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ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE SPRING 2002 MEETING

9-11 MAY 2002
BAR HARBOR, MAINE

MEETING SITE:

The Spring 2002 NEERS meeting will be held in Bar Harbor, Maine, located on Mount Desert Island and home of Acadia National Park. Mount Desert Island is known for its breathtaking beauty and interesting geologic and natural history. Sculpted by glacial abrasion during the Wisconsin glaciation, the island’s landscape is a series of U-shaped valleys and round-topped ridges running in a north-south direction. The juxtaposition of shoreline and mountains and the convergence of boreal and temperate life zones result in a rich diversity of flora and fauna. Acadia National Park occupies over half of the island. Hiking trails, carriage roads, and paved roads provide access to the park’s spectacular vistas and variety of ecosystems, including rocky shore, tide pools, estuaries, spruce-fir and hardwood forests, freshwater wetlands, streams, and alpine summits. Bike, canoe, and sea-kayak rentals are available from local outfitters. Cultural points of interest include the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, dedicated to Maine’s Native American history, arts, and archaeology, and the Bass Harbor Head Light House. Find out much more about the area from the web sites for Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.

ACCOMMODATIONS:

All accommodations, meals, and meeting events except the Friday evening Awards Banquet and Festivities will be at Atlantic Oakes By-The-Sea, on Rt. 3 in Bar Harbor, ME. Formerly a private estate, the Atlantic Oakes is now a family-owned and operated resort and conference center. Amenities include an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, and a pebble beach (in order of increasing bravery of participants), tennis courts, spacious meeting rooms, and ocean views from all rooms. The Atlantic Oakes is a short drive or a 20-minute walk to downtown Bar Harbor, and is within minutes of Acadia National Park’s Visitor’s Center, scenic drives, and wilderness trails. A block of rooms for NEERS participants will be held until Friday, APRIL 12. Each room contains either 1 king or 2 double beds. Room rates are $69.00 per night (plus 7% tax) single or double occupancy. Additional occupants (beyond two) are $10.00 each per night (plus tax), up to a maximum of 4 people per room. Children under 5 are free. Please make your reservations directly with the Atlantic Oakes at 1-800-33-MAINE (1-800-336-2463) or 207-288-5801 and identify yourself as attending the NEERS meeting. Find out more about the Atlantic Oakes from the web site www.barharbor.com.

THURSDAY SYMPOSIUM:
Marine Invertebrate Diversity Initiative—An Interactive, Web-based Tool for Marine Conservation, Planning and Education in the 21^st Century

A symposium on the Marine Invertebrate Diversity Initiative (MIDI) will be hosted by MIDI and Peter Larson (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences) on May 9^th, 1:00-5:00 p.m., at the Atlantic Oakes Conference Center in Bar Harbor. MIDI is a collaborative tool for assembling information on marine invertebrate taxonomy, habitats, geographic location, scientific reference, and contact persons into an interactive on-line database system. The intent of MIDI is to engage people from all sectors (students, scientists, traditional resource users, industry, etc.) in understanding and protecting ocean biodiversity. MIDI is designed to document and map knowledge of marine invertebrates of the Gulf of Maine, Scotian Shelf, and Bay of Fundy. As an internet resource with the most complete and comprehensive assemblage of marine invertebrate information for the region, MIDI is an essential tool for marine conservation, planning, and education. The workshop will include invited presentations focusing on applications of MIDI within the region (see detailed program), an on-line system demonstration, and ample time for discussion. Symposium registration is included in the NEERS meeting registration. MIDI progress to date can be viewed at www.fundyforum.com/MIDI. For more information contact Peter Larsen (207-633-9600).

SATURDAY MINI-SYMPOSIUM:
The Role of Protected Areas in Maintaining the Integrity of Coastal and Estuarine Ecosystems.

