Map AIO is sited in the picturesque village of Seal Harbor on the southern end of Mount Desert Island, Maine. It is three blocks from the beach and docks and just across the street from Acadia National Park. Mount Desert Island is the perfect place to study marine ecology. The cool Labrador Current brings minerals from the north to feed the food chains of coastal Maine.
Waters are rich in plankton and there are many species of fish.
Offshore dredges yield sediments full of benthic life. Rivers and estuaries serve as ocean nurseries. Rocky tidal pools shelter invertebrates and small fish. And mud flats and marshes present new environments and species for study.