Author: Judy Benson

All ages turn out for second annual Thames River Quest

About 100 people participated in the Thames River Quest on June 1, enjoying free water taxi rides between Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park and Thames Street in Groton and the Downtown Waterfront Park and Fort Trumbull State Park in New London, where each of the four legs of the treasure-hunt style educational hike were located.

NOAA’s Milford lab provides key ingredient for shellfish farms

“The Milford lab,” as it is known in the shellfish industry, is a main supplier of algae to shellfish farmers along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts – and even worldwide. NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center has supplied algae free of charge to shellfish farms for more than five decades, drawing from collection of 230 strains, among them those that are most important for young oysters and clams.

Public hears of LIS Blue Plan impacts on new, current users

Commercial clammer Rosemary Louden asked how the Long Island Sound Blue Plan would impact the business that’s been in her husband Jay’s family for the past 100 years. At the May 14 public meeting on the plan, she learned that the historic Louden commercial shellfish beds in Greenwich are considered “significant human use areas” that would gain protection from any proposals that would impact them.

Students savored opportunity of ocean sciences contest

Learning marine biology, physics, chemistry and other sciences may have started in the classroom for these teenagers, but their recent opportunities to showcase what they know in a regional then a national competition gave them a whole new level of enthusiasm for the world of oceanography.