Whether you’re watching a sparkly ball descend in Time’s Square or this much cooler capture of the R/V Clarice being lowered into the Harraseeket River on December 16: the team at Bigelow Laboratory wishes you a joyful start to 2026!
Many thanks to Research Scientist Dave Ernst for filming the moment in South Freeport, which we’ve sped up slightly for dramatic effect.
You might be wondering: why is the Clarice on the move this season? In a nutshell: sampling in Casco Bay during the winter is complicated!
During warmer months, our researchers typically transit directly from our campus in East Boothbay, which takes over an hour each way. The unpredictable winter seas make this journey much more difficult for a smaller vessel like the R/V Clarice.
To continue our larval sampling on Bangs Island Mussels aquaculture leases in Casco Bay, our team needed to reposition the Clarice into the Harraseeket River at Brewer South Freeport Marine, which is much closer to the sampling locations. The vessel will remain docked at a slip there for the next few months, allowing the team to sample throughout the winter.
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays ocean science!
