Kelley has investigated this geologic phenomenon over the past several years but remains puzzled by the craters’ existence. Undersea craters typically are the result of eruptions of biogenic gases, produced by decaying organic materials, or of thermogenic gases, composed of hot water and gas normally found in the deep ocean.

Biogenic craters occur only in formerly glaciated areas, such as Penobscot Bay, a result of the marine muds left as the glaciers retreated. "Sea level changes permitted lakes to form out in Penobscot Bay," explains Kelley. The decaying organic materials deposited in the lakes were then overlaid by marine sediments, which trapped any released gases.

The craters are not merely a unique underwater feature. According to Kelley, they may be dangerous. The seabed around the port of Searsport is densely riddled with craters of all sizes. Large cargo vessels coming to the port send up a significant pressure wave that Kelley believes could cause crater eruptions to occur. Multiton ships’ anchors dropped in the area are likely to have the same effect. A fisherman Kelley interviewed on the nearby island of Isleboro reported smelling hydrogen sulfide and seeing a large swell rise from the waters in the upper bay many years ago. "He thought it was a sub rising," Kelley says.

Kelley hopes to investigate some simple questions about the craters in the next few years: How old are they? How did they form? What became of the approximately 2 million cubic feet of mud displaced by these eruptions? What effect do human activities have on the craters? With a dash of understatement, Kelley notes, "The gas eruptions might not be conducive to a productive biological community on the seabed."

Diet has proven to be a major obstacle to successful cod aquaculture in New England. When cod eggs hatch, the tiny larvae draw on their yolk sacs for energy. In the wild, when the sacs are depleted, the young fish eat tiny marine organisms called zooplankton. However, zooplankton are difficult to raise in a hatchery.

In 1997, Linda Kling, University of Maine department of animal, veterinary, and aquatic sciences associate professor, and Michael Opitz, Cooperative Extension veterinarian, received a $477,000 federal grant from NOAA to develop commercial methods for raising cod and haddock in aquaculture pens. Both fish are severely depleted in the Gulf of Maine.

 With Sea Grant support over the past three years, Kling and associates at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Rhode Island have been developing artificial food items acceptable to cod larvae. "We tested four experimental diets and one commercial food," reports Kling. "One of the four does look promising."

Corrosion not only damages materials but also threatens the environment through the distribution of leached metals into waterways. "When a metal is eaten away by corrosion, it has to go somewhere," Laibinis notes.

The solution to such problems, he says, may lie in thin coatings known as self-assembled monolayers.

The idea is to design molecules that adhere strongly to a surface, creating a "barrier film" that protects the surface from corrosive agents such as oxygen, water, and halides (salts). Laibinis has been experimenting with a representative metal—copper—and a class of organic compounds called alkanethiols, which spontaneously react with the surface of copper to form a coating roughly one ten-millionth of an inch thick. It’s a "self-assembling" system, Laibinis adds, because "you just put the [alkanethiol] solution in contact with the metal and the molecules figure out where to go."

The protection provided by this system is superior to that of more conventional polymer films 1,000 times thicker, Laibinis says. The new system is not perfect, however. "The films we have don’t survive forever," Laibinis admits.
To enhance longevity, Laibinis, Jennings, and two MIT undergraduates, Jeffrey Munro and Tseh-Hwan Wong, doubled the thickness of the films, thereby boosting their corrosion resistance by a factor of 20 or more.

Laibinis intends to experiment with metals other than copper, such as steel, titanium, and aluminum. "Copper has been a good material to work with because it’s a single element and therefore a well-defined system," he says. "Our assumption has been that we can apply the principles we learned here to different metals."

The coatings developed by Laibinis and his collaborators may eventually be applied to the exterior of ships, docks, and other oceanic platforms, as well as to metal sensors that are extremely vulnerable to corrosion. The material can also be applied to already assembled pipes as a way to reduce water pollution through inadvertent leaching.—Steve Nadis

The Labrador Sea is the site of deep ocean convection, or the mixing of near-surface water into the ocean’s depths. A critical part of the thermohaline cycle, this phenomenon delivers cold water to the deep ocean as part of a larger circulation process transferring heat from warm, tropical climes northward. These currents play a critical role in regulating climate throughout the world.

