Farming scallops in Maine

when it comes to shellfish in maine there is no question lobster is king clams ranked second scallops third but scallops are a significant part of the state's fishing economy last year the catch was worth nearly seven million dollars the scallop industry is changing though as fishermen become farmers 207's beth mcavoy went to penobscot bay to learn more [Music] yeah there's tons of little tiny scallops martian brewer and his son bob are checking on their babies this morning we get anywhere from fifteen hundred to three four thousand to a bag baby scallops that is i like kids some bigger than others different you know even though they're all the same grade unlike wild scallops the fishermen harvest using nets dragged along the seabed these babies are being farmed so how are they raised their faith bringing them in because you can't see what you got after their larval stage scallops are looking for a safe place to settle they attach to the mesh inside these bags once they get bigger they can't get out as they grow they graduate to bigger net bags at 18 months old these scallops are ready for sale it is a big investment of time and money double that time and they'll be plump three-year-olds which fetch the best price my father fish my grandfather fished brewer has been fishing off the coast of stonington his whole life no clocks the pines appreciated every day several years ago when the wild scallop fishery was floundering brewer decided to take matters into his own hands just looking at the way the fisheries were going you know because i got a history of being involved in all of them and things the options were getting quite limited instead of worrying that there's too many fishermen maybe we'd not make more fish in 2016 brewer visited japan they're way ahead of us where they've been cultivating sea scallops since the 1950s the japanese people were real real good about sharing their knowledge what he learned there he's applied to his own business pen bay farmed scallops even though marston brewer had scalloped in the traditional way for years he wasn't afraid to try something new marsden for sure has been an innovator when you get into fish farming it's more like hog farming on the water and there's a big waste problem because you have to put inputs in you know all your feed this it cleans the water you know it just it makes it better that the shells on them there's quest the carbon in the shells uh you know it's just it's the right thing to do on so many different levels bivalve farming is one of the most environmentally beneficial types of aquaculture scallops don't even need to be fed they simply eat the phytoplankton already in the ocean aquaculture in general can increase biodiversity in areas farmed scallops may even go one step further and be helping the wild fishery scallops are the most charismatic of the buy bouts right phoebe jekylek is the lead scientist at the hurricane island center for science and leadership we have thousands of scallops on these farms that are in dense populations um they're near each other which increases the chance that scalloped gametes so the sperm and eggs can actually find each other in the water column therefore creating more fertilized eggs that will eventually develop into larvae and so are these farms actual are we seeing that increased fertilization success and potential increased larval supply from farms that could enhance the wild population for our wild commercial fishery because the brewers scallops stay in one place about a three acre area that brew releases from the state of maine and are tested for biotoxins they can sell them in the shell they're going to some of the finest restaurants in the country or the freshness that you get when you're buying a live scallop you just can't duplicate it it's a whole different experience he does think a bit outside the box and but at the same time thinking about what's what's sustainable and good for the community at large whether it's the fishing community or the town of stonington or or the state of maine tom dime is the educational specialist at the maine center for coastal fisheries to use the old over overused phrase of you know that the fishermen the last of the wild hunters kind of thing i mean some of that's true but but that you know making that transition from being a hunter per se to a farmer you know and thinking about the product that i catch today you know i'll get paid for today or this week versus something i got to invest a year two or three and before i see any substantial return on with all the risk involved in that time frame is totally different mindset there are only a handful of scallop farms in the u.s and most of them are right here in maine run by small fishing families like the brewers fishermen are by nature a very innovative group of people they may seem a little hard and crusty and conservative on the outside but but they usually figure out a way to solve a problem pretty quickly one of the best parts for marston brewer raising sea scallops is working alongside his son keeping up the old traditions and starting new ones it's a pleasure it really is you see a lot of people that read diaries that move here and stuff and they'll go off and visit their kids and you know in the wintertime after about a week the kids are like you know when they're going home you know and this is just they look at what we've gotten it's something special marsden brewer even wrote a recipe book with the help of a friend from church it has dozens of ways to cook up scallops though most days he and his keep it simple on the boat they steam freshly caught scallops in an old coffee pot and add nothing he says it doesn't get any better than that i haven't heard of steaming them in a coffee pot but yes they don't need much when you get them so fresh i can remember a few years ago i had a scallop roll in brunswick and i could tell you could just tell that the scallops had just been caught that day it was extraordinary it was so simple it was so simple but wonderful got to keep it that way with seafood you know it's going to be really interesting to see what happens with scallop farming in maine because obviously oyster aquaculture in the state has really boomed in about the last five years or so people talk about the dameriscata area becoming the napa valley of oysters sounds of those scallops may be the next big thing that fisherman ingenuity

Channel: NEWS CENTER Maine

Views: 17,249

Keywords: 207, environment, features, life, local, maine-moments, money, news, science, small-business

Id: Z0VCzS3uyao

Length: 6min 35sec (395 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 15 2022