Productivity

A Farmer to Farmer Exchange Program to Support Innovation in Maine’s Aquaculture Sector

Lead PI: Chris Davis PI Email: christopher.v.davis@gmail.com Co-PI: Anne Langston Noll, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center Project Team: Chris Davis & Anne Langston Noll, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center Abstract: Small aquaculture businesses tend to operate using locally-derived processes and technologies, often without regard to practices conducted elsewhere, resulting in frequent “reinvention of the wheel”. An aquaculture-specific […]

Mussel farming trials in Downeast Maine: testing new opportunities to expand Maine’s mussel aquaculture industry

Lead PI: Dr. Robert Wood PI Email: bwood@sunrisecounty.org Co-PI: Dr. Brian Beale, Downeast Institute Project Team: Dr. Robert Wood, Downeast Fisheries Partnership; Dr. Brian Beale, Downeast Institute; Kyle Pepperman, Downeast Institute; Jeff Robinson, Downeast Institute; Dianne Tilton, Downeast Institute; Chris Bartlett, Maine Sea Grant Abstract: This project will conduct mussel (Mytilus edulis) farming trials in […]

Sustainable Aquaculture Workforce and Innovation Center

Lead PI: Deborah Bouchard PI Email: deborah.bouchard@maine.edu Co-PI: Meggan Dwyer Project Team: Deborah Bouchard, Meggan Dwyer, Heather Hamlin, Robert Harrington, Matt Hawkyard Abstract: The University of Maine’s Aquaculture Research Institute proposes to build a state-of-the-art, 15,000-square-foot aquaculture workforce training and commercialization facility in Orono. The Sustainable Aquaculture Workforce and Innovation Center will ﬁll a gap […]

Understanding reproductive cycles and larval dynamics in cultured and wild populations of Placopecten magellanicus in Maine

Lead PI: Phoebe Jekielek Co-PI: Madison Maier Project Team: Marsden Brewer, Hannah Twombly, Connor O’Neill, Bobby Brewer Abstract: As successful shellfish culture is comprised of seed collection, grow out, and harvest, reliance on a variable wild set without hatchery supply is a potential bottleneck for consistent culture production in the emerging scallop aquaculture industry in […]

Optimizing production and products for scallop aquaculture

Lead PI: Damian Brady Co-PIs: Dana Morse Project Team: Struan Coleman, Hugh Cowperthwaite, Linda Auker, Christian Brayden Abstract: The giant sea scallop, Placopecten magellanicus, supports one of the most valuable and important wild fisheries in the United States, valued at over $430 million dollars ex-vessel value in 2015. Additionally, the U.S. imports 40 million pounds […]

Detritus as Nutritional Supplement for Bivalves

Project Description Determining the quantity and quality of seston present in Saco Bay is a key factor in evaluating its environmental carrying capacity for sustainable ecological aquaculture (SEA). This baseline data is being collected by SEANET through the use of the buoy network, field surveys, and laboratory analyses. This addresses the environmental carrying capacities of […]

Develop Organism Growth Model of Secondary Production Utilizing Forcing Functions of Biophysical Data from Buoys, Sensors, Water Samples, and Transects

Project Description Growth of filter-feeding bivalves (mussels, oysters, and clams) in nearshore environments is correlated to fluctuations in temperature, salinity, and food availability. This project utilizes historical data, data from the buoy network, sample data, and FVCOM model results as inputs for shellfish growth simulations using the ShellSIM model (Hawkins et al., 2012). This enables […]

Formation of Kelp and Marsh Grass Detritus as Potential Shellfish Nutrition

Project Description Most models assume bivalve shellfish to be the equivalent of “aquatic cows,” grazing almost exclusively on standing stocks of phytoplankton and algae. Cultured bivalve species have an exceptional capacity to filter large volumes of water containing not only phytoplankton, but also zooplankton, detritus, and other suspended particulate matter (Ferriera et al., 2008). In […]

Buoy Monitoring Program and Transect Sampling

Project Description The buoy network consists of four Land/Ocean Biogeochemical Observatories (LOBO), two Gulf of Maine Observing buoys, and a suite of small sensors, which are deployed in two to three estuaries per year. Each network is deployed for a year to collect environmental data during the full course of a bivalve growing season. The […]