UMass Celebrates Extensive Renovation at Gloucester Marine Station
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The University of Massachusetts Amherst recently celebrated the completion of $4.4 million in capital improvements transforming its Gloucester Marine Station, located on Massachusetts’ North Shore, the birthplace of commercial fishing in the United States, into a modern, resilient marine science hub ready to support and expand field-based learning, cutting-edge research, and coastal-resilience innovation with a more seamless “lab-to-ocean” experience.
The project redeveloped 17,000 square feet to create an immersive outdoor research space that includes the second Living Seawall in North America, transforming the concrete panels into an ecological asset and living laboratory, enabling interdisciplinary and intra-campus collaborations. The project also included outdoor research, training, and education areas, as well as a new dock and crane system.
The outdoor research area will be known as the Ann-Margaret Ferrante Living Lab for Marine Science and Education, named in honor of the late state representative who was a strong advocate for the area and helped facilitate, along with State Sen. Bruce Tarr, funding for the project, which was split between the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech)'s Collaborative Science and Tech Research and Development Matching Grant Fund and UMass Amherst.
“Massachusetts is home to some of the best researchers, students, and innovators in the world, and this investment gives them another incredible place to learn, discover, and solve problems,” said Governor Maura Healey. “The Gloucester Marine Station will help strengthen our coastal communities and economy, while honoring Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante's extraordinary legacy of service and leadership.”
“As the former mayor of a coastal community, I know how important our coastlines are for revitalizing communities,” said Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. “This new project will support cutting-edge research, hands-on student learning, workforce development, and innovative solutions to the challenges facing our coastal communities. I’m proud to celebrate this ribbon cutting, especially as we dedicate the space to the late Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante.”
The Ferrante Living Lab will support the Gloucester Marine Station’s five-year mission, under Director Katie Kahl, to meet one of the region’s most pressing challenges: building the regional resilience that will allow the coastal ecosystem, economy, and communities to weather the warming waters and intensifying coastal storm impacts of climate change.
“There is no better partner for the state in its economic development efforts than the University of Massachusetts, and I am grateful to all those who have supported this investment at the Gloucester Marine Station, especially Governor Healey and Lt. Governor Driscoll, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, and the late Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante,” said UMass President Marty Meehan. “Representative Ferrante understood that research builds communities, creates jobs, strengthens industries, and keeps Massachusetts at the leading edge. She also understood something even more profound: that behind every grant and every study are real people whose lives can be changed or saved by what we discover. I’m so proud the university is honoring her in this way.”
Perched along the southern edge of the Gulf of Maine, an expansive, semi-enclosed sea stretching across 36,000 square miles where the North Atlantic’s waters mix with the flow of more than 50 rivers, the Gloucester Marine Station looks out over one of the richest marine ecosystems on Earth, home to more than 3,000 species.
Founded in 1967, the Gloucester Marine Station has long been at the forefront of science education, marrying academic research and hands-on education with the needs of the local fishing economy, the North Atlantic’s unique ecosystem, and vibrant local communities. The funding, which allowed for the installation of the Living Seawall, a new dock and crane, and concrete repairs, creates a strong foundation with which the Marine Station can help the commonwealth confront the realities of a warming world.
“The work happening at the Gloucester Marine Station is a perfect example of UMass working closely with and for the community and for the Common Good,” said UMass Amherst Chancellor Javier A. Reyes. “Through initiatives on seafood security and nutrition, new efforts in climate-tech and community-based fisheries research, the students, staff, and faculty at the Marine Station are partnering with the community and state and federal agencies to help build coastal resiliency, protect marine ecology, promote sustainable fisheries and seafood, and forging a resilient Future of Food.”
“The Gloucester Station is a key asset to our UMass faculty and students and to Massachusetts—providing research and teaching opportunities in focal areas such as the blue economy, climate resilience, marine ecology, and sustainable fisheries,” said UMass Board of Trustees Vice Chair Mary Burns. “We’re proud of the work that UMass does to provide critical research support to the state’s economic development efforts and our industry partners in business, government, and academia.”
“The Gloucester Marine Station is a key resource enabling world-leading experts at UMass Amherst to tackle complex problems for the North Shore, Massachusetts, and the Common Good,” said Mike Fox, Dean of the College of Natural Sciences. “Because our coasts are changing here in Massachusetts and across the globe, we are working to advance science that explores coastal change and marine resilience, investigates the impact on these changes on our blue economy and coastal communities, and trains the next generation of scientists whose work will protect our coastlines and fisheries for generations to come.”
The Marine Station is also a valued partner in the North Shore Seafood is Medicine Collaborative, a pilot program grounded in partnership with local fishermen, community leadership, and Tufts University that offers healthy, culturally relevant meal kits featuring local seafood and locally grown produce. The Open Door, a Gloucester-based social services organization, delivers the kits to local families.
This story was originally published by the UMass News Office.