Women In Fisheries: Kathleen Reardon

Department of Marine Resources (DMR) lobster fishery biologist Kathleen Reardon thought about moving out to the Pacific Northwest after college. She had explored the northwest coast as part of her studies in the Williams College-Mystic Seaport program and was stunned by the area’s beauty. So as college came to an end, she packed her car with her few possessions and prepared to head west. But then she paused. “I realized I didn’t know anyone there and that I liked the northwest coast because it reminded me of Maine. So why not go to Maine?” she recalled.

Kathleen Reardon. J. Sullivan photo.

Reardon knew the Maine coast well. She and her family spent summers on an island off Deer Isle that her grandfather had purchased in the 1960s. A local family, the Eatons, transported the family out to the island for years before her extended family bought their own boat, becoming close with the long-time lobstering clan.

“The island is a homing beacon for my family. I spent a lot of time there in the mudflats and tide pools when I was young. That got me interested in the marine world,” Reardon said. She attended Williams College where she expanded her childhood interest in marine science. During the summers she held different science internships and quickly realized that she didn’t want to be locked up in a lab but rather to be outside, exploring the marine world that so fascinated her.

Just as she was graduating from college, Reardon learned of the Island Institute’s new Island Fellows program. The Island Institute selected young people to live and work for two years on Maine’s year-round islands, doing whatever the islanders thought important. Reardon was chosen to be one of the first fellows, beginning in the fall of 2000. She turned her car north rather than west.

“I lived on Islesboro for two years. I introduced GIS to the school and town committees. During the summer, the Island Institute allowed fellows to work as lobster samplers for DMR. That was my introduction to the lobster fishery, that and painting buoys in the winter,” she said.

Kathleen Reardon has handled a million lobsters in her 25 years sampling the catch.

Reardon soon became skilled as a lobster sampler and wanted to learn more. As part of the fellowship, Reardon participated in the Island Institute’s multi-year Penobscot Bay Collaborative, which was investigating the health and future of lobster in Penobscot Bay. DMR Commissioner Carl Wilson, who was the newly hired lobster biologist at the DMR, was involved in the Collaborative at the time.

When her fellowship on Islesboro ended in 2002, she once again had to decide what her next step would be. Wilson mentioned to Reardon that he had funds for a research project on the Jonah crab working with fishermen and asked if she was interested in joining the project as a graduate student or a lab technician. The University of Maine School of Marine Sciences also announced its new dual degree program in Marine Biology and Marine Policy so she took the opportunity to earn two Masters in science degrees.

A few weeks later, in January 2003, Reardon enrolled as one of the first students in the new program, studying under Yong Chen, her thesis advisor. Her thesis evaluated an experimental Jonah crab trap designed by fishermen and explored the distribution and abundance of the Jonah population. “I was working with fishermen to collect data on their experimental traps through field work and logbooks. We also did video surveys and trap sampling. And I worked for DMR as a contract lobster sampler as well,” she said.

In spring 2005, Wilson suggested that Reardon apply to be the coordinator of the Department’s Sea Sampling program. She did and was hired that year. Reardon still had to finish her thesis to graduate from the University of Maine, however. “So that winter after my first season, I worked up all the sampling statistics for the sea sampling program, then wrote the thesis on Jonah crab, defended it, and then was back on the water for the next field season!”

Now, twenty years after joining DMR, Reardon has perspective on how much she has learned since then. “I came in not really knowing anything,” she admitted frankly. “Because most of what I learned about the fishery was from fishermen, initially I had some misgivings about working for state government. But a Stonington fisherman said to me when I was thinking about it, ‘I need someone there I can talk to.’ And that made an impression on me,” she said.

After ten years at DMR Reardon became the lead lobster fishery biologist when Carl Wilson was promoted to run DMR’s Bureau of Marine Sciences. Reardon is involved in the lobster stock assessment, serves on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s lobster technical committee and continues to oversee the monitoring programs for lobster.

“I like the diversity of what I do. I have other responsibilities now, making sure that the data we have is used appropriately, but I still enjoy and value field work on boats. And I’m still someone that fishermen can talk to about what we think the data means,” she said.

Collaborating with lobstermen on research has never seemed strange to Reardon, in part because she has never done anything else. “When I started out, that is what we did. At the time, DMR was doing more lobster science, with the annual trawl survey in 2000, expanded sea sampling, and the ventless trap survey which started in 2006. I have spent a lot of time on boats, talking with the crew and captains and learning a lot from them.”

Reardon’s annual presentation on DMR’s extensive array of lobster surveys is a high point for lobstermen attending the Maine Fishermen’s Forum. Her clear speaking style and ability to answer questions without tangling her answers in jargon are appreciated by fishermen. She tries to put research findings into a context that helps listeners understand what the data mean in their neck of the ocean and asks for feedback for what they think is going on.

“I was quiet when I moved here after college. I never imagined I would stand up before a crowd at the Forum or other meetings. But this is the stuff I know about now. I’m using data that I collected 25 years ago. In fact, as of this season I will have collected data on more than 1 million lobsters in the DMR database. I try to interpret what’s going on with the help from discussions with industry members. I do really like looking at the data.”