Resources Database

The Maine Aquaculture Financing Resources Manual, developed by MAA Project Manager Christian Brayden with support from FocusMaine, is an in-depth summary of all known financing resources available to Maine aquaculture producers.

A list of current aquaculture training programs offered in Maine.

A brief introduction to current commercial production species, potential commercial species, and experimental species including the hard clam (quahog), eastern oyster, blue mussel, softshell clam, macroalgae, bay scallop, European oyster, surf clam, sea scallop, and more.

The business plan features include short & long-term budget projections & tracking, financial projection and analysis tools, monthly cash flow projections, costs of production analysis, profitability analysis, sensitivity analysis, and breakeven analysis. The production plan offers short & long-term production projections & tracking data-based growth projections, monthly sales planning & tracking, and a production calendar. If you are interested in setting up a business plan, please reach out to Christian at [email protected].

These risk management tools are designed to help Maine aquaculture producers find new ways to identify and respond to risk on their farms and in their businesses. The tools include information and visuals to help farmers identify risk factors and risk management within each of the five categories of risk as well as aquaculture crop insurance options currently available.

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.

Dr. Carole Engle, a specialist in aquaculture economics, discusses cash-flow for aquaculture businesses, how to maintain a positive cash-flow position, and common pitfalls in developing a cash-flow budgeting.

Dr. Carole Engle, a specialist in aquaculture economics, gives an overview on how to survive during cash deficits using short-term cash management plans and determining how much debt is too much to take on by calculating the debt to asset ratio.

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.

Developed to describe all Federal programs and activities that directly or indirectly encourage, support, or assist U.S. aquaculture.

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.

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.

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.

Dr. Carole Engle, a specialist in aquaculture economics, discusses growing your aquaculture businesses: whether should you expand or diversify and what conditions should you consider doing so. This will help you determine if is it the right time to expand your business, increase production, or move into new markets.

Careful financial management is essential for the success of an aquaculture business. While financial management is a complex topic that can be approached from many perspectives, there are some key questions that the manager of an aquaculture business must answer affirmatively to be successful. Determining the answers requires careful, thorough, and comprehensive analysis. This publication, written by Dr. Carole Engle, a specialist in aquaculture economics, outlines the types of analyses and financial statements required to answer these critical questions.

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.

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.

University of Maine System (UMS) micro-credential offers professional development opportunities that result in a verified micro-credential for those who want to update their aquaculture skillset. Coordinated by the Aquaculture Research Institute, this pathway will use the University of Maine System’s extensive aquaculture resources and educational expertise to create hands-on learning experiences.

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.

Free online entry-level oyster farm worker Certificate course. Do all 16 modules to pursue farmhand certification, or simply watch and browse to get a better sense of the industry. Instructors include East Coast Shellfish Growers Association's Dr. Bob Rheault, and amazing farmers Matt Behan, John and Cindy West, and David Roebuck.

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.