Climate-driven change in the Gulf of Maine is raising new threats that "red tides" will become more frequent and prolonged. But at the same time, powerful new data collection techniques and artificial intelligence are providing more precise ways to predict where and when toxic algae will bloom. One of those new machine learning prediction models has been developed by a former intern at Bigelow Labs in East Boothbay. In a busy shed on a Portland wharf, workers for Bangs Island Mussels sort and clean shellfish hauled from Casco Bay that morning. Wholesaler George Parr has come to pay a visit.

A swarm of seafaring robots unleashed by researchers at UC San Diego has discovered how plankton might get together to have sex: by harnessing the motion of the ocean. The robots, described in the journal Nature Communications, shed fresh light on the mysterious behaviors of the tiny but legion creatures that help form the foundation of marine food chains. Scientists have long tried to study plankton, a catchall term for a diverse array of living things that reside in large bodies of water. Plankton can include bacteria, algae and even tiny animals, but these disparate groups and species share at least one characteristic: an inability to swim against a current. As you can imagine, this has the potential to put a big crimp in a little plankter's love life.