Resources Database

The Aquaculture License is now required in order to harvest and sell cultured organisms removed from an aquaculture lease or LPA license site. Aquaculture leaseholders and Limited-Purpose Aquaculture (LPA) license holders are required to obtain the Aquaculture License, regardless of which species they grow.

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.

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.

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.

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

List all interstate certified shippers that can ship fresh and frozen oysters, clams, mussels, whole or roe-on scallops and is published monthly.

Slideshow summarizing the regulations for shellstock and shucked shellfish handling, sanitation, tagging, and labeling for the state of Maine

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

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.

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.

A basic list of what licenses you need to sell your aquaculture shellfish at your home, at your lease site, to your local grocery/general store, roadside, to a restaurant, to a wholesale distributor, at a farmers market, or out of state.

This flowchart maps the different licenses you need to have to sell your aquaculture shellfish out of state by mail or by vehicle, and in the state of Maine including selling direct to restaurants, and wholesale distributors, at a farmer's market, your home, and your lease site.

Answers basic questions about Maine DMR's Aquaculture Harvest License such as: Who should have it?, What is it? What does it cost?, What does this license allow you to do?, How do I apply?, and Who should I contact with questions?

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.

This brochure reviews safe handling, storage, and cooking practices that shellfish consumers should follow to prevent illness.

A list of current aquaculture training programs offered in Maine.

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 presentation, given by Dave C. Love, PhD, describes the current status of seafood consumption in the U.S. with a special focus on downstream stages of the supply chain (retail and food service) and their role in seafood availability, affordability, and nutrition.

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

The aim of this open access book is to review and analyze the goods and services of bivalve shellfish.

A list that contains the names of markets and restaurants that are licensed to purchase shellfish directly from harvesters, then sell them in the retail trade only.

The goal of a Vibrio Control or Vibrio Management Plan 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.

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.