Search

Jun 10, 2025

GAC 2024

*   Site Map

* https://www.penbay.org/baytowns/searsport/gac_2025/hw/gac_2024_030.pdf

* https://www.penbay.org/baytowns/searsport/gac_2025/hw/gac_2024_083024_sos_cec_corp_summary_3pgs.pdf

* https://www.penbay.org/baytowns/searsport/gac_2025/hw/gac_2024_dep_062524_.pdf

* https://www.penbay.org/baytowns/searsport/gac_2025/hw/gac_2024_gac_083024_pbr_signed_app_2pgs.pdf

* https://www.penbay.org/baytowns/searsport/gac_2025/hw/gac_2024_gac_2014_1_cvr_2pg.pdf

* https://www.penbay.org/baytowns/searsport/gac_2025/hw/gac_2024_gac_2014_2_102814_location_map.pdf

* https://www.penbay.org/baytowns/searsport/gac_2025/hw/gac_2024_gac_2014_3_pbr_app_052814_3pgs_.pdf

* https://www.penbay.org/baytowns/searsport/gac_2025/hw/gac_2024_gac_mdep_correspondence_1.pdf

* https://www.penbay.org/baytowns/searsport/gac_2025/hw/gac_2024_hayley_ward_dep_083024_2pgs.pdf

* https://www.penbay.org/baytowns/searsport/gac_2025/hw/gac_2024_hayley_ward_pbr_area_map.pdf

* https://www.penbay.org/baytowns/searsport/gac_2025/hw/gac_2024_mdep_060524_nick_hodgkins_john_pond_haleyward_2pg_.pdf

* https://www.penbay.org/baytowns/searsport/gac_2025/hw/gac_2024_photo_re_remediation_site_2024_2pgs_.pdf






















Jun 7, 2025

Belfast Marine Institute Article June 5, 2025 Midcoast Villager

  

WATERFRONT

The Floating Classroom

At Belfast Area High School, students get their feet wet — literally — exploring local marine ecosystems and careers.

SCUBA.png

Students involved with the Belfast Marine Institute receive SCUBA training. Teacher Chip Lagerbom, foreground, captains their boat. 

BELFAST — They've seeded a kelp farm, built a high-tech buoy sensor array, and scuba dived to retrieve the bones from a minke whale carcass on the sea floor.

They're not marine biologists, but local students with the Belfast Marine Institute, part of the curriculum at Belfast Area High School. 

Operating the ROV.png

Students from the Belfast Marine Institute operate one of the program's ROVs. 

Call it innovative, alternative, progressive or simply programmatic workforce training, BMI offers students unique opportunities to explore both Maine's marine ecosystems and potential careers in its heritage waterfront economy.

“It’s really different from traditional school,” says Belfast senior Lucas Newsome, who in engineering class last year helped assemble, test, and deploy the sensor-packed buoy for the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition.

"I like to build stuff," he said. "I don’t think you can do something like that anywhere else."

Harbor Sensor

Belfast Area High School teacher Chip Lagerbom shows a sensor that was constructed and placed in Belfast Harbor by students in Belfast Marine Institute. 

BMI isn’t a science, math or history class. It’s not a field trip, internship or apprenticeship — it's all those combined.

“We call it a floating classroom,” said Chip Lagerbom, a teacher at BAHS and one of several educators responsible for the conception and evolution of BMI. “It’s a multi-disciplinary program and rings the bell in so many ways. You name the field, and we can tie [instruction] to it.”

Belfast Marine Institute, at its core, is the study of the marine environment. It was developed nearly 20 years ago by Lagerbom and Dave Thomas, who decided to co-teach the marine science course after he retired from daily teaching. With that pairing, BMI was conceived.

“Some of the other teachers saw what we were doing and wanted to get involved,” Thomas said.

Shipwreck3.png

Students involved with the Belfast Marine Institute map a shipwreck on the Passagassawakeag River. 

Lagerbom said he and Thomas asked fellow educators to introduce something marine-related into their curriculum to assist with the BMI mission. Over time, more and more Belfast High educators tied at least some of their curriculum to a marine-related subject.

“We found it was a great mesh,” Lagerbom said. “The marine approach can appeal to any kid, with any interest — at any level.”

