$2M federal investment to strengthen Maine aquaculture
Courtesy / Maine Aquaculture Association
A $2.12 million round of federal funding will go toward supporting aquaculture projects, such as this oyster farm.
A $2.12 million round of federal funding will go toward supporting aquaculture projects at the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center and the University of Maine Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research, as well as continue funding for additional projects at the University of Maine and Maine Sea Grant.
The money comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Sea Grant program.
“This funding is yet another example of how Sea Grant is fostering innovation and entrepreneurship to support Maine’s working waterfront and coastal communities,” U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, said in a news release.
Scallops
At the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center in Walpole, $749,999 will go toward a project called “Cracking the Shell: A Collaborative Approach to Developing Hatchery Production of the Atlantic Sea Scallop.”
The goal of the three-year project is to establish reliable best practices for larval rearing and settlement protocols for sea scallops, identify sea scallop hatchery microbiomes as they relate to health status, and examine the larval immunocompetence of sea scallops and its relevance to larval survival. In addition, the project will establish reliable best practices for sea scallop broodstock conditioning and spawning, evaluate the economics of commercial scale hatchery production, and engage with stakeholders to create a community of practice.
Lumpfish
The University of Maine Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Franklin will receive $234,487 for its project, “Domestication and Breeding of Lumpfish to Accelerate Successful Commercialization and use for Sea Lice Biocontrol in the Northeast U.S.”
Lumpfish are used in Norway, Scotland and Eastern Canada as cleaner fish for biological control of parasitic sea lice on farmed salmonids, primarily Atlantic salmon. The three-year project seeks to establish a geographically diverse, self-sustaining U.S.-sourced breeding colony of lumpfish from wild caught juveniles by refining lumpfish broodstock capture and husbandry protocols, conditioning fish for out-of-season spawning, establishing and refining lumpfish hatchery production and protocols, and screening fish for pathogens and microbes. By the end of the project, researchers are expected to have established a diverse broodstock population sourced from wild fish captured from Maine territorial waters in the Gulf of Maine. Broodstock reproductive timing will be manipulated in captivity with photoperiod and temperature for hatchery production of juveniles. The resulting U.S.-sourced supply of lumpfish juveniles will greatly benefit the U.S. salmon aquaculture industry.
Finfish
At the University of Maine, $709,093 will go toward a study called “Nutritional Strategies for Improved Larval Production of Marine Finfish with an Emphasis on Seriola.”
Seriola is a type of finfish. Many seriloa species are known as amberjacks. The project seeks to develop the capacity and knowledge to produce and refine microparticulate finfish larval feeds and evaluate the effects of diets on the performance, growth and survival of larval California yellowtail and yellowtail amberjack. Outcomes of the project activities will help increase larval performance and juvenile production of seriolids, which will aid in development and expansion of aquaculture of seriolids.
Industry needs
Maine Sea Grant was awarded $423,539 for its project, which seeks to continue its support of industry needs through the Maine Aquaculture Hub, a network of aquaculture stakeholders.
The goal is to support sustainable development of the aquaculture sector across Maine by implementing activities identified in the newly released 10-year Maine Aquaculture Roadmap. Project activities will consist of outreach event, workshops and training activities.
In addition, a needs assessment will be used to evaluate and document the needs of different demographic groups interested in training through a program called Aquaculture in Shared Waters. Project outcomes include maintaining and strengthening relationships between the hub and members of the aquaculture sector, gathering feedback and insight from the industry on needs and future directions of interest for progress, engaging the hub network as a whole through convenings, an update economic impact assessment of the industry, implementation of aquaculture outreach and education needs identified by hub participants, and strengthening and diversifying training programs. This project will benefit the Maine aquaculture industry, coastal communities and their economies, and the general public.
The money for Maine is part of NOAA Sea Grant’s overall awarding of $14 million to aquaculture organizations nationwide across four strategic areas: early-stage propagation strategies; marine finfish juvenile production technologies; continued support of advanced aquaculture collaboratives; and creation of the aquaculture information exchange.
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