Marine Policy

School of Marine Sciences

The School of Marine Sciences (SMS) is a large, active unit of The University of Maine residing in the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture. SMS offers both graduate and undergraduate academic programs, basic and applied research on a wide variety of topics, and public service activities related to scientific policy for marine resource and coastal zone management. At present, 49 faculty are affiliated with SMS including full-time, part-time, and cooperating appointments. By its very nature, SMS is an interdisciplinary unit. Areas of expertise and research include oceanography, aquaculture, marine biology, marine geology, marine resource development and policy, seafloor ecology, fish biology, fish pathology, seaweed biology, and ocean engineering.

Faculty of SMS provide leadership in research programs with emphasis on the Gulf of Maine, its related coastal zone, and in other cold-water and global systems. SMS faculty are headquartered at both the Orono campus of UM and its coastal marine laboratory, the Ira C. Darling Marine Center (see Research Resources.) Further information on SMS is on the web site www.ume.maine.edu/~marine/marine.html. Further information on the Darling Marine Center is on the web site server.dmc.maine.edu.

The School also develops and maintains relationships with other marine research institutions within the region. Examples include Maine Maritime Academy and its research vessel R/V ARGO Maine, the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the Huntsman Marine Science Center in St. Andrews, New Brunswick.

The School of Marine Sciences offers the following graduate degrees:

M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Oceanography
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Marine Biology
M.S. degree in Marine Policy

The School of Marine Sciences offers core and advanced courses in all three degree areas. More specialized courses of study in the subdisciplines of marine science are also provided by various associated departments. Financial support for graduate students is primarily in the form of research assistantships. Some teaching assistantships are available.

Master of Science in Marine Policy

The Master of Science degree in Marine Policy in the School of Marine Sciences is designed to take advantage of the strong interdisciplinary nature of the School. All students in the program will receive training in the social science aspects of marine resource management, in oceanography and other marine sciences, in marine law, and in empirical methods. In addition, students will be expected to gain expertise in either marine fisheries management or coastal zone management. The program offers both a thesis and non-thesis option. Students selecting the thesis option will write a master’s thesis that combines both theoretical classroom work and practical experience with pressing problems. Students selecting the non-thesis option will undertake an internship with a State agency, a non-governmental organization in the marine area or a private firm.

A total of 39 hours of course credit will be required for the M.S. in Marine Policy degree.

Required Courses

INT 563 - (BSC, SMS) Marine Benthic Ecology Credits: 3
SMS 551 - Fisheries Management Credits: 3
SMS 552 - Ecological Approaches to Fisheries Management Credits: 3
SMS 553 - Institutions and Marine Fisheries Management Credits: 3
SMS 557 - Coastal Processes and Coastal Zone Management Credits: 3
SMS 562 - Fisheries Population Dynamics Credits: 3

Specialties

Students will be expected to develop special expertise in one area of marine resource management. Ordinarily, these specialties will be fisheries management, coastal zone management or marine law. Students specializing in marine law will ordinarily spend one semester at the University of Maine School of Law in Portland taking courses from the faculty of the Marine Law Institute. Students specializing in fisheries management or coastal zone management will usually take all of their courses at The University of Maine campus or the Darling Marine Center. To meet the specialization requirement, students, in consultation with their advisors, will select at least four courses from the following list:

REP 517 - Research Methods in Resource Economics and Policy Credits: 3
REP 571 - Advanced Environmental and Resource Economics I Credits: 3
LAW 633 - Natural Resources Law

LAW 637 - Environmental Law

LAW 658 - Law of the Sea

LAW 687 - Marine Resource Law

SMS 501 - Biological Oceanography Credits: 3
SMS 531 - Coral Reefs Credits: 3
SMS 550 - Fisheries Oceanography Credits: 3
SMS 555 - Fisheries Management in Cross-cultural Perspective Credits: 3
SMS 556 - Fisheries Management Problems of the Northwest Atlantic

SMS 558 - History of Uses and Abuses of the Coastal Zone Credits: 3
SMS 697 - Readings in Marine Science Credits: 1-3
WLE 540 - Advanced Conservation Biology Credits: 3

Internship or Thesis Research

Students must complete either an internship or a thesis. Normally, theses and internships will be done in the student’s chosen area of specialization. The Maine Department of Marine Resources, the Island Institute, and the State Planning Office are typical sites for internships and applied theses. Students will take at least six hours of the following courses to complete this requirement.

