The Homemade Bento Box - 1 February, 2012

And the good ideas just keep rolling.....

Today, Sarah and I visited with Blaine and Ginny Olsen, the owners and operators of Oceanville Seafood, up in Stonington, and also the relatively-new owners of Long Cove Oysters, named after the body of water that's nearly right spang in their back yard.  Blaine and Ginny had gotten some kelp lines from Paul and Tollef, and were game to join our project, so up we went, to check out their lines, and take some water quality samples.  Like a dud, I forgot the temp logger in the truck - will have to send it up for them to deploy.

Needless to say, Long Cove is beautiful, even though we went there on a cold, overcast day.  It was just about flat calm, and just a wonderful winter scene. Blaine, who's been clamming and fishing commercially in Stonington his entire life, narrated things about the place that made it all the more attractive: how, just near the head of the cove, there is 100 feet of water and many a halibut handlined out of there; how the packets used to come to the wharf at the head of the cove, freighted with steamer clams ready for pickling, or how the guy on the shore got caught with tons of marijuana a few years back - a boat was parking out front that just happened to be up from Colombia, and the people on the shore needed conveyer belts to move the stuff around.  It's great to have a tour guide with that kind of historical knowledge.

Anyway, off we went, and we got our samples in the cold weather, and Blaine took us around the place a bit.  I didn't get a great photo of him, but I think Sarah did, and I'll do my best to post it, but here's one of the two of them. One of the places of interest was a spot where the kelp grew well, and so Sarah just had to see all about it - she's a hardcore seaweed nut, that's for sure - and I mean that in the most complimentary sense.  Boy, did she smile! 

Blaine and Sarah checking out the local kelp crop

Clearly, this is a Kelp Enthusiast.

I've gotten a lot out of listening to people who know something about kelp, and this was no different; learning about the different tissue types, spawning process and seasons, etc.  When the topic of taste came up, I took a couple of bites on the 'wing' of the kelp, and I found it to be pretty nice indeed!  Very mild, crunchy, and would be great with all kinds of foods. so, I'm starting to feel like a real convert. 

We got back to their shop, and Ginny informs us that they've been smoking mussels, and asks if we'd like to try some. Easiest question of the day, because I am a smoked seafood nut.  As it turns out, and not unexpectedly, the mussels were delicious, so I'm betting that they've got a winner on their hands.

The unexpected part came later on when Sarah sends a few photos back, saying that she created essentially a little Bento box - sort of a Japanese lunch combo, on the fast-food-ish side - out of the kelp and the mussels.  One part of the kelp she boiled, and one she just chopped up. The boiled kelp became this absolutely gorgeous bright green, and when set with the mussels and the brown kelp - WOW!  I'm looking at the pictures drooling, and wishing I'd been there at suppertime.  Bottom line being: here is a dish that features all products from the sea - essentially 'sea meat and sea vegetables' in a combination that is delicious and stunning.  Our photographs are not professional, but I hope you get the idea.  This is a dish ready to go, and I heartily encourage you all to try it.  Who knows what other recipes and products will evolve in this area, but I'm already convinced, and looking forward to the next months and years in the aquaculture game - it's gonna be exciting.

The uncooked kelp on the left is just chopped up from the tender side pieces - the wings - and was added to miso soup. The kelp on the right was boiled for a minute or so, and became brilliant green.

Boiled kelp closer up; nice photo Sarah, and a gorgeous dish

And here's the Bento Box. Granted, it's in the container that the mussels came in, but you can pretty easily guess at the possibilities....

Why Tech Transfer is Such a Blast

A Little Reminder on Why Tech Transfer is Such a Blast

So, on the last day of 2011, our little Kelp and Mussel Team was to be found on the shores of Lamoine State Park, with the wind blowing about a steady 15-25, and a light rain, headed out to the mussel rafts to set out another 300+ feet of kelp lines.  Today, it was Carter Newell (Pemaquid Mussel Farm), Tollef Olson (Ocean Approved), Shep Erhardt (Maine Coast Sea Vegetables), Ron Hinkle (independent seaweed harvester), Sarah Redmond (Maine Sea Grant) and yours truly. Oh, and Polar, Sarah's dog - he stayed in her car, but played an important role later on.