The difficulty of observing this phenomenon means many questions remain unanswered, and these, in turn, leave gaps in models that predict global climate events.

Through a five-year project called the Autonomous Ocean Sampling Network (AOSN), MIT Sea Grant researchers are using durable, low-cost, easily maneuverable AUVs to collect data about deep ocean convection over large areas and under harsh conditions. Supported by MIT Sea Grant, with major funding from the Office of Naval Research, AOSN is a collaborative effort involving scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the

University of Washington, and Chapel Hill, N.C.–based Electronic Data Consultants.

Working between major winter storms and 30-foot seas, the researchers successfully deployed their elaborate mooring system, complete with a docking station where the AUV could recharge itself and download data. The goal of the mission was to leave the AUV and the mooring at sea to collect data while the researchers returned home. From the warmth of their offices, they would communicate with the vehicle via a two-way satellite link. The idea, says Bellingham, was that scientists would be able to "configure surveys responding to specific convection episodes, allowing a real-time reactive presence in a remote, hostile environment."

At sea, the research team ran numerous successful missions with its latest version of MIT Sea Grant’s AUV, Odyssey IIB. But at the end of the mission, the reseachers decided the system was not ready to leave unattended and thus brought the AUV home.

The team plans more scientific operations with AUVs, including joint operations with the Harvard-led Littoral Ocean Observation and Predictions System Project in Massachusetts Bay. A Bellingham-led project for monitoring the Arctic Ocean with long-range AUVs recently began at MIT.

 Because there is "no one silver bullet for making measurements in the ocean," Bellingham sees a developing arsenal that includes many AUVs with different energy, payload, propulsion, and endurance systems. What the various systems share is the ability to operate for extended periods without a person nearby.

Exposure to relatively high concentrations of certain pesticides, PCBs, dioxins, and synthetic and plant-derived estrogens has been speculated to cause alterations in reproduction, reduced immune function, and delayed development in wildlife populations from both terrestrial and aquatic habitats.

WHOI biologists Michael Moore, John Stegeman, Mark Hahn, and several students, collaborating with Damian Shea at North Carolina State University and Ian Nisbet of ICT Nisbet and Company, are studying the impact of chemical contaminants on marine mammals, fish, and birds from around the world, as well as humans.

"Effects of pollutant chemicals occur through interaction with proteins in the cell. These proteins include receptor molecules and enzymes that metabolize the pollutants," explains Moore, aquatic veterinarian and WHOI biology research specialist. Pollutants cause the levels of one of these proteins, cytochrome P450 1A, to increase. This increase in P450 protein can be used as a marker, or indicator, for exposure to pollutants.

In their work with marine mammals, the team, led by Stegeman, WHOI biology senior scientist, is conducting a multi-ocean assessment of exposure to chemical contaminants using skin biopsy and necropsy samples. Their findings indicate that the contaminant burden and exposure depend on dietary habits and proximity to major centers of human population.

At the same time, the team is conducting a chemical and biochemical assessment of contaminant exposure and effect in the food chain of northern right whales. "We have found that levels of contaminants in the food chain of right whales suggest that aromatic hydrocarbons in copepods may be a source of biochemical response in these animals," says Moore. Sources of contaminants include smokestacks, outfall pipes, autos, homes, and businesses, all found in populated areas.

The exposure indicated by these studies suggests that other effects may occur. "In severe cases," says Moore, "we are seeing cancer in the liver and other organs of fish. There may be more subtle changes to reproductive, immune, and cognitive systems in fish and marine mammals." These results point to the need for a reduction in the discharge of persistent contaminants at the source. The investigations of this research team will be useful in monitoring for changes in degree of global and regional contamination.

Alan Kuzirian, an associate scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass., is working with Hemant Chikarmane, MBL visiting scientist, and colleagues in Connecticut to develop a genetic marker that will help evaluate the success of seeding programs.

Scallop populations can be hard to get a handle on, says Kuzirian. For example, if their food supply is variable, scallops may not survive in a particular location. Predation is another factor affecting survival.

