College of the Atlantic enjoys a remarkable campus setting. With 1,700 feet of shorefront on Frenchman Bay, the campus is adjacent to Acadia National Park on the eastern shore of Mount Desert Island (MDI).

The Alice Eno Field Station on Great Duck Island, is located six miles south of MDI in Blue Hill Bay. Great Duck Island is home to one of the largest colonies of Leach's Storm Petrel in the continental U.S. Each summer students under the supervision of faculty member John Anderson research habitat selection and reproductive biology of the island's Storm Petrels. Faculty and students have examined microenvironmental conditions in and around storm-petrel burrows in collaboration with Intel's Berkeley Research Lab.

Allied Whale (www.coa.edu/alliedwhale) is COA's marine mammal research and rescue center. Established in 1972, Allied Whale developed techniques for photo-identification studies of whales that scientists use worldwide. Allied Whale curates the North Atlantic Humpback, Finback, and Antarctic Humpback Whale Catalogs, containing the world's largest collection of photographs and data on these species. Students work on photo-identification, respond to marine rescues, and present educational programs to school groups.

Beech Hill Farm is located on the western side of MDI and includes five acres of certified organic farmland, several acres of heirloom apple trees (some dating to the Civil War), sixty-five acres of forest, a barn, farmhouse, farm stand, and five greenhouses. It serves as a hands-on educational resource for students, farmers, and community members.

The George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History, located on campus (www.coa.edu/nhm), investigates, interprets, and displays Maine's natural world. All exhibits are designed and produced by COA students. The Museum is housed in the original headquarters of Acadia National Park, relocated, renovated, and expanded to provide a unique site for exhibits and programs.

The Edward McC. Blair Marine Research Station is twenty-five miles south of MDI on Mount Desert Rock and is base for much of the college's marine mammal research. As a seamount in the Gulf of Maine, it is ideally suited for studies of whales and seals, because it creates an area of upwelling, bringing nutrients to the surface.

The 42-foot R/V Indigo is COA's primary research vessel. It serves as a research and teaching platform, as well as transporting researchers and students to the island field stations.

The 26-foot R/V Borealis is Allied Whale's research vessel for responding to marine mammal strandings. Allied Whale also has a fleet of hard-hulled Zodiacs, including R/V Meg and R/V Sali.

The college houses the official herbarium for Acadia National Park.

On campus, COA has a fully equipped Geographic Information System Lab with state-of-the-art workstations, digitizing tables, and plotters.

Cooperative agreements with The Nature Conservancy, National Park Service, and the state of Maine allow access to numerous additional field sites. Nearby Jackson Laboratory and Mt. Desert Island Biological Laboratory provide fully equipped lab space for research in molecular biology and environmental physiology.