Welcoming Grace Walls
Research Assistant
July 23, 2026
Coonamessett Farm Foundation is pleased to welcome Grace Walls, M.S., who joined us in April 2026 as a Research Assistant and At-Sea Technician.
Grace brings an extensive at-sea background to the team. After completing her B.S. in Biology with minors in Natural Resource Conservation and Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, she developed six marine education programs for nonprofits and school systems on her native Cape Cod. Drawn to research, she went to sea aboard the NOAAS Henry B. Bigelow — the start of hundreds of sea days aboard fishing and research vessels around the globe, most of them as a North Pacific Groundfish Observer with the Alaskan fishing fleets based in the Aleutian Islands, sailing the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska.
She went on to earn her M.S. in Biological Oceanography at the University of Kiel and GEOMAR, where her thesis monitored the effects of changing environmental conditions on plastic ingestion and feeding ecology of benthopelagic fish. During that time she served as neuston catamaran team lead aboard R/V Poseidon on an interdisciplinary cruise to the Azores and Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and as at-sea technician on annual R/V Alkor fisheries cruises.
Grace is currently a doctoral candidate in the joint program between St. Francis Xavier University and Memorial University of Newfoundland, where her research seeks to unravel the mysteries of lobster foraging ecology in order to determine sustainable alternative baits for the lobster industry.
Her interests and expertise span benthic invertebrate research, foraging ecology, sustainable fisheries, and ecosystem dynamics. Welcome aboard, Grace!