The National Park Service has a 125-year history of preserving and protecting natural and cultural resources for public enjoyment. In recent years, the use of protected areas as a conservation and management tool for marine resources has gained steady momentum. The NOAA Marine Protected Area (MPA) initiative has identified no fewer than 73 MPAs in New England’s coastal and estuarine waters or adjacent uplands. The Gulf of Maine Council envisions a series of coordinated sites to accelerate conservation and promote an ecosystem approach to management of the region’s marine resources. On Saturday, from 10:15-12:30, a special session will be devoted to Protected Areas in a near-coastal and estuarine framework. Invited speakers will offer planning, scientific, and resource management perspectives on MPAs (see detailed program) and will be followed by general discussion. For more information contact Blaine Kopp (207-622-8201 ext. 114).

POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS:

We will pre-load all presentations with computer-driven graphics onto one of our PC or Macintosh platforms. MS PowerPoint presentations will be supported. If you make use of unusual fonts, characters, or symbols, we highly recommend that you ?embed TrueType fonts? when saving your presentation (see your help menu for instructions). Presentations must be received by MAY 1 (May Day! May Day!). You may either email your presentation or send it on a zip disk or CD. You should, however, plan to bring a back-up CD to the meeting (and your own laptop – or overheads? – if you know Blaine well). Send your presentations to Blaine Kopp, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, 26 Ganneston Drive, Augusta, ME 04330 (bkopp@usgs.gov 207- 622-8201 x114). We will attempt to accommodate late submissions, but please contact Blaine to make arrangements.

POSTERS:

Posters can be set up in a dedicated room of the Atlantic Oakes Conference Center starting Thursday evening. Posters will be attached to boards mounted on easels or directly to the walls of the viewing area. Tacks and tape will be available. Posters will remain up throughout the meeting.

STUDENT PRIZES:

NEERS awards prizes to the best presentations in the following categories: graduate student oral presentation (Buck Ketchum Prize, $100), undergraduate student oral presentation (Stubby Rankin Prize, $100), graduate or undergraduate student poster presentation (David Dean Prize, $100). Papers and posters are judged by a committee in terms of overall effectiveness, scientific content, and quality of presentation. At this meeting there will be 15 students competing for the Ketchum Prize and 9 students competing for the Dean Prize. Students are encouraged to review the scoring criteria posted on the NEERS website. Previous winners are not eligible. NEERS will greatly appreciate contributions towards the endowment funds for these prizes.

STUDENT TRAVEL AWARD WINNERS:

Four students were selected by lottery to receive a $100 award each to help cover travel and lodging costs for this NEERS meeting. There were 13 applicants. Congratulations go to Cathy Bozek, Univ. of New Hampshire; Debra Davis, Univ. of Massachusetts-Dartmouth; Ray Konisky, Univ.of New Hampshire; and Deborah Rutecki, Boston Univ. Marine Program.

NEERS WELCOMING SOCIAL AND DINNER:

The traditional NEERS social will be held from 5:00-7:00 on Thursday, May 9, at the Atlantic Oakes, immediately following the MIDI Symposium. Enjoy beer, wine, non-alcoholic beverages, and hors d’oevres with your estuarine and coastal friends and colleagues. At 7:00 a buffet dinner for NEERS participants will be served at the Atlantic Oakes. The dinner will include a choice of pasta primavera (with or without sliced chicken breast) or baked fish entr?e, salad, bread, dessert, and coffee/tea/milk, for a cost of $20.00. This will be a catered event, so you must order Thursday’s dinner on the registration form to eat at the Atlantic Oakes that evening. Note that other options for dinner are limited – see OTHER MEALS below for more information.

BUSINESS MEETING:

The NEERS Business Meeting will take place at the Atlantic Oakes Conference Center on Friday, May 10, at 5:30 PM, after the last talk of the day. All meeting participants are invited to attend and participate in discussion, but you must be a NEERS member to vote on anything.

AWARDS BANQUET AND FESTIVITIES:

All Friday evening festivities will take place at the College of the Atlantic, which is next door to the Atlantic Oakes.

