Resources Database

A nonprofit organization providing educational workshops and helping small businesses get started, grow and operate effectively.

A leader in the small business economic and development arenas that assists new businesses as well as existing businesses manage, run and grow.

Provides advising and financing to fisheries and aquaculture businesses to improve their long-term viability, create and maintain quality jobs, safeguard marine-related infrastructure and environments, and help preserve the cultural integrity of Maine’s working waterfront.

The Top Gun training program is designed specifically for the entrepreneur with a desire to grow his/her business and achieve long-term success through the use of the right tools, resources, and related mentorship. MCE has taken the time to develop strong business partnerships and to acquire loyal sponsorships which allow us to provide Maine entrepreneurs with the programing, mentorship, training, and knowledge they need to grow and succeed.

Represents over 1500 shellfish farmers from Maine to Florida and has many resources for growers including rookie mistakes, marketing, and public health concerns.

Provides a unified national voice for aquaculture on the national level as well as informative webinars, publications, and facts about aquaculture.

This training program uses a mix of meetings and field trips/site visits to introduce participants to the issues important in running a successful aquaculture business including: site selection, equipment and husbandry, permitting and regulation, environmental monitoring, marketing and sales, farm management and biosecurity, business planning, and financial management.

Established in 1988 by the Maine Legislature with a mission to assist in developing economically and environmentally sustainable aquaculture opportunities in Maine.

If you have been around this business for a while, you’ve probably watched some of the newcomers make the same mistakes you did when you were getting started. ECSGA Executive Director Bob Rheault decided he would try to think of as many of these common pitfalls as he could to help new growers avoid making the same costly blunders. Through the years he has continued to add to the list.

The Maine Aquaculture Association has released the first Maine Aquaculture Occupational Standards, which specify the current workforce skills and training needs of Maine’s aquaculture sector. Altogether, four standards have been released, focusing on occupations related to (1) Marine Shellfish and Sea Vegetables; (2) Marine Finfish; (3) Land-Based RAS; and (4) Land-Based Shellfish Hatcheries. A supplementary document, the Maine Shellfish Aquaculture Career Pathways Map, is designed to provide an overview of the most common job types, entry points, and career pathway opportunities in Maine’s shellfish aquaculture sector today.

This grant guide was prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in consultation with the Subcommittee on Aquaculture (SCA) under the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). This guide focuses only on grant programs that aquaculture farmers or aquaculture researchers may be eligible for. Updates will include Federal cooperative agreements, contracts, loans, or other direct support programs for aquaculture farmers or (non-federal) aquaculture researchers, for the purpose of aquaculture siting, research, development, and operations.

A look at the individual Maine farmers who make a living in the growing industry of Aquaculture.

Provides a comprehensive resource to help managers at the local and state level sustain Maine’s valuable shellfish resources. Includes information on the history and biology of the soft-shell clam, northern quahog, American and European oysters, and blue mussels. There are sections on state resources to address water quality issues and predatory species and tools that municipalities can use to preserve or increase their intertidal shellfish resources.

Reviews the types of harmful phytoplankton that produce biotoxins such as Alexandrium, which causes paralytic shellfish poisoning; Pseudo-nitzschia, which causes amnesic shellfish poisoning; and Dinophysis, which causes diarrhetic shellfish poisoning.

This video gives a first-hand account of running a mussel farm by Bangs Island Mussels including on the water gear and husbandry and well as shore-side processing. Some highlights are seeding, socking, hauling and stripping machine, de-clumper, size grader, debyssing machine, automatic bagger/weigher/conveyor, and more.

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.

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.

The goal of these new requirements is to control the safety of molluscan shellfish for human consumption by preventing unnecessary growth of bacterial pathogens resulting from improper or ineffective cooling or from time to temperature abuse.

List state and federal grants to provide services, resources and personnel to nonprofit groups, municipalities and other agencies.

Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center has limited funds to support innovative research that will help advance the Maine aquaculture industry and also lists Maine funding opportunities.

Reviews the different types of disaster insurance that would cover hurricanes and typhoons, oil spills, harmful algal blooms, and other types of disasters, both natural and manmade, that cause a aquaculture farm to be harmed or fail.

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.