We bounced around on the rafts, and fortunately, it was cool but not cold, probably 34 deg F; so much so that no gloves were needed, though we were all pretty bundled up otherwise. The winter has been so warm that the water was still pretty toasty too, and that didn't hurt.  Anyway, we got our lines set out, bounced around a bunch on the raft and in the boat, and we all stayed more or less dry.  During the whole time, there was a steady stream of discussion: about the project, about the mussel and seaweed industries, different strains of kelp and the conditions under which they grow, boats, markets, etc etc etc. 

It was this discussion that was so intriguing.  Tollef and Shep are to some degree in competition, as they both are looking to source kelp for their businesses.  Ron was skeptical of several aspects of the project, although he's hoping for success, and interested in following the project as it moves along.  Carter had at different points helped Tollef with mussel culture information, and then been a competitor when they were both in the mussel business, and now into a different relationship, since Tollef sold his mussel business and focused on seaweed, and has a lot of knowledge on seaweed to offer all the rest of us.  With all that background, there we were, ducking under the rain, excited to be testing this new approach, and happy as the proverbial clams to talk shop with one another. 

This isn't new either; talking shop is what it's all about, whether it's oyster farmers from the US and Canada, or fishermen from East and West Coasts, or potato farmers in The County and their Idaho counterparts.  The competitive environment always exists, but at the heart, there's almost always more to be found in common; people enthusiastic about their work, and facing a lot of the same problems in keeping their businesses alive and kicking.  The walls between are surprisingly fragile when both parties are trying to figure out something like having predators steal your crop, and the give-and-take that results is usually very productive.  Plus, it's fun. 

Which brings us back to the dog. 

In the photo below, Polar is obviously suspecting some trickery from the tennis ball on the ground, and remains at strict attention, to ensure that nothing gets by him, thank you very much.  In the background however, are Sarah and Ron (foreground) and Tollef and Shep.  They're talking.  It's getting late, we're all headed off to our New Year's fun, many of us have a long drive ahead, and we're wet and getting cold, but it's still too interesting to leave off, and so the talk continued. 

Tech Transfer, and Canine Attentiveness in Lamoine, Maine, Dec 31, 2011

Looking forward to the next round...

Off and Running

December 16 2011, Project Update

 A Pilot Project to Stimulate Seaweed Production on Mussel Farms in Maine

Funding: Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, with lots of match from industry partners, and Maine Sea Grant

We're IMTA active, folks!  A couple of weeks ago, Tollef Olson, Paul Dobbins and Matt Moretti planted seedling lines out on Matt's farm in Casco Bay. That, I believe, made it the first kelp/mussel IMTA farm in the US, and we're pretty stoked about it. 

This week, Sarah and I met up with Tollef, and seeded in rafts on Peter Fischer's site in Walpole, and Joe Larrabee's site in Northport - they are both part of Pemaquid Mussel Farms.  We also met with Evan Young, of Blue Hill Bay Mussels, but it was blowing a gale from the south, and not a good day to be out on that site, given its' exposure. So, we ended up hanging the spools of seed lines off a float temporarily, until Evan can get back out and seed his raft in with them - should be no problem.

L-R: Tollef Olson,  Peter Fischer, Sarah Redmond

Anyway, on Wednesday, we started over at Peter's.  He wanted to hang the lines under one of his rafts, and he'd devised a plan to place one person at the far end of the raft (turned out to be me), and use a 'messenger line' to draw the longline through the seeding tube. Tollef and Peter worked on that end, since Tollef had the technique down for letting the line off the spool. Sarah took all kinds of photos, and helped out with the seeding end of things, and with equipment going back and forth.  Great to hear her talk about seaweeds too; biology and physiology, ecology; the whole nine yards. 