MICROBREW TASTING:

We will kick off the evening with a beer-tasting social hour from 6:00-7:00 p.m. (specific location to be announced). Mount Desert Island is home to several award-winning microbreweries. Standard and specialty ales will be provided by the Atlantic Brewing Company and the Bar Harbor Brewing Company. Non-alcoholic beverages will also be provided (including microbrewed root beer). The cost of the tasting is included in the banquet ticket.

BANQUET:

The banquet will be held from 7:00-9:00 p.m. immediately following the social. It will include a choice of chicken, seafood, or veggie entrees prepared barbecue style on the College patio. You must pre-register for the banquet to attend; please note your entrŽe selection on the registration form. The cost of the banquet will be $25.00. The Ketchum, Rankin, and Dean Prizes will be awarded at this time and all candidates for these awards will receive a free banquet ticket. Our donors have provided some fabulous door prizes. Names of door prize winners will be drawn at the banquet from all meeting registrants (winners do not have to be present).

CONTRA DANCE:

We will continue the evening with a Downeast Contra Dance in the College of the Atlantic’s Gates Center from 9:00-11:00 p.m. Music will be provided by Green Mountain Railway. The band derives their name from the cog railway that used to run up Cadillac Mountain, which was formerly called Green Mountain. They’ve secured an enthusiastic and energetic caller to guide us through the night. This promises to be a fantastic time – if you do not attend the banquet you can still attend the dance. Eyes will be on the lookout for the next winner of the NEERS Stickleback Award.

OTHER MEALS:

Friday lunch will be served to NEERS participants at the Atlantic Oakes conference site. The meal will consist of assorted wraps (ham & swiss, turkey & cheese, vegetable & hummus), pasta & potato salad, soup, beverage, and cookies for a price of $10.00. You must order Friday’s lunch on the pre-registration form to eat at the Atlantic Oakes. You may also order box lunches (meat or veggie sandwich plus accompaniments) for arrival Thursday and for taking on the field trip or for eating on the way home on Saturday for $8.00 each. We strongly recommend that you plan to eat all meals at the Atlantic Oakes. Most restaurants in Bar Harbor don’t open until the end of May, so alternative eateries will be few and far between (a couple of restaurants are open year-round in Bar Harbor; the closest town with standard fare is Ellsworth, which is a 20-minute drive away). Box lunches ordered for Thursday will be available at noon at the Atlantic Oakes. The Atlantic Oakes restaurant will be open for breakfast from 6:30-10:00 a.m. every day. Breakfast is the only meal at the Atlantic Oakes for which you do not need to pre-register.

SOMES SOUND FIELD TRIP:

A boat tour of Somes Sound will be offered Saturday, May 11, 1:30-4:00 p.m., led by a National Park Service naturalist. Touted as the only fjord-type estuary on the east coast, Somes Sound is a drowned, glacially-carved valley that nearly divides Mt. Desert Island in two. It is about 8-km long and a maximum of 1-km wide, bordered by steep mountains on each side, with a shallow sill at the mouth. In the 19^th century, ships sailed right up to the sound’s western shore to collect fresh water from a brook that cascades into the estuary. Deep basins from 40-50 m occur throughout the sound, whereas the depth of the sill is 10-12 m. We should be able to see ospreys along with an assortment of waterbirds, and perhaps a bald eagle. We’ll car-pool/convoy from the Atlantic Oakes to meet the boat in Northeast Harbor on the south side of Mt. Desert Island, which is about a 20-minute drive. This field trip is a bargain at a cost of $10.00, or $5.00 for students. Pre-registration for the field trip is required, and a minimum of 15 participants is needed to run the trip.