SMS 683 - Internship in Marine Policy Credits: 1-6
SMS 699 - Graduate Thesis Credits: Ar

Faculty

Graduate Faculty

David W. Townsend, Ph.D. (Maine, 1981), Professor and Director, School of Marine Sciences. Area: Biological Oceanography of Shelf Seas. (Oceanography, Marine Biology)

James Acheson, Ph.D. (Rochester, 1970), Professor. Area: Cultural Anthropology. (Marine Policy)

Bruce Barber, Ph.D. (South Florida, 1984), Professor. Area: Bivalve Physiology and Pathology. (Aquaculture, Marine Biology)

Emmanuel Boss, Ph.D. (Washington, 1996), Assistant Professor. Area: Particle Dynamics, Optical Oceanography. (Oceanography)

Susan Brawley, Ph.D. (California, 1978), Professor. Area: Algal Physiology, Development and Ecology. (Marine Biology, Oceanography)

Fei Chai, Ph.D. (Duke University, 1995), Associate Professor. Area: Ecosystem Modeling; Tropical Oceanography. (Oceanography)

Yong Chen, Ph.D. (Toronto, 1994), Assistant Professor. Area: Fisheries Population Dynamics. (Oceanography, Marine Biology)

Laurie Connell, Ph.D. (North Carolina, 1988), Research Assistant Professor. Area: Molecular Ecology. (Marine Biology)

Daniel Distel, Ph.D. (Scripps, 1987), Associate Professor. Area: Marine Microbiology and Molecular Biology. (Marine Biology)

Kevin Eckelbarger, Ph.D. (Northeastern, 1974), Professor. Area: Invertebrate Biology. Director, Darling Marine Center. (Marine Biology)

Ione Hunt von Herbing, Ph.D. (Dalhousie, 1994), Assistant Professor. Area: Biological/Physical Interactions; Ichthyoplankton Transport. (Marine Biology, Aquaculture, Oceanography)

Peter A. Jumars, Ph.D. (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1974), Professor. Area: Benthic Biological Oceanography, Organism-Environment Interactions at the Level of Individuals, Deposit Feeding. (Oceanography, Marine Biology)

Lee Karp-Boss, Ph.D. (Washington, 1998), Research Assistant Professor. Area: Biological Oceanography. (Oceanography)

Joseph Kelley, Ph.D. (Lehigh, 1980), Professor. Area: Coastal Geology, Coastal Zone Management. (Oceanography, Marine Policy)

Gary M. King, Ph.D. (Georgia, 1978), Professor. Area: Microbiology, Microbial Biogeochemistry. (Oceanography, Marine Biology)

Linda J. Kling, Ph.D. (Maryland, 1980), Associate Professor. Area: Fish Aquaculture, Fish Nutrition and Feeding. (Aquaculture)

Irv Kornfield, Ph.D. (Stony Brook, 1974), Professor. Area: Population Biology, Ecology and Systematics. (Marine Biology, Oceanography, Aquaculture)

Sara Lindsay, Ph.D. (South Carolina, 1994), Assistant Research Professor. Area: Sensory Biology and Ecology of Marine Invertebrates, Benthic Ecology. (Marine Biology, Ocean-ography)

Lawrence M. Mayer, Ph.D. (Dartmouth, 1976), Professor. Area: Marine Biogeochemistry. (Oceanography)

James D. McCleave, Ph.D. (Montana State, 1967), Professor. Area: Migratory and Transport Mechanisms of Fishes, Fisheries Oceanography, Eel Biology. Associate Director, School of Marine Sciences. (Oceanography, Marine Biology)

Michael Opitz, D.V.M. (Berlin, 1964), Professor. Area: Diseases, Health Management. (Aquaculture, Marine Biology)

Vijay Panchang, Ph.D. (Maine, 1985), Professor. Area: Coastal Numerical Modeling, Waves and Currents. (Oceanography, Aquaculture)

Mary Jane Perry, Ph.D. (Scripps Institution of Oceanography/California, San Diego, 1974), Professor. Area: Phytoplankton Physiology, Primary Productivity, Bio-optics. (Ocean-ography, Marine Biology)

