Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability

Education
B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, 2015
B.S. Marine Biology and Environmental Science, University of New England, Biddeford, 2012

 
Bio
Marissa Hammond Decosta is a fisheries science and leadership advisor at the Penobscot East Resource Center in Stonington, ME.

She grew up in Wiscasset, Maine, and has had a personal stake in commercial fisheries throughout her life. Her father is a lobsterman and Marissa sterned for him for 13 years before she found her way to MSU. Marissa’s curiosity about the future of economically valuable fisheries grew as she learned more about the predicted impacts of climate change.

In spring 2012, Marissa graduated from the University of New England with a B.S. in Marine Biology and Environmental Science. During her time at UNE she volunteered and interned at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. There she took over sampling and processing for their ichthyoplankton monitoring program. During her third year at UNE, Marissa applied for and received NOAA’s Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship. The scholarship came with an internship for summer ’11, and Marissa did hers at the National Marine Fisheries Services field station in Orono, Maine. There, she completed an independent project that she presented at the NOAA Headquarters in Silver Spring, Md.

As a master’s student, Marissa studied the impact of year-class strength on recruitment of lake whitefish into the commercial fishery of the Upper Great Lakes, along with subsequent management implications.

Research Interests
Impacts of climate change on economically valuable fisheries and management implications; natural resource policy.