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Heritage Dinner Series

Author-adventurers, scientists and historians bring their fascinating stories and latest findings to our Heritage Dinner Series. Join us this winter on Thursday evenings this fall/winter for enjoyable evenings of dinner and conversation.

The cost is $45/person for members; $55/person for non-members. The reception begins at 6:00 p.m., followed by dinner and presention. Our Nature Store will open prior to the presentation for your convenience. Seating is limited and space fills quickly. Full payment is required to reserve your seat; please contact Nichole at 603-436-8043, ext. 26 or info@seacentr.org to sign up.

2010-2011 Heritage Dinner Series Schedule

Thursday, October 28, 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Murder at the Isles of Shoals with SSC's Shoals Historian Ann Beattie

Please contact us if you would like information on sponsoring this event.

The 2010-2011 Heritage Dinner Series premiers with a seasonally appropriate and historically accurate tale. Over a hundred years ago, two women were murdered on an isolated island just off the shores of New Hampshire and Maine. One woman survived the violence and the story she told scandalized the nation. That tale has since inspired writers, movie makers, historians and story tellers to try to determine whether or not the real killer was caught. In Ann Beattie's presentation, you'll revisit the crime and decide for yourself if the man convicted for the murders, based solely on circumstantial evidence and his own bizarre behavior, was truly responsible for the tragic deaths on Smuttynose Island.

Even if you know the story, you will be thoroughly engaged by Ann's respectful, yet chilling account of the Smuttynose murders. Ann weaves her range of experience and depth of knowledge together to clearly present the cast of characters and circumstances. A marine educator with a fascination for the Isles of Shoals, she is past-president of the Isles of Shoals Historical and Research Association, a Board member of the Portsmouth Athenaeum and acts as the Shoals Historian for the Seacoast Science Center. As a Smuttynose Steward, Ann spends a week each summer on the island as a caretaker. You won't want to miss this evening, hauntingly timed with Hallowe'en!

Reservations must be made by October 22.

Thursday, February 10, 2011, 6:00 p.m.
Battle for the Arctic with Larry Mayer, Director of the University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Sponsored by Appledore Marine Engineering

With rapid changes in ice conditions and the Russians planting a flag on the sea floor at the North Pole, there has been a tremendous amount of attention focused on the "battle" for resources in the Arctic. On Thursday, February 10, Larry Mayer, Professor and the Director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire returns to give us a first hand account of  what has been likened to a wild west land grab between Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark and the U.S. As you'll discover, this highly charged "shoot-out" is really highly legal: these nations are abiding by Article 76 of the Law of the Sea Treaty that provides a coastal state the opportunity to extend its sovereign rights over resources of the seafloor and subsurface far beyond the current 200 nautical mile limit of the Exclusive Economic Zone if certain morphologic and geologic criteria are met. Although the U.S. has not yet acceded to the Treaty, efforts are underway to map those areas where the U.S. has a potential "extended continental shelf." The largest of these regions is in the Arctic, where the Chukchi Cap forms and natural prolongation of the U.S. margin.

In support of these efforts, Larry and researchers from the University of New Hampshire have conducted five expeditions on the multi-beam sonar-equipped, icebreaker HEALY, mapping more than 200,000 sq km of seafloor in a variety of ice conditions. These cruises have discovered new seamounts, found fields of pockmarks (indicative of gas flow) provided new insights into the history of glacial processes, and called into question current theories for the geologic origin of the region. Most importantly, the data collected on these cruises have radically changed our view of where the "foot of the continental slope" is. The foot of the slope is key component of Law of the Sea mapping and these new discoveries may lead to a large extension of the continental shelf that may overlap with that of other Arctic nations. This talk will explore these issues and offer some remarkable new views of Arctic bathymetry.

Larry has participated in more than 70 cruises and has been chief or co-chief scientist of numerous expeditions including two legs of the Ocean Drilling Program and five mapping expeditions in the ice covered regions of the high Arctic. He is the recipient of the Keen Medal for Marine Geology and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stockholm. Larry's current research deals with sonar imaging and remote characterization of the seafloor as well as advanced applications of 3-D visualization to ocean mapping problems and applications of mapping to Law of the Sea issues, particularly in the Arctic.

Reservations must be made by February 4.

Thursday, March 24, 2011, 6:00 p.m.
Tornados, Tsunamis and Nor'easters: the Challenges of Forecasting Coastal New England Weather with John Cannon, Senior Meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine

Sponsored by McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton, PA

Ever since Mark Twain's famous quip about New England weather, "If you don't like it, wait a minute," we New Englanders have taken a certain amount of pride in our ability to withstand, and appreciate, a wide variety of weather. Along the coast, we are "lucky" enough to be impacted by ocean storms, which add drama, danger and destruction to our lives. Although we rely on our local weather forecasters, they rely on National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists to provide data and information for their predictions. Tonight, you'll hear from John W. Cannon, our regional weather forecasters' weatherman, who will regale us with accounts of some of the region's most dramatic storms. You'll hear about, and see rare images of the famous and infamous storms including the longest track tornado to hit New England, the "meteo" tsunami in Boothbay Harbor, hurricane Bob and the famous Patriot's Day storm.

Whether you like New England's dynamic weather, or just tolerate it, this is your chance to get the inside story on when and how the NWS works, what affects the accuracy of forecasts and how technology is improving our ability to understand weather patterns from one of the best. John grew up in New England, enjoying every Nor'easter and the rapid changes in the weather that Mother Nature could muster. He later moved to upstate New York and learned to love the extreme conditions of Lake Effect Snowstorms while earning a degree in meteorology from the State University of New York at Oswego. John worked as a weather forecaster in Albany, New York and is currently a senior meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. A resident of Gray, ME, John received NOAA's prestigious national "Isaac Cline Award" for meteorology in 2009.

Reservations must be made by March 18.

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