Lab News

Cammen Lab PhD student, Christina McCosker, was featured in this month’s UMaine ARCSIM newsletter.  ARCSIM is the Advanced Research Computing, Security & Information Management CORE service at the University of Maine.  This service center helps connect our lab group with the powerful computing resources and staff expertise that we need to conduct our genomic data analysis.  To learn more about this, check out the article on Christina’s research: https://umaine.edu/arcsim/2023/04/24/leveraging-data-to-understand-gray-seal-health/

Dr. Kristina Cammen presented a talk as part of the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions seminar series on September 26.  The talk, entitled “Out of Our Depth: Interdisciplinary science for marine mammal conservation,” told two stories: one story followed the seals from a history of exploitation to present day protection and recovery; the second story told Kristina’s professional path. With an emphasis on integrating diverse fields of science and ways of knowing, Kristina shared her personal journey towards interdisciplinary science for marine mammal conservation and the promising impact she sees for this type of work in the field.

A summary of Kristina’s talk can be reviewed in this article by Maine Campus Media.   You can also watch the recorded talk here.

We are excited to announce two recent publications resulting from our long-term spatiotemporal analysis of marine mammal strandings in the Gulf of Maine. This research represents a collaboration between the University of Maine and members of the Greater Atlantic Region marine mammal stranding network, including Marine Mammals of Maine and Allied Whale. From the Cammen lab, Holland Haverkamp and Emma Newcomb both played leadership role in the analysis, and were supported by many other Cammen Lab undergraduate research assistants.  To learn more, check out our new pubs!

Haverkamp et al. (2022) A retrospective socio-ecological analysis of seal strandings in the Gulf of Maine. Marine Mammal Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12975

Newcomb et al. (2021) Breaking down “harassment” to characterize trends in human interaction cases in Maine’s pinnipeds. Conservation Science and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.518