Resources Database

The Coastal Satellite Oceanography team at University of Maine created a high resolution satellite imagery of the coast of Maine that uses sea surface temperature, turbidity, and chlorophyll concentration to determine oyster suitability.

Detailed look into why site selection is so important including, biological requirements, physical characteristics, as well as social & regulatory factors.

Provides a summary of direct and indirect environmental factors that may affect your site selection for your marine aquaculture business.

Good husbandry is critical to success and this gives a general overview of its importance.

General overview about kelp farms, kelp markets, and kelp food options.

A study designed to measure the effect of stocking density and bag mesh size on the growth of pre-commercial oysters (60 mm) deployed at three sites in northeastern New Brunswick.

This video is narrated by Dana Morse and reviews how to collect sea scallop spat and grow your seed in bottom cages.

A 6-part tutorial on culturing economically valuable seaweeds for New England and a visual companion to the Handbook for Seaweed Culture in New England.

Details how to set up a seaweed nursery including how to make seawater media, temperature and light parameters, biology, cultivation, and culture systems.

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.

ShellGIS is a desktop-based software tool that, for the choice of 14-commonly cultured shellfish species, enables dynamic predictions of shellfish production, environmental effects, and profitability according to culture practice and site selection within a given GIS domain.

An in-depth guide on kelp farming including how to set up a farm, the application process, nursery set-up, maintaining cultures, and farm site operations.

Aquaculture of softshell clams (Mya arenaria), also called “steamer clams”, has grown steadily and is becoming a significant industry in New England. Examined in this fact sheet are specific aspects of softshell clam production during the Hatchery Phase and a description of variations in management practices at three shellfish facilities: two in Massachusetts and one in Maine.

Brief overview of softshell clam distribution, habitat, life cycle, predators, disease, harvest, marketing, and aquaculture.

Overview of mussels nutritional value and their biology.

Use this to create your own farm-specific Best Management Practices (BMP) document use this template, a Microsoft Excel file in macro format.

Intended for a novice farmer to give a overview of oyster farming topics such as oyster biology, site selection, rearing methods, spat supply, and production plans.

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 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.

Questions to ask when beginning to consider different overwintering oysters options.

In depth report on seas scallops and their the life history, habitat characteristics, geographic distribution, status of the stocks and research needs.

Reviews the importance of recording growth and environmental data, estimating number of seed, and provides template data sheets to record this information.

If you're thinking about farming mussels, either as a sideline or the main chance, this booklet is designed to help you make decisions.This booklet reviews mussel raft culture in the Gulf of Maine, The Mussel Raft Project, Predators, storms and moorings, Mussel biology, Selecting a site, Steps in culturing mussels, Outreach, applied research, Sales and marketing , Getting into business, Planning a mussel business, Training and information, Leases and permits, Suppliers, and provides further reading suggestions.