In the past, bay scallops raised in hatcheries were chosen for distinct and easily visible shell markings. The problem, says Kuzirian, is that such selection techniques also make the scallops more susceptible to predators. Other marking techniques involve the use of fluorescent or visible dyes. These, however, are time limited: After four to six months, the markers fade and the seeded scallops are indistinguishable from wild scallops.

Kuzirian and Chikarmane, with WHOI Sea Grant support, are developing a DNA-based technique for identifying shell markers (phenotypes) from scallops that won’t attract predators and won’t result in dominant attributes that could upset the natural selection of the species within the local environment. Their goal is to come up with a marker that results in a distinct, but camouflaged, shell pattern that can easily be recognized as seeded.

The researchers are using a technique in which DNA is extracted from the scallops’ mantle tissue. Each animal will then be "fingerprinted" using a method that produces individual-specific DNA markers. Since scallops can self-fertilize, this will ensure that scientists can trace paternity.

Once they have perfected their technique, Kuzirian and Chikarmane will select animals with low frequency markers to selectively breed them. These animals will produce a set of individuals all carrying the marker. Juvenile scallops from the spawning of these animals will then be seeded in scallop beds where the marker is not present. That way, the proportion of marked, seeded individuals can be followed over time, and estimates of survival under field conditions can be obtained.

Insight into In Situ Growth of Algae

In preliminary results, Edward Carpenter and Senjie Lin, along with Sea Grant Scholar Erika Magaletti, found and characterized two particularly useful markers to indicate periods of rapid cell growth. One such marker is cyclin B, a key protein involved in the regulation of the cell cycle. Antibodies against cyclin B were produced and tested using laboratory cultures. Results showed that this protein is in higher concentrations in an actively growing population. Thus, finding an increased abundance of cyclin B over a 24-hour period would indicate the population has entered a growth stage.

The results of this work were presented at the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography meeting in Santa Fe and at New York Sea Grant’s 1997 and 1998 Brown Tide Informational Symposia. Once the researchers perfect these immunofluorescence techniques using field samples, they and local health officials will be able to use the procedure to identify actual in situ growth status and growth rates of the brown tide alga. Currently, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services monitors the presence of brown tide in Long Island’s bays by performing cell counts using antibodies raised against cell surface antigens of the algae and then immunostaining them. Field trials using cyclin B to determine growth rates were scheduled for late summer.

Established in 1988 by Rhode Island Sea Grant, the Visual Arts Sea Grant makes competitive awards to professional New England artists whose works are influenced by the marine environment. "The inspiration for our [Visual Arts Sea Grant] came from the Georgia Sea Grant Program," says Scott Nixon, Rhode Island Sea Grant director. "While attending a conference on ocean issues, I was fortunate enough to wander into an exhibition of the collected work stimulated by that program. The images and constructions were fresh and interesting, and I spent an hour or more in engaged appreciation. If the Georgia artists could capture my imagination and make me see and think about the coast in different ways, why couldn’t New England artists do the same for a larger audience here?"

That’s what the Visual Arts Sea Grant has been encouraging ever since. The exhibition of works in sculpture, drawing, collage, photography, and film offers the opportunity to view the majority of projects funded to date, as a group, for the first time. "Additionally, the URI exhibition features a provocative juxtaposition of those works created by the artists through their original grant funding with works created later, in the wake of the award," explains Judith Tolnick, URI Fine Arts Center Galleries director and exhibition coordinator. "Taken together, the works of art constitute fascinating, highly creative interpretations of humankind’s role in preserving the marine environment."

The effects of these phytoplankters on their zooplankter consumers, such as copepods and tintinnids, is not well known, and the role of the consumers in preventing blooms is unknown. This project will include carefully controlled laboratory experiments in which consumers will be fed a diet of cultured dinoflagellates, and the effects on the digestive organs and behavior will be documented. A better knowledge of the effects of these toxic organisms on their consumers will be useful in developing ways to predict and control harmful blooms and in choosing appropriate sites for aquaculture. A number of students will participate in the project and will hone their skills in culturing organisms and performing chemical analyses.

