April 5, 2023 — It was the first official evening of spring and Mike Gaffney was ankle-deep in the mud of the tidal flats of his Georgetown oyster farm with two researchers.
The trio weren’t there for oysters – a delicacy at the center of an aquaculture boom in Maine – but were, instead, checking on an experiment that some hope could help usher in industry in the state. Half-buried in the mud were about a dozen mesh bags and crates containing thousands of tiny hard-shell clams, also known as quahogs.
“I have to say I am really glad to see them all here because we did have a period of really cold weather,” said Marissa McMahan, director of fisheries at Manomet, a scientific nonprofit studying how climate change is affecting species in the Gulf of Maine. “There’s a bridge down there that you can see. I would drive by and look into the cove and see ice everywhere. And it was like, ‘Oh no, I hope those bags are still here.’ So this is great!”