program began in Maine in June and in Mass. and NH in October, 2000
o
Thirty-nine
lobstermen have participated in the pilot study through April 2001 and have
hauled 1,309 experimental traps and 813 control traps since June 2000.
Almost 15,000 lobster have been sexed and measured from the
experimental traps and 2,500 lobsters from the control traps
o
Experimental
traps dramatically increase the sub-legal component of the catch from 1.98
lobsters/trap to 16.7 lobsters/trap. Catch
per trap of legal size lobsters shows the opposite relationship with regular
traps catching 0.78 lobsters/trap and experimental traps yielding only 0.07
lobsters/trap.
The
Lobster Institute is always in need of major funding for its many research
priorities, and revenue for its operations. In addition, we have a modest
wish list for items that would greatly enhance our educational outreach
activities, including:
q
A
display unit/kiosk for educational materials
q
A
laptop computer and projector
q
2
underwater video cameras
q
2
video monitors
q
2
computers for a student technology cluster
2001
Roll Call of Donors to be Published in Lobster Bulletin
