News Releases

Dr. Allen Place honored with President's Award for Science Application

CAMBRIDGE, MD (May 9, 2012)— Dr. Allen Place, a professor and biochemist with the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, has been honored by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science with the President's Award for Science Application. Dr. Place was recognized for his biological research that takes diverse approaches to address many practical problems, from the causes of toxic algal blooms and ways they can be controlled to formulating sustainable foods used to cultivate fish in aquaculture.

Mysterious glow of plankton explained by recent study

In many areas, when the ocean water is disturbed at night, it sparkles with a spectacular blue light. It has long been known these flashes are caused by tiny plankton known as dinoflagellates. However, a new study has for the first time identified the potential mechanism for this glow.

Blue Crab Research May Help Chesapeake Bay Watermen Improve Soft Shell Harvest
Genome-based technique helps identify a virus lethal to blue crab

Baltimore, Md. (January 24, 2011) – A research effort designed to prevent the introduction of viruses to blue crabs in a research hatchery could end up helping Chesapeake Bay watermen improve their bottom line by reducing the number of soft shell crabs perishing before reaching the market. The findings, published in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, shows that the transmission of a crab-specific virus in diseased and dying crabs likely occurs after the pre-molt (or ‘peeler’) crabs are removed from the wild and placed in soft-shell production facilities.