When most people hear Greenland in 2026, they think about geopolitics. As a graduate student studying global policy, I used to think that way too. However, I gradually realized that while the Arctic was receiving unprecedented international attention, the people who call it home were becoming increasingly absent from the conversation. That realization ultimately led […]
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I didn’t find my way into the marine industry through a classroom. I grew up in a small boatyard on the marsh of the Royal River as the daughter of a boat builder. Early on, I came to understand the rhythms of working waterfronts and the people who depend on them. I grew up listening […]
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My name is Melisa Uyar and I am currently a PhD student in Ecology and Environmental Science at UMaine. When I arrived at UMaine originally as a M.S. Economics student, my early coursework and research led me to applied projects exploring consumers and seafood. This was my first exposure to marine resource economics (if we […]
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Growing up in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, I was basically a city kid who needed the ocean to breathe in every vacation. Every chance I got, I traveled, and the coastal trips were always the closest to me. Nothing captured me quite like Cox’s Bazar, the longest natural sea beach in the world. Standing […]
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My family left Broad Channel years ago though the imprint of the community and my childhood lingers. The island is where I first squished my toes in dark, sticky marshland mud and inhaled the pungent perfume of low tide in view of the glowing lights of the Empire State Building. Once a year, I make […]
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“Dear Anna, Congratulations! On behalf of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs…” were the first words I read with half-asleep eyes, from the email sent at 2 in the morning, Philippine time. The Young Southeast Asian Leadership Program was a program revered by my peers; competition was high, especially for […]
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Always a child who would rather be outside than anywhere else, it was on the cliffs of Acadia on a ranger-led tide pooling walk that I decided I wanted to be a marine biologist. My dreams shifted many times after that, but the path found me again when I entered Northeastern University as part of […]
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I’ve always loved the ocean since I was a little kid. Though I grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., my earliest memories are of my parents taking me tidepooling in Northern California and watching the sea otters play at Monterey Bay Aquarium. I’ve always been captivated by the exotic and mysterious forms that […]
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“You’ve got Maine on the brain,” my father used to tell me. Growing up in Memphis, TN, I often found my thoughts drifting far beyond my urban hometown, captivated by the idea of Maine’s sweeping landscapes and vast beauty. Growing up in the bustling city streets of Memphis cultivated my passion for human connection and […]
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I’m Dylan, a high school student based in San Diego, California. This spring I got to turn my passion for the ocean into hands-on experience at the University of Maine’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research (CCAR). During the month of May, I worked as a student intern, shadowing CCAR’s Aquaculture Research and Education Program Coordinator […]
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