Resources Database

All wild shellfish stock or seed used for cultivation or grow-out must originate from within the same Limited Purpose Aquaculture (LPA) license Health Zone as the LPA license site. A permit is required from DMR if the stock or seed originates from outside the Health Zone.

Social license to operate (SLO), a concept that describes community acceptance and approval of incoming industry, offers a lens for better understanding these barriers and an opportunity to identify strategies for successful development. Efforts to measure and predict social license have begun, but these efforts primarily focus on company actions and impacts. This study seeks to expand the utility of social license within the aquaculture sector by developing a preliminary quantitative framework that can predict a community’s willingness to issue SLO prior to siting.

Kelp offers a promising way for fishermen to diversify their income streams in the lobster offseason, and it's also the newest seafood product GMRI verified under their Gulf of Maine Responsibly Harvested® label. The Gulf of Maine Responsibly Harvested® label is a promise that seafood hails from the clean, cool waters of the Gulf of Maine and the fishery or farm is managed in a way that contributes to the long-term health of the resource. The label empowers consumers to buy seafood they can feel good about.

Reviews the keys to running a successful business; the four P's of marketing, wholesale distributors, risks, and sales.

A brief overview of what aquaculture is, why people do it, and how people do it in Maine.

Powerpoint on biofouling including, economic impact, general impact, common fouling organisms (macroalgae, tunicates, hydroids, boring sponge, over-set of barnacles, mussels, or oysters), controlling fouling, and methods to avoid, mitigate, or prevent the effects of biofouling.

Overview of popular finfish and shellfish aquaculture systems (husbandry & gear) used in the northeast including bottom culture, near bottom culture, water column culture, surface culture, hatchery land-based systems.

A study to provide an up-to-date and accurate annual statewide economic contribution of Maine’s aquaculture industry and determine aquaculture business owner and farm demographics.

Focuses primarily on the environmental sustainability of shellfish aquaculture including resource enhancement, habitat restoration, eutrophication, the impacts of farms on water quality, and harvest methods.

Fact sheet on aquaculture lease hearings which are an adjudicatory hearing. It also includes the criteria for issuing aquaculture leases.

DMR welcomes and encourages comment on aquaculture lease applications. This explains the process, scoping sessions, submitting a comment, speaking at a public hearing and more.

There are several ways in which birds interact with shellfish aquaculture. Birds can cause significant damage to crops through predation. Some birds fall into the category of protected resources and farmers have been variously accused of interfering with foraging, (either attracting or disturbing or both) and interfering with hunting. Birds can be attracted to aquaculture structures for roosting or foraging and their guano can impact water quality and trigger the need for growers to develop management plans under the National Shellfish Sanitation Plan.

Report on the mud blister polychaete worm, Polydora websteri, including a description, life history, settlement, burrowing, treatments, and biosecurity.

Intended to help prospective farmers to identify, record, monitor, and manage production hazards, and ultimately minimize production-related risk. Discusses types of risk in aquaculture, record keeping, environmental conditions, biofouling organisms, predators, diseases, parasites, invasive species, and operational procedures.

Reviews business management skills, such as finance, record keeping, marketing, and personnel management. More aquaculture businesses fail because of poor management than poor production practices.

This brochure explains the benefits of shellfish aquaculture for the environment including improving water quality, increasing species diversity, removing excess nitrogen, and not needing fertilizers, chemicals, or antibiotics.

Webinar about research on scallop aquaculture production and economics including comparisons of nursery and growout gear: lantern nets, pearl nets, ear hanging, pocket nets, rigid trays, and adhesives; tissue sampling and testing for biotoxins such as saxitoxin and domoic acid; evaluation of fouling communities; surveys of producers to understand economic inputs and outputs such as capital, labor, and yield; environmental data matched with growth data to better understand good scallop-farming sites.

Lists all upcoming aquaculture public meetings, hearings, and scoping sessions and give the date, time, town and location for them.

A variety of tenacious myths critical of marine aquaculture practiced in the United States have persisted for decades to be presented as facts to the public and Congress. The reality is U.S. fish and shellfish farmers culture aquatic animals and plants within a very complicated and expensive legal, regulatory, husbandry, and science-driven environment. We believe critics are unfamiliar with this environment or have erroneously assumed marine aquaculture-related environmental damage reported in other countries occurs in the United States.

Oyster aquaculture, like any agriculture operation, has inherent risks with perils beyond growers’ control. However, coastal waters present challenges for oyster farmers in the form of tropical storms and hurricanes.

This report addresses biofouling management in relation to marine aquaculture industry operations, equipment and infrastructure. It covers shellfish, finfish and seaweed operations in estuaries and seawater. It does not address freshwater aquaculture activities.

In September 2023 the ECSGA updated its 2010 Best Management Practices manual. Building on the 2010 version, this update adds a new section on the management and handling of floating gear, hundreds of embedded links, info on new gear types and a revised bibliography. ECSGA also completely revamped the tool to create your own farm-specific Best Practices document: the Best Practices Form.