AMBO student Joe Gattozzi will be working with Maine Department of Marine Resources biologist Claire Enterline on a rainbow smelt tag retention study. AMBO students will be trawling for smelt in Portland Harbor and transferring them to recirculating tanks in the aquaculture lab. The fish will be tagged with several types of tags and tag retention and mortality will be monitored for six months. In addition, Joe will be looking at the distribution of mitochondrial haplotypes in Casco Bay smelt.

The Science Department at SMCC invites you to a series of free seminars open to the general public:


Dec 2nd
Conservation Planning: Using digital Information and Partners to Prioritize Conservation Action
Joshua Royte, The Nature Conservancy

Jan 27th
Don't eat your Spinach: Soil Remediation on Portland's peninsula
Samantha Langley-Turnbaugh, Department of Environmental Science, USM

Feb 24th
Right Whales, Copepods and Climate
Andy Pershing, Gulf of Maine Research Institute

March 31st
Life and Ecology of Dogfish in Gulf of Maine
James Sulikowski, Marine Science Center, UNE

April 28th
Regenerating the Adult Kidney
Leif Oxburugh, Maine Medical Center Research Institute


All seminars are Tuesday nights from 5:30 – 6:30 PM
Jewett Auditorium, Jewett Hall, SMCC, South Portland

SMCC recieved a donation of a 27 foot Searay. We have been using it to expand our range. In September the Seatime III students used the new boat to take water quality measurements near Alden Rock and the Cod Ledges off Cape Elizabeth. There were a number of gannets feeding on herring at Alden Rock.

In other news, the R/V Odyssey has been berthed at the SMCC pier this month. She is a 93 foot steel ketch and has been around the world conducting whale research. She is currently being outfitted to collect cell lines to be used in toxin research at the University of Southern Maine. SMCC students will work with personnel on the Odyssey to set up a plankton collecting protocol.