Historical Fisheries Project
http://fishhistory.org/index.php http://www.hmapcoml.org/Default.asp?ID=222
A multi-year research project is utilizing historical documents and archaeological data to document long-term changes in the marine environment and to establish biological indicators and population trends for fishes in the Northwest Atlantic region, including some data for the Penobscot.
Contact Bill Leavenworth, University of New Hampshire, sapereaude@yahoo.com
Juvenile Lobster Monitoring
Volunteers with The Lobster Conservancy’s Juvenile Lobster Monitoring Program identify and inventory lobster nursery habitats to track the abundance and distribution of post-larval and early benthic phase lobsters. A total of 28 sites have been surveyed in Penobscot Bay; three sites have been monitored monthly since 1998. The Lobster Conservancy classifies Lanes Island, Waterman Point and Drift Inn Beach as important lobster nurseries because they are places where lobsters settle and grow, and they harbor juvenile lobsters in relatively great abundance.
Marine Invasive Species Monitoring
Judy Pederson of MIT sampled Penobscot Bay for invasive species in the summer of 2007. Results will be posted as soon as they are available. Contact jpederso@mit.edu.
Baseline contaminant loads in mussels and fish
A team led by Adria Elskus (aelskus@usgs.gov) of the U.S. Geological Survey and University of Maine collected (and archived) juvenile fish and mussels (Eastern Elliptio) from above Milford dam and below Veazie dam for contaminant analysis in Fall 2007. Her goal is to determine contaminant baseline and variability in biota and track contaminant movements, if any, with changes in river use and shoreline development, including dam removal.
Mussel surveys: As part of permitting for the proposed dam removals, Kleinschmidt Associates and the Penobscot River Restoration Trust have contracted with Normandeau Associates to survey the project area for freshwater mussels. Results should be available in 2008.
The Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission monitors temperature continuously at 37 sites throughout the Penobscot Drainage. ASC surveys for redds (nests) in October and November, performs electrofishing surveys from July through October, and keeps a count of adults trapped at the Veazie dam from May to November.
Fish Passage: The Maine Forest Service has received funding to identify and prioritize fish passage barriers in the lower Penobscot watershed. In the summer of 2007, crews surveyed approximately 1,000 road crossings using the Maine Road-Stream Crossing Survey Protocols. As part of this effort, the MFS hopes also to collect information on dams and natural barriers on all perennial streams in the lower watershed, possibly with the help of volunteers.
Contact: Jed Wright
Sturgeon habitat in the lower Penobscot River.
Stephen Fernandes, Gayle Zydlewski, and Michael Kinnison, University of Maine, 207-581-2591.
Fish passage studies from FERC dam relicensing.
Dana Murch, Maine DEP, 207-287-7784.
Fish passage at Veazie and Weldon dams; routine monitoring of juvenile populations and redd counts; habitat surveys.
Joan Trial, Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission .
Post-smolt trawl survey and smolt mark-recapture studies in the estuary, since 2001.
Timothy Sheehan, NOAA Fisheries, Woods Hole, MA, 508/495-2215.