REGISTRATION:

Pre-registration for this meeting (including the Thursday MIDI Symposium) is $25.00 for members, $15.00 for students, and $35.00 for non-members. The Pre-registration deadline is WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24. You can pre-register on the web at www.neers.org (select “meetings”, then “spring 2002 meeting”) and follow that with a check made out to “NEERS” and mailed to NEERS Treasurer David Burdick, Jackson Estuarine Laboratory, 85 Adams Point Road, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824; alternatively, you can mail your registration to Dave to be received by the deadline. On-site registration is $35.00 for members, $20.00 for students, and $45.00 for non-members. The NEERS registration desk will be open on Thursday from 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m., that evening from 5:00-7:00 p.m., and on Friday morning from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon at the Atlantic Oakes. You can also pay your NEERS dues for 2002 ($15 for regular, $5 for student membership). It is a huge help to the organizing committee to know how many people will attend, so please pre-register! And a reminder, you must pre-register for any meals (except breakfast) you plan to eat at the Atlantic Oakes.

GETTING THERE:

From the South: I-95 North to Bangor, Exit 45A. Take I-395 East about 4.5 miles to US-1A East. Follow US-1A about 22 miles to Ellsworth, where it becomes US-1/ME-3. Keep going straight through Ellsworth to get onto ME-3. Follow ME-3 about 8 miles to Mt. Desert Island. Continue on ME-3 over the causeway onto Mt. Desert Island. Within half a mile, veer left at a ?Y? intersection to stay on ME-3 toward Bar Harbor. Follow ME-3 about 8.5 miles to the Atlantic Oakes on the left, just past the Ferry Terminal. Enter the driveway and follow the sign to the Conference Center.

A more scenic, coastal route from the south is a bit shorter in distance, but often longer in travel time: Get off I-95 North at Augusta, Exit 30A. Follow US-202 East a couple of miles through Augusta and over the Kennebec River—Rt. 202 goes through a rotary on each side of the Kennebec, so be careful to follow the signs for Belfast. Half a mile past the east side rotary, turn right onto ME-3. Follow ME-3 about 45 miles to Belfast. Pick up US-1 in Belfast, and follow about 38 miles to Ellsworth. Turn right onto ME-3 in Ellsworth, then proceed as directed above.

From the Canadian Maritime provinces: Unfortunately, ferry service to Bar Harbor does not begin until May 23^rd. Enter the US at Calais, ME. Follow US-1 about 7 miles. Just past Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge turn left onto ME-9. Follow ME-9 about 77 miles to East Eddington. Turn left onto ME-46 and follow for about 4.5 miles to East Holden. Turn left onto US-1A and follow to Ellsworth, where it becomes US-1/ME-3, then proceed as directed above.

QUESTIONS?

For general questions, contact Hilary Neckles, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, 26 Ganneston Drive, Augusta, ME 04330 (207-622-8205 ext. 119). For questions regarding the Thursday Workshop on the Marine Invertebrate Diversity Initiative, contact Peter Larsen, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, West Boothbay Harbor, ME 04575 (207-633-9600). For questions regarding the Saturday Mini-Symposium on Protected Areas, contact Blaine Kopp, USGS PWRC, 26 Ganneston Drive, Augusta, ME 04330 (207-622-8201 ext. 114). Questions concerning presentations, abstracts, or other program concerns should be addressed to NEERS Program Chairperson Pat Kremer, Department of Marine Sciences, UCONN Avery Point, 1080 Shennecossett Road, Groton, CT 06340 (860- 405-9140).

ATTENTION:

The fall meeting of NEERS will be held jointly with the Long Island Sound Research Conference, October 24-26, 2002 at the Avery Point Campus of the University of Connecticut. Save the date!

NEERS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:

Linda Deegan, President & ERF Representative
David Burdick, Treasurer
Pamela Morgan, Secretary & ERF Correspondent
Marshall Pregnall, President Elect
R. Scott Warren, Past President
Robert Buchsbaum, Member-at-Large
Nancy O’Connor, Member-at-Large
Alan Young, Historian
Patricia Kremer, Program Chairperson