"We call it a demonstration project," explains Ann Bucklin, Sea Grant director at UNH, "but we hope it will grow into a permanent facility for research, development, and commercialization. During the two years, we’ll seek to demonstrate technical and economic feasibility, address the regulatory and permitting requirements, and prepare materials that will share what we learn with the entrepreneurs who will follow us."

Those involved are seeking to attract the participation of scientists, aquaculturists, commercial fishermen, and others from throughout the area and thus make the project a regional effort. The plan is to have two finfish pens in operation in 1999. Initially, one will contain summer flounder, an aggressive feeder with a very high market value, and the other will contain winter flounder, a hardier but less valuable species. In addition, blue mussels will be grown on longlines at the site; that part of the project could be under way this fall.

Much of this year’s efforts are being directed toward securing the needed approvals. Rich Langan, manager of UNH’s Jackson Estuarine Lab, explains, "We’re dealing with N.H. Fish and Game, the N.H. Coastal Program, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the New England Fishery Management Council, as well as with a number of nonregulatory groups. We’ve got a lot of information to gather, and it will take time."

The project team includes ocean engineers who will oversee the selection, modification, and placement of the equipment; social scientists who will study the level of acceptance the activity has with the region’s residents; a site monitoring contingent to determine the project’s impact on the area surrounding the site; and educators who will explain the undertaking to the public.

Members of a Sea Grant–assisted AIP visioning task force have shown the video to civic and business groups and the public. The video has helped initiate discussions related to the AIP goal of balancing environmental concerns with economic development—promoting development in certain areas while protecting other areas the islanders consider special.

The video shows that steps are being taken now to protect the environment. For example, the island’s primary supplier of drinking water has teamed up with the town of Middletown to build a pond designed to treat runoff from the area’s streets and parking lots. The AIP hopes that in the future the towns will coordinate their efforts for islandwide planning and direct new efforts toward areas the island’s residents deem significant.

The importance of shaping a future, and the consequences of not doing so, are the video’s resonant theme: "It’s always easy to look backwards and say, ‘Gosh, isn’t that a shame,’" says Peter Merritt of the Aquidneck Island Land Trust. Unplanned development is not retractable: As one islander notes, "Nobody is ever going to knock down a house and put up a farm."

The AIP hopes that the cooperation fostered by the bike map project will continue and will enable islanders to tackle other, more difficult issues—water quality, for example—as a united and more effective group.

The guide will also be available from Rhode Island Sea Grant Communications Office, 401-874-6800.

Participants attended by invitation as representatives of "different constituencies that have different ideas of how marine resources should be used," said David Beutel, URI fisheries research assistant and coordinator of the seminar.

Two dozen fishermen and aquaculturists, as well as regulators, environmentalists, and others, examined case studies and explored techniques for resolving conflicts through collaborative decision making. The idea was to reach consensus about sharing fisheries resources so that "what’s best for you will also satisfy me," said Howe.

Conflict resolution as a fisheries management strategy is an alternative to the "top-down" approach of management councils, suggested Roland Barnaby, Maine-New Hampshire Sea Grant Extension marine educator. Barnaby pointed to the successful consensus-building experience of Gulf of Maine gillnet fishermen: When concerns over harbor porpoise by-catch threatened shutdown of their fishery, the gillnetters applied the conflict resolution process to negotiations. It took some work, Barnaby acknowledged, but the result was a "win-win" plan for reducing harbor porpoise bycatch with minimal impact on fishermen.

Conflict resolution and consensus building have been brought to the fore by statutory provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). New amendments to the act impose strict requirements on commercial fisheries and on the National Marine Fisheries

Service (NMFS), the federal regulatory agency, for reducing harmful interactions between commercial fishing operations and marine mammals.

A key provision of the amendments is stakeholder participation in the development of management solutions. But, as Howe pointed out at the URI seminar, stakeholders come to the table with different agendas, hoping to "sell their ‘solution’ to the other side."

To get the different interest groups to move beyond the wariness and finger pointing, NMFS tapped into the model that had produced results for the Harbor Porpoise Working Group and applied it to the marine mammal protection effort.