Then, in 2021, the program grew to a new level.

After winning a grant from the National Science Foundation, BMI was able to purchase a wet lab, lines, anchors, and training programs to seed and manage a kelp farm. Over the past five years the group has deployed more grant funding to purchase a pair of underwater remotely operated vehicles and a 21-foot skiff named Sea Lion.

"For students who live along the coast," Lagerbom said, "they get to not only see, but experience and participate in career opportunities available right here in Maine.”

Currently, BMI is managing a small sugar kelp farm operation in Belfast Bay. The kelp they produce is food grade and students learn not just to grow it, but about processing, marketing and selling their product.

They learn to dry and process the kelp, which can be used in food processing for seasoning, thickening and nutritional supplementation — and is gaining popularity as a snack food unto itself.

“If we get to the point where we can produce over 10 tons, and I think we can, then a vendor will buy it," Lagerbom said.

He also dreams of a day when BMI sugar kelp can sold widely in the community.

“I’d like to take some of this kelp and introduce it to the local restaurant community,” he said. “How cool would that be — to become part of the menu at one of these places? I think that’s one of our next connections."

KelpLighting.jpg

Belfast High School teacher Chip Lagerbom helps a student process sugar kelp that was harvested by the Belfast Marine Institute. 

And BMI has connections. Partnerships, past and present, include the National Science Foundation, the University of Maine, Maine STEM, the Rise Foundation, and Belfast Harbormaster Kathy Given. 

“We’ve found that everyone we approach in the community is very helpful, very accommodating,” Lagerbom said. 

The program's objectives are ambitious and far-reaching: Preparing students to be stewards of the Penobscot Bay Watershed; introducing students to potential marine-related scientific and technological careers; helping to identify and solve coastal issues through student-led research; developing appreciation and awareness of marine resources; and creating opportunities for students to participate in scientific data collection and sampling.

The program combines traditional classroom learning with real-world, hands-on, career-related experience on the ocean.

“We’ve figured out this is an entirely new pathway for some kids who don’t fit into the traditional model of learning,” Lagerbom said. “It also gets them out from behind their desks and — literally — get their feet wet.”

Survival Suit Training

Students involved with the Belfast Marine Institute at Belfast Area High School undergo survival suit training in the school's pool. 

BMI students receive training in water safety in the pool at Belfast Area High School and some get scuba training.

Both were necessary last summer when the group dove on — and collected — the bones of a deceased minke whale from the harbor in Belfast. The group obtained permission from Given, the harbormaster, and the University of Maine to collect the bones for research, a process that is ongoing.

Some students have oriented their education around BMI. 

“I came to [Belfast] because of the Marine Institute,” said senior Felix Duggan, who attended the Maine Ocean School in Searsport, an experimental magnate school, until it closed a few years ago. “There are so many options, and they have some really intelligent people working with the group.”

ROVtrial172020e.png

Photo of a crab taken by one of Belfast Marine Institute's remotely operated vehicles. The program used grant funding to purchase the ROV. 

Some students, like senior Triston Hughes, say they are pursuing marine-related higher education thanks to the "solid base" of experience he thinks BMI gave him.

In addition to using their buoy to test water quality for the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition, BMI has set up a weather station for the Belfast harbormaster. Students have also mapped out areas of Belfast that are prone to flooding. And they're currently performing sediment and wave calculations regarding the Belfast breakwater.

“Projects come from all over — they just fall into our laps,” said Lagerbom, smiling. “The students aren’t just gaining marine and literacy skills; they’re also helping the community.”

One major area of increasing focus is aquaculture, which Maine leaders view as a strategically vital industry to promote economic growth, environmental sustainability, and community resilience.

“Aquaculture represents a promising opportunity to create new jobs, strengthen and diversify our economy, and expand Maine’s reputation as a premier destination for seafood,” Gov. Janet Mills said during a roundtable with sea farmers earlier this year.

Lagerbom said the group is exploring potential aquaculture projects relating to eel grass, sea slugs, urchins and scallops.

And teachers seem to be having as much fun as their students.

“There’s just this great energy around BMI,” said Lagerbom. “I’m in the final arc of my teaching career and this has really rejuvenated me.”