UNE’s Own Research Island
Ram Island, our own private one-acre living laboratory right in Saco Bay, and its surrounding waters are home to songbirds, harbor seals, and various intertidal flora and fauna. In addition to a network of sentinel sites, an observatory, and a small student-centered laboratory, UNE is a steward of Ram Island, working to understand and document its terrestrial, intertidal, and subtidal ecosystems.
Teaching on Ram Island
Hands-on, experiential learning is an essential part of UNE’s approach to the marine sciences, and Ram Island allows us to further elevate our field trip programs and provide a living laboratory to assess, monitor, and model. A variety of marine science courses ranging from population ecology to animal behavior conduct lab activities there.
Ram Island brings the opportunity to observe an ecosystem relatively untouched by humans, something that is rare to find in this day and age. This small island gives us a snapshot of how things could have been, while also helping us to predict what is coming in the future.”
— Cloey Parlapiano ‘25
Utilizing Ram Island for Research
Our marine research programs encompass a variety of projects and faculty labs, all of which utilize Ram Island and its adjacent ecosystems. For our research partnerships that focus on the top-priority issues of Saco Bay, Ram Island is home to coastal zone investigations of climate change, marine geology, invasive species, marine mammal ecology, and interactions with fisheries and marine aquaculture.
