US Invests $3.9 Million for Ocean-based Climate Resilience Accelerators
Bay Wave, Inc., $250,000.The Upwell Collaborative Accelerator, Seaworthy Collective, $249,848.HawaiiHITIDE Studio: Guiding the Commercialization Voyage of Ocean-Based Climate Resilient Technologies, University of Hawaii, $250,000.LouisianaCLIMATEx Accelerator Program, The Idea Village, Inc., $250,000.MaineOceanVista: Advancing Ocean Data for Climate Resilience, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, $250,000.MassachusettsVentureWell Ocean-Based Climate Resilience Accelerator, VentureWell, $249,810.Accelerating Climate & Ocean Resilience with Bluetech Innovation, SeaAhead, Inc., $249,299.Accelerating
US Invests Nearly $16 Million to Advance Marine Energy
Rosario Strait in the San Juan Islands in Washington State. The device is expected to be capable of producing about 2MW of power. OPALCO aims to develop a pilot tidal power program to provide a reliable and resilient local power supply for San Juan Islanders.• A team led by ORPC, based in Portland, Maine, aims to deploy two tidal energy devices at a location in the Cook Inlet in Alaska off the coast of the remote area of East Foreland on the Kenai Peninsula. The devices are expected to be able to produce 1-5MW of power. The team aims to demonstrate the feasibility of tidal energy projects in Cook
Not All Underwater Reefs are Made of Coral
reflect a push toward developing structures specifically for use as artificial reefs.Planes, trains and automobilesFor our study, we gathered records of intentional reefings dating back to 1899 and occurring off artificial all U.S. coastal states, except for six without artificial ocean reef programs: Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Oregon, Washington and Alaska.For some of these events, especially in recent decades, there were detailed records of the sizes and quantities of sunken objects or seafloor maps from which we could derive these measurements. These reefs were easy to quantify.Other records
Rash of Shark Attacks Reported in New York
rushing ashore on Sunday as a black dorsal fin and tail cut through shallow waters.Despite increasing sand tiger shark attacks, the species has never killed a human, experts say. But other, more deadly species have also migrated into northern waters in recent years. In 2020, a great white shark killed a Maine woman in the first reported shark attack in that state's history.(Reuters - Reporting by Rachel Nostrant; Editing by Sandra Maler
North American Lobster Industry Confronts 'Ropeless' Traps After Whale Entanglements
retailers like Whole Foods to stop selling them.But lobster harvesters along the North American coast are less than impressed with idea of adopting the new gear. They argue it's expensive, faces the risk of technological glitches - and ultimately, does little for whales."My guess is for a lot of Maine lobstermen it is just a really scary idea," said Matt Weber, a lobsterman from Monhegan Island in Maine. "And it is all the more scary because none of us feel it is going to help (the whales)."Since the start of the year, four North Atlantic Right Whales have been injured after getting
Threat to Whales Complicates US Research into Seaweed for Biofuel
regulates rope use in the lobster fishery and has implemented seasonal closures. The waters of Cape Cod Bay, for example, are off limits to lobster fishers until all right whales have left.For states with a large dependence on the lobster fishery, the seaweed development agenda smacks of hypocrisy."Maine would have concerns about large aquaculture project siting, particularly with intensive reliance on ropes to grow kelp, at a time when Maine fishermen are being asked to remove rope from the ocean to protect right whales," said spokesperson Jeff Nichols of Maine's marine resources department
Shell Aims to Harness the Power of the Lower Mississippi
permitting and applications engineering.The Modular RivGen device uses the proven cross-flow turbine technology of ORPC’s commercially-available RivGen Power System, optimized for lower velocity sites and reduced cost. The product is being developed at ORPC’s river test site in Millinocket, Maine with financial assistance from the Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office. The Modular RivGen system can be stacked vertically or placed side-by-side to integrate into existing or new works, including infrastructure modernization and EV charging stations, making it a versatile
Floating Offshore Wind: New Seascape, New Challenges
in order to extend lessons learned to floating wind towers, under development now. In the U.S., floating towers have been most closely associated with plans for new wind energy areas (WEA) in the Pacific, off of California and maybe Oregon and Washington. But important research is also taking place in Maine, at the University of Maine, because of deep ocean Atlantic areas there, and floating towers may also be used in the Gulf of Mexico.As most readers likely know, floating wind energy turbines offer the chance to take advantage of rich wind areas in waters too deep for fixed turbine construction. Floating
Lobsters Versus Right Whales
Lobsters versus right whales: The latest chapter in a long quest to make fishing more sustainableMaine lobster fishermen received a Christmas gift from Congress at the end of 2022: A six-year delay on new federal regulations designed to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.The rules would have required lobstermen to create new seasonal nonfishing zones and further reduce their use of vertical ropes to retrieve lobster traps from the seafloor. Entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with many types of ships are the leading causes of right whale deaths.Maine’s congressional
February 2024
