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In This Edition
The Maine-Ireland Lobster Connection
Last November, Bob Bayer, professor in the University of Maine's Animal, Veterinary, and Aquatic Sciences
Department, and graduate students Brian Beal, Deanna Prince, and Mike Loughlin went to Ireland to present a series of
papers on lobster health and stock enhancement. Beal has been invited to return to Ireland this spring to meet with
fishermen, pound owners, dealers, scientists, and graduate students in the region. They will examine and compare
techniques for lobster cultivation, discuss overall management of lobster stocks, determine what lessons Ireland can
learn from the successful management of the Maine lobster industry, and work to indentify areas for continued
collaboration between the two countries.
With support from the Lobster Institute, an Irish council on international affairs, and a private Irish foundation,
Beal will spend two weeks conducting seminars at University College in Galway (UCG), Ireland and visiting lobster
production and reseach facilites in the area. As Dave Dow, director of the Lobster Institute states, "We view efforts
that support cooperation, information sharing, and mutual understanding among the world's lobster producing countries
in the interest of resource conservation and enhancement to be of utmost importance."
Besides his extensive research in lobster biology, Beal is also a consultant to the Cutler Marine Hatchery in Downeast,
Maine where hundreds of thousands of juvenile lobsters have been raised successfully and released into the wild. Beal
will be sharing this expertise with his Irish colleagues. According to Dr. John Mercer, director of the Shellfish
Research Laboratory at UCG and Irish coordinator for the exchange program, "I feel that we in Ireland could learn some
valuable lessons from the Maine Lobster Management Strategy and the work of the Lobster Institute."