The Marine Extension Team (MET) at the University of Maine is a formal collaboration between the Maine Sea Grant College Program and University of Maine Cooperative Extension. The MET works closely with industry, science, management and education relative to aquaculture. Given the scale and scope of aquaculture in Maine, the extension program requires nimbleness, a grasp of issues both fine-scale and broad, and strong relationships along the coast, nation-wide and internationally.
Principal activity areas include:
Training of new and established producers, networking, and engagement: These programs support skill-building and professional development for producers, and support connections between producers, science, management and related sectors.
Applied Research:
These activities advance our knowledge of better production practices, environmental interactions, and a more diversified and resilient working waterfront economy.
Outreach and extension services:
This work allows investigators to work in Maine more efficiently and effectively, informs investigators with valuable local information, gets the resulting information into circulation more thoroughly, and assists with delivering programs efficiently in times of need.
Education:
The MET participates in a broad spectrum of educational efforts: supporting K-12 programs and other programs with direct, hands-on learning opportunities; the Coastal Conversations radio show that examines issues of importance to Maines’ coastal communities; mentoring and advising undergraduate and graduate students; participating in school of local organizational meetings to present information about aquaculture practices, science, et cetera. This work develops and maintains connections with all generations of learners.
The MET works also with a growing number of partners, as aquaculture gains importance and size; universities and colleges, private not-for-profit entities, scientific institutions, community groups, and the like. In an increasingly-active field, the MET looks to its core competencies and values to guide its work portfolio: connections to- and reliance upon science-based information on the issues of the day, an honest-broker approach toward treating all citizens and collaborators with fairness and transparency, and a recognition of the deep interconnections between our natural resources and the people who depend on them.