Management by consensus will likely continue to have a role in fishery management as groups strive for solutions that benefit all constituencies, including the resource. But consensus is more complex than management techniques of the past.

"To start the process of consensus building, the first thing you need to learn is how to do it," Howe told his audience. The conflict resolution workshop series provided the "how to"–how to listen, to evaluate objectively, to find and focus on points of agreement, and to build consensus from there.

"All it is," Barnaby concluded, "is communicating better."

In the two-day conference, participants identified key issues, conclusions, and recommendations. Topics deemed relevant to New England included: marine pollution, new strategies for ports and shipping, new approaches in fisheries management, marine protected areas, outer continental shelf oil and gas development, sustainable development for coastal tourism and recreation, and fostering the next generation of coastal leadership and partnerships.

At the conclusion of the Monterey conference, President Clinton asked his Cabinet secretaries to deliver a report to him on June 12, 1999, recommending the best actions for dealing with the oceans for the next millennium. Those attending the MIT workshop hope to see that report incorporate the regional recommendations. To order a free copy of the report from the regional gathering, please see the publications section.

According to Cliff Goudey, MIT Sea Grant marine advisory leader, the marine finfish hatchery demonstrates that Boston Harbor is prime for the establishment of commercial aquaculture. "Our work at this hatchery on the most critical life stages shows it can be done," he said. "We chose haddock because it offers attractive commercial possibilities due to the currently depressed natural stocks." Using land-based recirculating systems that draw in harbor water, the facility serves as a model for larger, commercial operations. As the facility gets into full operation, Goudey and Brandy Moran, MIT Sea Grant aquaculture specialist, hope to produce thousands of fingerlings annually for use by other researchers and in commercial growout trials.

The project will stretch the length of nearly 10 football fields and feature 70 species and seven habitats of the northwest Atlantic. In addition, several fish species from the world’s oceans will be featured in the international terminal walkway.

To complement the walkways, Goldman, along with Wellesley College professors Marianne Moore, an aquatic ecologist, and Takis Metaxas, a computer scientist, will create a prototype educational multimedia component, supported in part by program development funds from WHOI and MIT Sea Grants. With the assistance of several students, they will create a computer program using images, animation, sound, and text expanding on infor-mation about the organisms and habitats depicted in the walkways. Based on the prototype, which should be complete by December 1998, the group hopes to attract outside funding to expand the multimedia program and install it with appropriate technology at Logan.

to coastal decision makers, WHOI Sea Grant recently organized an open house as a way to connect informally with legislators and their staffs and others involved with coastal decision making and management.

Titled "Marine Science and Technology in Woods Hole," the by-invitation event featured informal posters and exhibits highlighting some of the hot topics in marine science, including those especially relevant to Massachusetts. Attendees enjoyed a light breakfast while making their way through the WHOI Visitor Center’s permanent exhibits and those created for the event.

Attendees left with informational packets featuring a new series of fact sheets called Focal Points, WHOI Sea Grant’s 1998-2000 Program Guide, along with other materials. A local horticulturist donated strands of "Cape" American beach grass, which were handed out along with an informational card about the beachgrass, its origin and use, and instructions for planting it.

The open house provided an important first step toward WHOI Sea Grant’s goal of establishing stronger connections with the coastal decision makers of Massachusetts.

Students learn concepts of physics, chemistry, and biology in the classroom at the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford, then apply them to marine science in Long Island Sound. Using hydrophones and SONAR, students can distinguish background noise in the water from the sounds of animals and human activities
by vibrations and the shape of the sounds’ waveforms on a compu-ter monitor. They also measure salinity, acidity, and other physical characteristics of the water and examine marine animals and sediments.

As part of the project, new signs for scientific terms will be developed, approved, and compiled into a book.

The group’s activities have grown out of a movement begun by Dee Hock, founding chief executive officer of VISA International, who has over the past several years sought to apply the principles he pioneered in
the credit card business to the conservation of natural resources.

"Dee Hock has been inspirational in guiding us in this process," explains Rollie Barnaby, an extension educator with Maine/NH Sea Grant. "His principles are both simple and profound. NAMA is inclusive, and decisions are made at the most local level by the relevant and affected parties. People compete and cooperate at the same time. And, finally, NAMA is organized and operated by its members."