Neal R. Pettigrew, Ph.D. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/M.I.T., 1981), Associate Professor. Area: Near-shore, Estuarine and Continental Shelf Circulation. (Ocean-ography)

Paul Rawson, Ph.D. (South Carolina, 1996), Assistant Professor. Area: Quantitative Genetics, Evolutionary Biology. (Marine Biology, Aquaculture)

Warren Riess, Ph.D. (New Hampshire, 1987), Associate Research Professor. Area: History; Underwater Archeology. (Marine Policy)

Malcolm Shick, Ph.D. (Texas, 1974), Professor. Area: Marine Invertebrate Physiology. (Marine Biology)

Bruce Sidell, Ph.D. (Illinois, 1975), Professor. Area: Biochemistry and Physiology of Fishes. (Marine Biology, Aquaculture)

Robert S. Steneck, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins, 1982), Professor. Area: Benthic Marine Ecology, Lobsters, and Plant-Herbivore Interactions. (Oceanography, Marine Policy, and Marine Biology)

Andrew Thomas, Ph.D. (British Columbia, 1988), Associate Professor. Area: Plankton Biology, Biological/Physical Interactions, Satellite Oceanography. (Oceanography, Marine Biology)

Robert L. Vadas, Ph.D. (Washington, 1968), Professor. Area: Marine Ecology, Algal Ecology. (Marine Biology, Aquaculture)

Rebecca Van Beneden, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins, 1983), Professor and Associate Director School of Marine Sciences. Area: Marine Molecular Biology and Environmental Toxicology. (Marine Biology)

Les Watling, Ph.D. (Delaware, 1974), Professor. Area: Benthic Ecology. (Oceanography, Marine Biology, Aquaculture)

Mark Wells, Ph.D. (Maine, 1989), Associate Professor. Area: Metal-Plankton Interactions. (Oceanography)

James Wilson, Ph.D. (Wisconsin, 1971), Professor. Area: Economics and Fisheries Management. (Marine Policy, Aquaculture)

Huijie Xue, Ph.D. (Princeton University, 1991), Associate Professor. Area: Numerical Model-ing of Coastal and Oceanic Circulation. (Oceanography)

Phil Yund, Ph.D. (Yale, 1987), Research Associate Professor. Area: Evolutionary Ecology and Fertilization Biology. (Marine Biology)

Cooperating Faculty

Brian Beal, Ph.D. (Maine, 1994), Assistant Professor. Area: Benthic Ecology. (Marine Biology, Aquaculture)

Daniel F. Belknap, Ph.D. (Delaware, 1979), Professor. Area: Marine Geology, Sedimentology. Chair, Department of Geological Sciences. (Oceanography)

Katherine Boettcher, Ph.D. (Southern California, 1994), Assistant Professor. Area: Marine and Invertebrate Microbiology. (Marine Biology)

William Ellis, Ph.D. (Rhode Island, 1992), Assistant Professor. Area: Marine Atmospheric and Tropospheric Chemistry. (Oceanography)

James Gilbert, Ph.D. (Idaho, 1974), Professor. Area: Large Mammal Population Dynamics, Assessment and Modeling. (Marine Biology)

Terry Haines, Ph.D. (Michigan State, 1971), Professor. Area: Environmental Contaminants and Fishes. (Marine Biology)

Carol Kim, Ph.D. (Cornell, 1992), Assistant Professor. Area: Zebrafish as a Model for Disease and Immune Function. (Marine Biology)

Mary Rumpho, Ph.D. (Washington State, 1982), Professor. Area: Mollusc/Algal Chloroplast Symbioses. (Marine Biology)

John Singer, Ph.D. (Georgia, 1983), Associate Professor. Area: Marine Microbiology. Chair, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Molecular Biology. (Aquaculture, Marine Biology)

Ralph Townsend, Ph.D. (Wisconsin-Madison, 1983), Professor. Area: Fisheries Management and Fisheries Economics. (Marine Policy)

Seth Tyler, Ph.D. (North Carolina, 1975), Professor. Area: Invertebrate Biology. (Marine Biology)

Gregory Zelinski, Ph.D. (Massachusetts, 1987), Research Associate Professor. Area: Climatology/Paleoclimatology Meteorology. (Oceanography)