Resources Database

List of all forms including volunteer quality assurance training, training checklist, application and liability waiver, water sampling field data sheet, and a data sheet for GPS coordinates.

Licenses AND Sanitation Certificates must be applied for online! This is new and the preferred system for applications now. This includes Shellstock Shipper Certificate, Shucker-Packer Certificate, Shellfish Reshipper Certificate, and Depuration Processor Certificate.

Discusses what marketing is and why it is important including developing a marketing plan, market outlets, and personalizing the products and the business.

List of all forms used by the Bureau of Public Health.

Summarizes common and important mistakes that new growers will make when first starting.

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.

Overview of mussel farming systems, mussel spat collection, seed stripping and stocking, problems occasionally encountered, processing, packaging and shipping, site selection, and planning a business.

Report on spat collection equipment and practices that could be useful to stock enhancement and aquaculture in Maine such as the use of spat bags to capture competent scallop larvae and the creation of spawner sanctuaries.

This brochure explains the benefits of eating locally farmed seafood including freshness, heart-health, food safety, good nutrition, and community benefits.

This brochure reviews what Vibrio is and how to reduce illness from Vibrio by achieving and maintaining temperature controls when harvesting and transporting shellfish.

After purchasing used shellfish production equipment, it is strongly recommended to thoroughly clean and disinfect the gear prior to use to limit the risk of introducing disease or invasive species. An easy-to-use process is as follows:

In depth document created to provide the information and a framework that will enable a shellfish farmer to write a comprehensive Best Management Practices document focusing on gear/operation and maintenance, user conflicts, permitting/siting, and environmental concerns.

An ID guide to organisms commonly found in, on, and around oyster grow bags ​and other aquaculture equipment used in the Gulf of Maine and North Atlantic.

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.

List of the over 200 harbor masters and deputy harbor masters in The State of Maine Harbor Masters Association.

DMR resources for growers including approved hatcheries, biosecurity, shellfish sanitation, harvest and reporting, and forms.

This web-based, report-centric tool provides coastal and ocean planners with a high-level analysis for their custom-drawn area of interest. It provides summary statistics and infographics for six main topics: general information, energy and minerals, natural resources and conservation, oceanographic and biophysical, transportation and infrastructure, and economics and commerce.

This document is intended to help Maine restaurant owners and staff understand the risks of handling shellfish, and how to manage them safely and effectively.

Developing oceanographic models of factors that control the productivity of Maine's coastal waters in three bioregions (southern, central, and down east Maine), supplemented by hourly monitoring of biophysical parameters in 6 coastal regions through LOBO buoys in the more sheltered waters, and at the mouths of the bays in more exposed conditions using buoys developed at the University of Maine. The SEANET buoy network is supplemented with other smaller buoys and sensors involving students, citizen monitors, fishermen, and aquaculturists.

Uses an individual growth model over 30 days for Eastern Oyster, Blue Mussel, and European Oysters using satellite inputs for temperature, chlorophyll, and particulate organic matter to determine locations where they will grow best.