Virtual Speaker Series: Lobster Fisheries of the World with Dr. Richard Wahle

Dr. Richard Wahle will share thoughts and knowledge on the diversity of lobster fisheries around the world. He will weave in some of the colorful personalities – scientists, fishermen, students and policy makers , he has worked with and learned from over more than four decades of research.  He’ll cover some of the challenges these fisheries share in common in rapidly changing ecosystems and an increasingly global economy.

Rick Wahle is a retired professor of marine sciences at the University of Maine. He served on the faculty from 2009 based at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole, and in his last five years was also director of the university’s Lobster Institute; he retired in 2023. Prior to UMaine, he spent 15 years as a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. Working at the intersection of marine ecology, oceanography, and fisheries science, his research and teaching took him around the world. In Maine, he established a long-running research program focused on the American lobster. His lab served as the hub for the American Lobster Settlement Index, a U.S.–Canadian monitoring program that since 1989 has tracked larval settlement as an early predictor of fishery trends. Through the Lobster Institute, he promoted research and communication to support a sustainable and profitable lobster fishery.

Thursday evening from 7:00 to 8:00 PM EST. The Series is free and open to the public.