Gulf of Maine Research Institute nears completion

PORTLAND – The $12 million Gulf of Maine Research Institute on the city waterfront is nearing completion, and the 13 scientists already enlisted for the institute hope to begin their work in the 40,000-sqare-foot complex next month.

The institute formerly known as the Gulf of Maine Aquarium features both research laboratories and classrooms since it was designed for a hybrid of marine research and education.

The dual goals of doing science and explaining it to students take the group into uncharted waters, said Donald Perkins, the institute’s president.

“There’s not a research lab in the country that has figured out how to bring the public in and engage them in research,” he said.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s new building on Commercial Street has the unmistakable feel of an elementary school on the first floor. A low coat rack and 3-foot-high window were all designed with small people in mind.

Upstairs, where the space is portioned into a honeycomb of laboratories and offices, the building seems like a place built for serious research.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute receives funding from state, federal and private sources and has its roots in a seasonal, floating aquarium that was a fixture of the Portland waterfront in the 1970s. The group evolved into an institution dedicated to creating a neutral forum for discussing fisheries issues, as well as a center for marine research and education.

The institute employs 13 scientists involved in numerous research projects in the Gulf of Maine with practical applications for the fishing industry.

Recent projects include a large-scale study of cod migration, a study of juvenile groundfish habitat, and an attempt to determine the effect of herring bait on lobster growth. The scientific staff will grow to about 50 with the new laboratories, Perkins said.

At the same time, the institute has plans to engage elementary students in marine science by creating an extensive curriculum for teachers and a sort of virtual-laboratory designed for elementary pupils.

Students won’t get wet in the high-tech lab, but they will have a chance to simulate the work of marine researchers at electronic learning stations.

“We’re essentially extracting small research questions out of what’s going on in the lab and trying to engage students in those,” Perkins said.

The institute’s educational goals include inviting every elementary school in the state to send its fifth- or sixth-grade pupils to the center for a day, at no cost to the schools.

Perkins said this would cost $700,000 a year. On Thursday, the group announced Central Maine Power had pledged $250,000 toward this effort.

Perkins said the new facility is already paying off in terms of helping the group recruit top notch scientists. Earlier this year, the Institute hired John Annala, the former chief scientist for the New Zealand ministry of fisheries, to be its new director.

Annala has done scientific research on New Zealand rock lobsters and groundfish in the past but more recently his focus has been the intersection of fisheries science and policy.