Biddeford, USA.- University of New England aquaculture researchers are helping a Maine mussel farm improve their business. The October 17, 2017 edition of Lab Manager magazine features an article about an aquaculture research project UNE is carrying out with Bangs Island Mussels.
The company reached out to UNE when a percentage of its mussels died. Assistant Research Scientist Adam St. Gelais, M.S., and Assistant Professor Carrie Byron, Ph.D., proposed a study to look at how environmental factors were affecting the mussels. St. Gelais received a grant to fund histology from Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, and the project received additional funding from the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) to allow them to set up the farm as a lab as part of the Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Network (SEANET).
Byron’s research focuses on how the mussel farm impacts food web dynamics. She and her students are studying how factors such as stress and diet impact the mussels’ fatty acid content. She told the magazine that the experience is teaching students what it’s like to be a scientist working to help the aquaculture industry. “They’re learning that balance of how to be sensitive to industry and the needs and motivations of industry, which can be very different from academia.”
Read the article (page 14)
http://www.labmanager.com/media/PDFs/Oct17-Issue_Digital.pdf
Editor at the digital magazine AquaHoy. He holds a degree in Aquaculture Biology from the National University of Santa (UNS) and a Master’s degree in Science and Innovation Management from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, with postgraduate diplomas in Business Innovation and Innovation Management. He possesses extensive experience in the aquaculture and fisheries sector, having led the Fisheries Innovation Unit of the National Program for Innovation in Fisheries and Aquaculture (PNIPA). He has served as a senior consultant in technology watch, an innovation project formulator and advisor, and a lecturer at UNS. He is a member of the Peruvian College of Biologists and was recognized by the World Aquaculture Society (WAS) in 2016 for his contribution to aquaculture.
