Saving Seafood

MAINE: Maine officials monitoring Casco Bay algae bloom

September 10, 2026 — An algae bloom in Casco Bay could be harming fish and shellfish.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources is monitoring the bloom of a common phytoplankton called Karenia mikimotoi. The phytoplankton are not harmful to humans, but they can produce compounds that can harm fish and shellfish.

The department was alerted to the bloom when the Portland Harbor Master and wharf owners in Portland Harbor noticed a dark brown tint to the water, according to a social media post by the Maine DMR .

Read the full article at Spectrum News

MAINE: Toxic phytoplankton blooms believed to be killing shellfish off Maine coast

September 10, 2026 — Right now, the Maine Department of Marine Resources is monitoring a threat to fish and shellfish from Casco Bay to Middle Bay in Harpswell.

Testing shows counts of toxic phytoplankton blooms are relatively low.

Yet they’re still believed to be what’s killing lobsters and littleneck clams off Harpswell and in Portland Harbor.

While the phytoplankton blooms, like the one causing brownish water off Widgery Wharf, can be deadly to fish and shellfish, it is not harmful to humans.

Read the full article at WGME

Your love for fresh oysters can help the planet

July 27, 2021 — We drop anchor and I learn the trick to the perfect shuck—gently work the knife into the back hinge—and slurp the freshest oyster I’ve ever tasted. The mollusk was harvested minutes earlier from the lineup of floating cages beside our boat in this secluded section of Maine’s Casco Bay.

“There’s a freshwater spring off Upper Goose Island that drains out right into the farm and cuts the salinity, so our oyster is much more bright and balanced, with a light cucumber finish,” says Cameron Barner, an oyster farm owner with an advanced degree in aquaculture, and my tour guide for the afternoon. “If you go upriver or eat bottom-planted oysters, you get a more minerally umami flavor.”

Oyster farm tours, like this one led by Love Point Oysters, and self-guided bi-valve trails are cropping up throughout the United States. COVID-19 stalled the trend but with travel restrictions loosening, oyster enthusiasts are once again back on track. Along the Maine Oyster Trail, which re-launched in June, tasting tourists can earn swag by “checking in” at various experiences and sites along the trail, including Love Point. Other trails can be found in Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina, and Washington, the country’s largest producer of aquaculture.

Read the full story at National Geographic

Concert at sea will raise money for Maine’s lobster industry

July 29, 2020 — An organization that supports fishermen is holding a socially distanced concert on the sea to raise money for Maine’s lobster industry.

Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation is holding the concert on the waters of Casco Bay on Aug. 2. The band Turd Pollock is volunteering to play the show from a float on the water.

Boaters are invited to drop anchor on the southeast side of Chebeague Island, organizers said. The event will also be live streamed on Facebook from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Friends of Casco Bay will add data stations to get a clearer picture of quickly changing waters

November 18, 2019 — Researchers for Friends of Casco Bay plan to add two round-the-clock water-quality monitoring stations to better track temperature, acidity and potential marine “stressors” in a busy corner of the fast-changing Gulf of Maine.

After roughly 30 years of manually collecting and testing water samples once a month, Friends of Casco Bay launched the nonprofit’s first “continuous monitoring station” near Cousins Island in Yarmouth in 2016.

The station has collected hourly data on water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and other environmental conditions as the organization sought to build upon the “snapshot” of monthly data that was clearly showing changes in Casco Bay.

“It wasn’t enough to go out once a month. We needed to start documenting the changes we’ve been seeing,” said Mike Doan, the research associate at Friends of Casco Bay who has collected much of that data for the past two decades. “We realized we didn’t have the frequency of data to really track change. If you want to get serious about documenting change, you need frequent data.”

Read the full story at The Portland Press Herald

Waters off the coast of Maine vulnerable to changing climate

September 16, 2019 — From the one-lane bridge over the Little River at low water, you can see men hunched over the mudflats, hundreds of yards from shore, flipping the sea bottom with their pitchfork-like hoes to reveal the clams hiding there.

The clams, the basis of livelihood for generations of diggers from Cape Porpoise to Lubec, are back, at least for now, their numbers slowly recovering from a climate-driven disaster that will almost certainly strike again.

Six years ago, after the Gulf of Maine warmed to unprecedented levels, green crabs flooded over these northern embayments of Casco Bay like a plague of locusts, tearing away seagrass meadows, pockmarking salt marshes with their burrows, and devouring most every mussel and soft-shell clam in their path.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine Proposes To Keep Scallop Season Mostly Status Quo

September 10, 2019 — Maine is considering a scallop fishing season that would allow fishermen to harvest levels of the shellfish similar to last year.

The state’s scallop season takes place in the winter and spring and provides some of the most valuable seafood in Maine. The Maine Department of Marine Resources says daily possession limits would remain the same as last season.

The state is also seeking to close some areas along the coast to allow the scallop population to rebuild. That includes eastern Casco Bay and Upper Sheepscot River.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public

A large algae bloom has been spotted off Maine’s coast

August 29, 2019 — State officials are monitoring a large algae bloom in Casco Bay that stretches from around Chebeague Island to Phippsburg.

Kohl Kanwit, director of the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ Bureau of Public Health, said Karenia mikimotoi is a nuisance species that turns the water rusty brown and can have a foul smell. But she said it has no effect on human health and safety, either by swimming or eating seafood caught in the water.

Kanwit said if the bloom gets large enough, it can harm marine organisms.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

MAINE: Petition seeks moratorium on large aquaculture leases

March 22, 2019 — Save Maquoit Bay, a group formed to address issues with aquaculture, and lobstermen from around the state have submitted a petition to the Department of Marine Resources requesting an immediate moratorium on aquaculture leases greater than 10 acres in size.

The petition has 189 signatures, 39 more than required to open rulemaking around aquaculture leases, according to a news release.

The petition comes in the wake of an application by Mere Point Oyster Co. for a 40-acre lease in the bay, which is in the north end of Casco Bay, in between Freeport and Brunswick. The application, for a 10-year lease, is to cultivate Eastern oysters, bay scallops and sea scallops.

Mere Point Oyster Co. is owned by Dan Devereaux and Doug Niven.

Supporters of the petition spoke about it at a Tuesday news conference at the State House.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Generations of Maine fishermen keep shuckin’ in the cold

February 22, 2019 — The salt water of Casco Bay is in Alex Todd’s blood.

“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” he said as he headed out off Chebeague Island with the sun just starting to peak above the horizon.

His boat, the Jacob & Joshua, named after his sons are out on these waters year-round.

Todd’s 17-year-old son Joshua was spending his February school vacation out on the boat fishing for scallops.

Joshua and sternman Levi Gloden pulled in shellfish in subzero temperatures as ice started to build up on the deck.

“It’s harder on them than it is on me,” Alex Todd said.

As the boat’s captain, Todd careful picks locations to drag the ocean floor for the prized shellfish, all from the comfort of the heated cabin where he sips his morning coffee.

“Every once in a while I’ll open the door and say, ‘Now do you think I should take a shirt off or? You know what I’m getting a little hot,’” Todd said. “I get a kick out of it but they don’t see the humor as much.”

That sense of humor is what keeps the crew going through the harsh winter months.

With every catch, Joshua and Levi alternate jobs, then sort and measure every shellfish by hand and throwing them in baskets.

Read the full story at News Center Maine