I would attend again because it is a treasure trove of important information for anyone who loves Maine Beaches or Maine in general. Quote from a 2013 conference evaluator

Design workshops that bring community stakeholders together with housing professionals are an annual event now in Maine. In October Maine Sea Grant partnered with the Workforce Housing Coalition of the Greater Seacoast to host a workforce housing “charrette” (intensive design workshop) at a site off Route 1 near the Kittery border in York, Maine.

While out on the Damariscotta River this morning in search of wild oysters at low tide (more on that story later), we came across this giant, gelatinous mass on the shore of Goose Ledge. None of us, not even the one who is on the water every day, had ever seen anything like it. The fingery protrusions were all connected, the whole mass jiggled when prodded. Was it alive? Did it sting? 

News media and Sea Grant’s coastal correspondents (a.k.a. the Marine Extension Team) have been reporting jellyfish sightings along the coast, from Casco Bay to Penobscot Bay to Frenchman Bay.

I saw them, too—a parade of moon jellies moving up the Damariscotta River.
The tide was going out and the jellies were coming in, one after another pulsating toward head of tide.

I found this little guy (right: American Toad Anaxyrus americanus) on a hike in Camden Hills last summer. It was a thrilling experience and a rare occurrence for me. I remembered my mom telling me as a child that I would get warts from handling them—which is not the case. The American toad does produce a toxin in glands behind its eyes that can be harmful to our pets and us; yet for the toad, the toxin provides protection.

May 16, 2014, Endangered Species Day.

Multiple departments from the University of Maine came together on Saturday to discuss Jeffrey Bolster’s book, The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail. Hosted by the History Department, Sustainability Solutions Initiative at the Senator George J.

National Working Waterfront Network steering Committee members Kenneth Walker, Stephanie Otts, Natalie Springuel, and Kristen Grant have received a $9,000 grant from the NOAA Preserve America Initiative. The project, which is intended to build on the Outreach and Education Committee's case study work, will capture both oral histories on working waterfront issues and community efforts to preserve working waterfronts. The grant funds were awarded to NOAA’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.

The Maine Oyster Trail - Spring Update, 2014

Kayakers visiting Nonesuch Oysters, on the Scarborough River

Photo: Abigail Carroll, Nonesuch Oysters