For about a decade (really nine years), Maine Sea Grant has been collaborating with several colleges in Maine to provide $1000 scholarships for undergraduates doing work in Marine Sciences. This doesn’t just mean students doing research, but also students working in communication, education, policy, advocacy, and just about anything you can imagine marine related. This year the application period just opened, and you can see the announcement and the link to download an application here. This scholarship is available to any second and third-year students enrolled at COA (and several other colleges) and the deadline is April 29th. COA and Maine Sea Grant contribute equally to funding the scholarship. I’ve asked COA’s two recipients from last year, Bailey Tausen and Sneda Suresh, to give a quick summary of what they have been up to below. If you are a COA student and interested in applying for the scholarship, you can talk to me (Chris Petersen) or any of our current recipients from 2021 (Bailey and Sneda) and our 2020 recipients that are still on campus (Hallie Arno, Camden Hunt, Kiernan Crough, and Jillian Igoe). You can read about the 2020 recipients here, and this blog also has several other links to past scholar recipients including here and here.
Bailey Tausen ’23
When I first started at College of the Atlantic, my passion for the Chesapeake Bay and marine conservation quickly sparked a love for the Gulf of Maine. I had a good background in science communication, specifically in marine biology, and loved the idea of interdisciplinary ocean studies. After building myself from a background of little scientific exposure, COA introduced me to a community that helped me establish strong field and lab skills. I took every chance available to take marine-related courses and spent my weekends either in the intertidal or participating in the sea kayaking leadership program in the bay. I studied marine science, history, fisheries, and policy, and among those studies discovered my love for marine invertebrates. In 2020 I got the opportunity to adopt a project on Mount Desert Rock doing an oceanographic survey. A fellow student began the project in 2019 to examine the current biological productivity around the island. Copepods, a type of microscopic planktonic animal, are depended on by almost all life in the Gulf of Maine. But their sensitivity to warming water means that their health and numbers are dwindling. Last summer, I collected data on water temperature and copepod health and abundance trends. I also worked to ensure that this oceanographic survey will continue long after my time at COA so that we may see how years of rapidly rising sea temperature have affected these microscopic animals that life around the island is so dependent on.
I love exploring the incredible world under the microscope and sharing that passion with others; this year, I’ll be working to pass that knowledge down to new students so that the project will continue while I carry on as the island’s station manager. I am also working for Allied Whale on photo identification for their humpback whale catalog. After graduation, I hope to carry my love for marine invertebrates and the ocean into new fieldwork.
Photos (left to right): a. My in-field laboratory setup at Mount Desert Rock, where I identified and measured thousands of copepods under the microscope, b. A slide of copepods, each of which will be counted, identified, photographed, and measured, and c. Calanus finmarchicus, a species of copepod depended on by the endangered North Atlantic right whale for its high-energy fat (in orange).
Sneha Suresh ’23. My interest in marine science revolves around Common Loons. As an aspiring wildlife veterinarian, I was searching for a research opportunity in wildlife health. I got in touch with a retired veterinary professor at Tufts University, Dr. Mark Pokras, and we crafted a project for summer ’21 that combined necropsies, wildlife health research, and animal behavior. I received loon cadavers from a wildlife biologist, Danielle D’Auria, at Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department, and I took x-rays of them at Acadia Veterinary Hospital. Conducting multiple necropsies with Dr. Michelle Kneeland, Dr. Mark Pokras, and Laura Lyell, I learned about bird anatomy, physiology, and attempted to hypothesize their cause of death. Using necropsy tools from Allied Whale, we looked at numerous fascinating cases from a female that had 2 necrotic eggs inside her (uterus infection?) to a loon that suffered from a large puncture wound (from the bill of another loon?) and severe internal bleeding. From our loon necropsies, I collected their gastrointestinal tracts to analyze them for the presence of microplastics. With help from Shaw Institute and Dr. Reuben Hudson, I developed a method to extract microplastics from their gastrointestinal tract, and we found microplastics!
Photos (left to right). a. A dead loon being prepared for a necropsy. b. Sneha and fellow student Maggie Denison ’23 performing necropies. c. Radiograph of a loon. You can see the bright (dense) objects in the middle of the animal – these are lead sinkers that were swallowed and probably led to lead poisoning of the bird.
Simultaneously, I worked with Billy Helprin, the director of Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary, to monitor loon behavior primarily on Little Long Pond. It was wonderful to observe the 2 parents and chick on Little Long Pond over the course of 3 months. There was ceaseless drama with eagles and otters hovering around, intruding loons attempting to break familial ties, and, of course, the chick growing: he/she would molt feathers from sooty gray to dull brown fluff and later, a lighter gray juvenile plumage; he/she would dive for longer and longer lengths of time and learn to catch fish. It doesn’t get more exciting than this!
Photographs. Left- Loon chick and parent on MDI. Right- Parent feeding a substantially older chick.
Maine Sea Grant helped fund my loon project over summer ’21–a project that cemented my interests in pathology, wildlife health, and animal behavior and allowed me to build a community. With the involvement of multiple COA students, Allied Whale, local veterinarians, wildlife biologists, and community members, we are now trying to establish a loon necropsy program at COA that will be an extension of this 1 marvelously loony summer.
You can learn more about loons on Mount Desert Island on the Somes Meynell Sanctuary Facebook Page.
Marine Studies at COA 