October 6, 2025 — A delegation of eight professionals from Maine will visit Aomori and Hokkaido, Japan to study the Japanese farm-raised sea scallop industry. From October 13 through 17, 2025 the group will visit the northern prefectures of Aomori and Hokkaido, both of which have a climate and seasonality like Maine and are rooted in natural resource-based economies.
The trip was co-organized by Hugh Cowperthwaite, senior program director of fisheries and aquaculture for Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI); Keiichiro Hamano, CEO of Japan Fishing Machine, LLC; and Dr. Yoshinobu Kosaka, an expert on the physiology, ecology, and aquaculture of scallops. Dana Morse, Senior Extension Program Manager for Maine Sea Grant and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, provided additional support, drawing on his instrumental role in previous exchanges, which began with his 1999 visit to Aomori to study the scallop industry. Cowperthwaite and Morse have been working on collaborative research and technology transfer initiatives together since 2002. Their work began initially with sea scallop spat collection, but their work has expanded to include farmed scallops, kelp and most recently, the two are collaborating on efforts to promote the growth of farmed green sea urchins in Maine.
“Technology transfer is one of the fastest ways to build, support and ramp up an industry,” said Cowperthwaite. “By spending time in Japan, our hope is to gain first-hand experience meeting growers, harvesters, processors, retailers, restaurateurs, and scientists to learn how sea scallops are grown, harvested, processed, marketed and made into various products to continue our work in Maine diversifying Maine’s coastal economy.”
“We have learned so much over the years about scallop farming from our Japanese colleagues, so much that we now have a farmed industry in Maine and are seeing very promising results,” said Morse.