Saving Seafood

  • Home
  • News
    • Alerts
    • Conservation & Environment
    • Council Actions
    • Economic Impact
    • Enforcement
    • International & Trade
    • Law
    • Management & Regulation
    • Regulations
    • Nutrition
    • Opinion
    • Other News
    • Safety
    • Science
    • State and Local
  • News by Region
    • New England
    • Mid-Atlantic
    • South Atlantic
    • Gulf of Mexico
    • Pacific
    • North Pacific
    • Western Pacific
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Fishing Terms Glossary

Why Maine lobstermen are looking to farmed scallops to stay afloat

October 3, 2018 โ€” Marsden Brewer is a third-generation Maine fishermen who docks in Stonington.

โ€œIโ€™ve been involved in all the fisheries over my lifetime,โ€ he said.

These days itโ€™s mostly lobster, but he has fished cod and shrimp, and carted urchin to market. These once-vibrant species are now mostly off-limits after being overfished and weakened by climate change.

โ€œIโ€™ve seen the collapse and been part of the collapse of most of the fisheries. Not intentionally, but just the way it was set up to work, it wasnโ€™t sustainable, and this project here is looking at sustainability in a fishery,โ€ he said.

The project Brewer refers to is a 20-year effort to diversify his business by developing a profitable scallop farm. He used to scatter baby scallops in the bay, then trawl up the adults a couple years later. Success was limited though.

Now, from his 38-foot lobster boat moored more than a mile offshore, heโ€™s experimenting with methods from Japan, where scallop farming is a long tradition.

Brewer, his son Bobby and Dana Morse, a marine extension agent with the University of Maine, winch up from the depths a long rope strung with 12-foot dark mesh bags. The collapsible bags are partitioned by horizontal shelves, giving them the look of giant Japanese paper lanterns. Inside, each level holds 20 or so squirting scallops.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News

The shortest route between Maine and Japan: scallops

November 10th, 2016 โ€” Last month, lobstermen Marsden Brewer and his son, Bobby, joined a delegation of Maine fishermen and aquaculturists on a visit to Aomori on the northern coast of Japanโ€™s major island to learn about the latest techniques for cultivating scallops.

Among their hosts was Hiroaki Sugiyama, an inventor and manufacturer of high-tech machinery used in Japanโ€™s enormous scallop aquaculture industry.

On Monday, the Brewers returned the favor. Sugiyama arrived in the U.S. Sunday night for a four-day visit to learn about what is happening in Maineโ€™s nascent scallop aquaculture industry. After a stop at a newly-formed aquaculture cooperative in Spruce Head, and a boat ride to visit an experimental scallop growing operation, Sugiyama and his Maine hosts traveled to Stonington for more talk about scallop aquaculture, and a terrific lunch, hosted by Marsden and Donna Brewer at their Red Barn Farm.

Brewer first travelled to Aomori in 1999 as a member of a study mission organized by the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center. Including fishermen, scientists and representatives of the University of Maine Sea Grant program, the group visited Mutsu Bay in Aomori Prefecture where the Japanese scallop is intensively cultivated both on longlines and on the seabed.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American 

MAINE: Island fishermen learn (more) about aquaculture in Japan

October 27, 2016 โ€” Local fisherman Marsden Brewer and his son, Bobby Brewer, have recently returned from a one-week excursion to Aomori, Japan, where they spent time studying the Japanese methods of growing scallops through aquaculture.

Growing scallops, as opposed to fishing them, has become a topic of interest in the area over the last few years; however, Brewer said it is something the Japanese have been doing for decades.

โ€œTheyโ€™ve long since brought their fishing industry to its knees as of several years ago, so they had to come up with an alternative way to still use the ocean to feed their families,โ€ said Brewer at his home Tuesday, October 18. โ€œThatโ€™s why we went over there, to learn how they do it, because theyโ€™ve discovered so many ways of becoming more and more efficient. Itโ€™s really quite amazing.โ€

Brewer said the technique he was most impressed with was a 600-foot-long line that went 15-feet down into the water. Scallops are hung on that line to grow.

โ€œThe thing I liked most about that is the line is hung from three buoys. So, if you look at it from above, all you see on the surface are those three buoys. It doesnโ€™t look like a whole system coming out of the water,โ€ he said.

Read the full story at Island Advantages

Recent Headlines

  • ASC launches ASC Farm Standard
  • US legislation would require FDA approval of foreign shrimp production facilities
  • MASSCHUSETTS: Two Guatemalan fisheries workers arrested in early-morning operation
  • Data now coming straight from the deck
  • ALASKA: Alaskaโ€™s 2025 salmon forecast more than doubles last year
  • Seafood sales at US retail maintain momentum, soar in April
  • US Wind Offers $20 Million to Local Fishermen under New Proposal
  • ALASKA: Projected 2025 Copper River sockeye commercial harvest nears 2 million fish

Most Popular Topics

Alaska Aquaculture ASMFC Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission BOEM California China Climate change Coronavirus COVID-19 Donald Trump groundfish Gulf of Maine Gulf of Mexico Hawaii Illegal fishing IUU fishing Lobster Maine Massachusetts Mid-Atlantic National Marine Fisheries Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NEFMC New Bedford New England New England Fishery Management Council New Jersey New York NMFS NOAA NOAA Fisheries North Atlantic right whales North Carolina North Pacific offshore energy Offshore wind Pacific right whales Salmon South Atlantic Western Pacific Whales wind energy Wind Farms

Daily Updates & Alerts

Enter your email address to receive daily updates and alerts:
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Tweets by @savingseafood

Copyright ยฉ 2025 Saving Seafood ยท WordPress Web Design by Jessee Productions

Notifications