Currently, NAMA is in the process of going public with its mission and activities. The members hope this will help them attract all the people and organizations with a stake in fisheries management to the process, including commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen, scientists, environmentalists, fishery managers, aquaculturists, and representatives of the marine industries.

It seems to be working. Recently, the Maine Urchin Harvesters Association (MUHA) asked Vavrinec to research and prepare a report on developing an electronic means to keep track of legal sea urchin transactions in order to help reduce the amount of illegal harvesting. Members of MUHA are concerned that poor quality urchins shipped to Japan will hurt the industry’s image.

His report, "Changing the urchin buying process to deter illegal fishing," suggests using photo identification and an electronic recording system, akin to a university I.D. or a credit card, to keep track of transactions. With the hypothetical system, landings information would become available quickly to state managers, fostering a more responsive management system.

As a liaison between harvesters and scientists, Vavrinec often finds himself acting as a translator. At the request of the industry, he has provided scientific information on marine protected areas, aquaculture seeding programs, and the results of industry-funded research projects. Because the urchin harvesters and buyers received this information, the Sea Urchin Zone Council has developed conservation areas to maintain a larger urchin breeding stock.

Vavrinec is the first staff person hired under an experimental fishing industry/university/ management liaison  program funded by Maine/New Hampshire Sea Grant. A similar liaison position working with the lobster industry and scientists has been funded by the private Kendall Foundation.

A new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation required all seafood processors to develop and implement a HACCP plan by December 18, 1997, to control significant food safety hazards associated with their products and processing operations. Additional requirements include new sanitation-monitoring and record-keeping procedures and special requirements for importers, smoked fish processors, and molluscan shellfish shippers and processors.

Thousands of traditional seafood processors, in addition to seafood wholesalers, distributors, packing docks, shellfish shippers, and even fishermen in the United States, are affected by this new FDA regulation. In New York alone, over 600 seafood businesses are likely to have to comply. These diverse businesses contribute over $1 billion to the economy of the state and play a significant role in regional, national, and international seafood markets. New York also has one of the largest seafood wholesale distribution systems in the country, including the largest wholesale seafood market, Fulton Market
in New York City.

Sea Grant anticipated the challenges of helping this vast network make the transition to the new HACCP system. Ken Gall, New York Sea Grant seafood specialist, has coordinated an ongoing HACCP program initiative since 1990. Initial work focused on pilot and demonstration projects conducted in collaboration with the FDA, National Marine Fisheries Service, and national, regional, and local industry trade organizations, such as the National Fisheries Institute, New England Fisheries Development Association, and the New York Seafood Council. Projects to develop and test model HACCP plans with key processing industry sectors, such as smoked fish processors, have also been conducted. A national Sea Grant Forum on Seafood Quality and Safety that Gall helped plan and conduct resulted in a project to develop a Seafood HACCP Alliance for Training and Education. This national initiative involved federal and state regulatory agencies, Sea Grant and university seafood experts across the nation, and the seafood industry. Its goal was to develop a standardized HACCP training program for seafood industry personnel and federal and state regulators across the country and to develop educational materials and identify research needs that would facilitate the implementation of the HACCP system for seafood products. Gall was instrumental in mobilizing the resources of national, state, and local programs to conduct training programs and to facilitate the implementation of HACCP systems in seafood businesses in New York.

Almost all the firms that completed training have successfully developed and implemented HACCP plans for their operations. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of improvements in facilities and equipment have been made in large centralized markets like Fulton and by a wide variety of other processing and wholesale distribution firms. New York companies have also played a significant role in helping processing firms around the world that sell their products in the state to develop and implement HACCP systems for their own operations. Special projects to develop training materials in other languages have greatly assisted with this effort.

Many regulatory, academic, and industry experts agree that the seafood industry's transition to HACCP-based operations could not have been accomplished without the Seafood HACCP Alliance training effort. The ultimate impact will be safer and higher quality seafood available in New York and across the country and the opportunity to maximize the value of our limited seafood resources.