Academic Affairs. Dean, College Of Natural Sciences, Forestry, And Agriculture. Darling Marine Center (University Of Maine) Records

The University of Maine had a limited marine biology center at Lamoine from 1933 to 1942, but in 1965 the purpose built Ira C. Darling Center for Research Teaching and Service was established with support from the estate of the Ira C. Darling who provided the location at Walpole on the Damariscotta River. Darling was an insurance executive. Dr. David Dean was named the first director of the Center in November 1965. The Center housed the University of Maine’s Marine Laboratory, the Graduate School’s Department of Oceanography, the Marine Specialist of the University’s Cooperative Extension Service, and part of the University’s Sea Grant Program.

The Ira C. Darling Center for Research Teaching and Service now commonly referred to as the Darling Marine Center or DMC is closely associated with the University’s School of Marine Sciences (SMS) which has a history of offering both undergraduate and graduate programs in Marine Science. The Center has resident faculty and the focal research themes include aquaculture and marine fisheries; biogeochemistry and microbial ecology; conservation science and policy; invertebrate biology and biodiversity; marine archeology; and remote sensing, phytoplankton ecology, and ocean optics.

In addition to being used by University of Maine researchers and students DMC is used by visitors from Maine and beyond. Primarily the Center is used to research a wide range of terrestrial, coastal marine, and estuarine themes. The DMC is one of the core research sites for the NSF-funded SEANET program, and also contributes to other marine monitoring networks. The DMC also is home to the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence – Ocean Systems. COSEE-Ocean Systems (OS) was established to improve COSEE’s impact on rural and inland communities by creating tools that broaden understanding of the oceans, and is a Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) which is funded by the National Science Foundation.

One of DMC’s previous grant funded projects was work assessing the affects the construction of Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company’s power station in the Montsweag Bay, Back River area of Wiscasset, Maine would have on water flow patterns. The Plant was in operation from 1972-1996.

The National Sea Grant Program was established in 1966 with the signing of the Pell-Rogers Sea Grant Colleges and Program Act. The Program is a partnership between academic institutions and the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (formerly administered by the Office of Sea Grant). In 1971, the University of Maine’s Darling Center received its first award from National Sea Grant Program which was entitled “Culture of Resources in a Cold Water Marine Environment”. Sea Grant funds supported the sea-water system in the lab at the Darling Center. In the early 1970’s, the University of Maine’s Sea Grant Program became a cooperative with the University of New Hampshire. The two states had previously formed the Bi-State Commission on Oceanography (1966-1967) which had looked at the potential economic value of oceanography in Maine and New Hampshire. David Dean. Director of the Ira C. Darling Center was a member of the project commission. The project was funded by the two respective state governments. In 1980, the Maine-New Hampshire Sea Grant Program became the first bi-state program in the country.

The University of Maine’s Marine Advisory Service was established in 1973 in response to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recommendations for a system for information transfer as part of its total functions. NOAA assigned Sea Grant responsibility for leading and coordinating the Marine Advisory Service. Paul Ring, the first marine extension specialist in Maine, was based at the Darling Center and worked on recreation and coastal zone planning. In 1974, Mark Richmond joined the Advisory Service as an aquaculture technician, part of a network of cooperators in other marine-related organizations and institutions in Maine, including Cooperative Extension, College of the Atlantic, Department of Marine Resources, Maine Maritime Academy, Marine Trades Center in Eastport, and the Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute in Portland. Early extension activities included fishing business management workshops, courses in fishing safety that earned the Marine Advisory Program a Public Service Commendation from the US Coast Guard in 1983, and local clam flat management. Several marine extensions specialists were hired in the following decades. In 1999, interim extension leader Ron Beard helped create the memorandum of understanding between Sea Grant and Cooperative Extension that created the current Marine Extension Team.