Maine’s aquaculture industry “is by far one of the most innovative sectors in the marine space, no holds barred,” In part because the industry is young and entrepreneurs are learning while doing, said one industry leader.
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Working in an uninsulated, unheated, unelectrified barn, Charlie Walsh and Jon Steuber are building what look like lobster traps but are actually a new type of shellfish farming grow cage called the Maine Scallop Pot.
Their Thomaston startup, Seascale, last year swept all three categories and $25,000 in prizes at a pitch competition held by Dirigo Labs in Waterville. “We built the Maine Scallop Pot to make aquaculture a real, viable option for working fishermen, not just in Maine, but anywhere traditional fisheries are facing pressure,” says Steuber. Seascale is one of a number of intriguing aquaculture startups cropping up in recent years. Others are eyeing cultivation technology, biomedical products and land-based fish farms. Aquaculture was identified by Maine’s Blue Economy Task Force as an industry with growth potential, says Beth Orcutt, vice president for research at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay. The task force, part of the Department of Economic and Community Development, supports Maine’s emergence in blue economy innovation and opportunity. “Blue economy” means business sectors that rely on the sustainable use of ocean resources.New ideas
Maine leads the nation in seaweed farming, but there’s plenty of opportunity to develop innovative methods and technologies in the aquaculture industry overall, says Orcutt. “We’re really in the early stage — seeing what’s working, what regulatory changes and incentives we need to help the industry grow,” she says. “Our sector is really based on innovation, even going back to the early days,” says Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association. A number of innovations developed in Maine have percolated into other parts of the world — in particular, guiding principles for best management practices which, in turn, have carried into seafood certification programs, says Belle. Maine’s aquaculture industry “is by far one of the most innovative sectors in the marine space, no holds barred,” he says. In part, that’s because the industry is young and entrepreneurs are learning while doing. “And in part it’s because we have a tremendously innovative group of business people. It’s kind of their life’s blood,” he says.Sweat equity
Those innovative people are cultivating new ideas around products, methods and technology. At Seascale, the shellfish grow cages haul, set and stack like lobster traps. But they’re purpose-built for shellfish culture and fitted with shellfish bags. Walsh grew up on the Maine coast. His career includes lobstering, managing puffin and tern colonies for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and working with the University of Maine’s experimental shellfish hatchery, Maine Sea Farms and Pemaquid Oyster Co. Steuber co-founded a youth mentorship and community development organization in Valparaíso, Chile. Since 2019, he’s worked as a lobster boat sternman, helping his boat diversify into kelp production. The Seascale concept started in 2024. Each invested about $2,000 plus sweat equity and revenue from initial sales. Both continue to work their day jobs as a sternman and oyster grower. Business support has come from academic and nonprofit partners including Dirigo, Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s Blue Tech Boost Incubator, Maine Technology Institute’s Maine Entrepreneurial Resource Corps, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, Brady Lab at University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center, Maine Sea Grant, Island Institute and Coastal Enterprises Inc. Marketing is mostly direct with fishermen, aquaculturists and researchers at trade shows, wharfs and gear demonstrations.Doodles and pliers
“Jon and I have been friends going on 16 years,” says Walsh. “We’ve been orbiting each other in terms of interests and professional endeavors for years.” The idea for Seascale originated with Walsh. The daydream was that aquaculture could work as efficiently and quickly with the same form factor as lobster fishing. “Two years ago, it was a doodle on a yellow legal pad,” says Walsh. “I sat down with Jon and said, ‘Do you think this has any legs?” The two bought a couple of rolls of covered wire mesh typical for lobster traps, which they cut, bent and J-clipped by hand — jobs typically done with pneumatic tools. “In terms of figuring out the design and putting it together, the first pot took us about eight hours, doing every connection with a pair of pliers,” says Walsh. “The Cro-Magnon way,” Steuber jokes. Tests began in 2024 on the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center’s experimental aquaculture lease site off Walpole. Successive iterations went to lobstermen experienced with aquaculture diversification. The gear can be used on state-permitted aquaculture lease sites; the partners are pursuing a regulatory change that would allow the gear’s use alongside lobstering operations. To date, they’ve sold over 200 cages to a dozen customers, including researchers and aquaculturalists in Maine and beyond. Walsh and Steuber now work with Thomaston lobster trap producer Brooks Trap Mill to process components while they complete final assembly and design custom versions requested by customers for species such as clams and urchins. “These are species that want cold, deep water where fishermen were already fishing and they have pathways to market,” says Walsh. “A lot of it was looking at the Venn diagram of commercial fishing and aquaculture.”Data tools
In Gouldsboro, Springtide Seaweed LLC has the largest seaweed farm in Maine; has trained hundreds of seaweed farmers in the U.S., Europe, Australia and Asia; provides nursery and farm technology and services to cultivate seaweed and green sea urchins to industry and research institutions throughout the U.S.; and operates the nation’s only commercial green urchin hatchery.
Biotech
Salmonics LLC in Brunswick turns blood byproduct derived from farm-grown fish during harvest into biomedical products and pre-cursors for research, diagnostic purposes, and for wound healing, pain management and trauma care applications in veterinary medicine. Founded in 2020 by Cem Giray, Salmonics partners with aquaculture companies that provide the raw material, fish blood. Customers include researchers, diagnostic companies and manufacturers.
‘Plug-and-play’
Saco Bay Sea Farms, a Yarmouth startup founded by Michael Scannell and Nick Poulin, is developing a “plug-and-play” aquaculture coworking space, allowing farmers to test sea farming practices at a fraction of the cost typically required. The model allows new farmers to rent sea space within an existing aquaculture site to test practices at a fraction of the time and cost typically required. The farm lease will include a high-density mooring system that supports multiple lines for growing product such as kelp. There will be an aquaculture support vessel and on-demand employees with aquaculture experience. Scannell and Poulin recently won Maine Center for Entrepreneurs’ Top Gun showcase pitch competition for the concept. The win came with a $25,000 prize to help build the business. Founded in 2025, the company cultivates sea scallops, green sea urchins and sugar kelp and has several research contracts, including the universities of Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, experimenting with co-culture of scallops and urchins and deep-water aquaculture. Scannell began his career fishing commercially for lobsters in Saco Bay before diversifying into aquaculture. He’s been part of two Maine delegations to Japan studying farm-raised scallop and urchin methods and technology. “We’re particularly interested in the seaweed-to-urchin pipeline and how urchins can become a viable emerging crop in Maine,” he says.Land-based fish farms
Dutch fish farmer Kingfish Co. says it will continue planning for construction of a land-based aquaculture operation in Jonesport, after it won a court victory in Maine affirming state permits for the site. The company produces yellowtail kingfish — considered a versatile fish species — at its facility in the Netherlands. The proposal for Jonesport is to build a 500,000-square-foot recirculating aquaculture system facility in a phased build-out. Despite multiple appeals by opposition groups, denied each time, Kingfish Maine remains fully permitted and is submitting a Maine Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit renewal to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, says Tom Sorby, Kingfish Maine’s operations manager.
Lessons from Japan
A delegation organized by Maine Sea Grant and University of Maine Cooperative Extension traveled earlier this year to Hokkaido, Japan, to study advanced sea urchin farming techniques and explore how they could be adapted to strengthen Maine’s industry. Japanese techniques range from open water wild harvest to bottom leasing, confined structures and submerged cage culture, says Hugh Cowperthwaite, Coastal Enterprises Inc.’s senior program director for fisheries and aquaculture, who helped coordinate the trip. The trip builds on collaboration between Maine and Japan’s marine industries, particularly in scallops.
