ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine Aquaculture Research Institute will host a series of tours of its research facilities in Walpole, Franklin and Orono next week.
Tours and activities will be held at each site at 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 23, and again in a daylong research showcase in Orono on Friday, Aug. 24.
A tour of the Darling Marine Center in Walpole, including the UMaine shellfish hatchery, broodstock conditioning room and a temperature-controlled room, is scheduled for Aug. 23.
At the Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Franklin, tours will take visitors through facilities where researchers study cold-water marine fish, tropical marine fish and a variety of invertebrates.
In Orono, research institute staff will conduct a teacher workshop in aquaponics, the symbiotic cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a recirculating environment. The hands-on workshop will provide teachers with ideas about how they can use aquaponics in their classrooms.
The institute will host a research showcase on Aug. 24 at Wells Conference Center to highlight the institute’s latest research and findings, including urchin culture, seaweed production on mussel farms, the effect of ocean acidification on lobster larvae, the effects of high-pressure processing on abalone meat, aquaculture and the lobster industry and more.
Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, will speak at 9:10 a.m.
The events are free and open to the public. For information, visit www.umaine.edu/aquaculture.