Juvenile kelps on seeding strings, around PVC pipe

The process is simple and effective.  Ocean Approved had done the hatchery work about 40 days ago, to produce the spores and then to set the spores on strings, which are wrapped around a PVC pipe.  Each pipe contains enough string to seed about 200 feet of line.  The horizontal longline is drawn through the PVC pipe, and the string is tied to the longline. As the longline is pulled through the pipe, the string unwinds, and spirals itself around the longline.  It'll take a few weeks for the young plants to 'step off' the string, and grow on to the longline, but once they do, their holdfasts will…well….hold them fast to the longline. 

It was cold to start, but we got into a rhythm,

Seed lines unspooling around longline

hanging lines at depths of either 3 or 7 feet. This is to test growth and quality in relation to sunlight; too much is not good and neither is too little.  About 9am, Pete Smith (Pemaquid Oyster Co) came rowing out to see what we were up to, and brought over some oysters - man, were they good!  Just out of the water, cold and salty…..yum.  After our little morning break, we kept going, and ended up with a total of 17 lines under one raft. 

Pete Smith (right) of Pemaquid Oyster Co - thanks Pete!

Peter's raft, seeded in!

Our water quality data collection includes sampling for nitrate and ammonia, so we gathered samples at the rafts and a short distance away, for baseline information, and then took some info on secchi depth and salinity. We set out an iBcod temp data logger, set to sample every 30 minutes - we can swap that out later, or leave it for the whole 4-6 month growout period.  The hope is to begin to draw some correlations between the growth we observe, and the measurements for these various parameters.  It certainly won't solve any specific puzzle, but might provide the right material for more focused research in the future.

The sun was coming out, and it was getting warm; things shaping up nicely. 

The afternoon was spent up at the Northport site; Joe picked us up in the skiff and out we went - Carter and crew were out there working on the middle raft, and we went to the northern raft and set in our lines there.  Since we'd used essentially the same setup as down in Walpole, it went pretty quickly, and we got the lines settled in with no delay.  More water samples, and a quick chat with the crew, and we headed back to the wharf.  The wharf itself is in the little community of Bayside, a little bit south of Belfast, and it's sort of a secluded little secret - like a summertime beach community, only without the beach.  I had Cape May in mind, for some reason, but anyway, lots of tidy and pretty houses set one close to another, facing a town common just up the shore from the wharf, and a great view across western Pen Bay, to Islesboro.

Joe Larrabee's site in Northport: harvest barge Mumbles and Tim Levesque (also of PMC) with his boat F/V Thunder Bay, working on predator nets, etc.

And that brought us to Thursday morning, and the aforementioned bad weather.  We stood in the parking lot talking about the project, the prospects for seaweeds along the coast, and how we were all looking forward to watching this particular batch of kelp grow.  Even there in the rain and the wind, it was pretty exciting; this is a new venture, with its own set of obstacles and opportunities, but nice to have some of the kelp lines already in and doing their work.  Evan will get a chance to set his lines out, and our next deployments will be on raft sites in Stonington and Lamoine (Pemaquid Mussel), and hopefully on the longline farm that Erick Swanson has for his company, Maine Cultured Mussels, out by Long Island in Blue Hill Bay.

European Oysters at the Downeast Institute, Beals Island, Maine

The European oyster, flat oyster, belon, or mud oyster all refer to the bivalve Ostrea edulis, native to western Europe and introduced into Maine waters near Boothbay Harbor in 1949. Ask a true oyster gourmand and they will call it the best oyster available globally. Ask someone who's got some experience growing them, or working with them in the hatchery, and you'll get a mix of smiles, gritted teeth and a downright Eeyore gloom. In the oyster kingdom, flat oysters have to be most persnickety, mysterious and tantalizing variety out there.

The European industry has fallen (forgive me) flat, and the production from the East Coast of the US and Canada is not going to take the world over, despite tries from very inventive and persistent folks. Ditto for the west coast, and there are two main reasons for this. The first is that a parasite called Bonamia, which affects the hemocytes (blood cells) of the oyster, and is responsible for periodic die-offs of wild and cultured flat oysters: an intimidating enough obstacle. The second – and the reason for this post – is that they are often troublesome in the hatchery.

Some of the juvenile flat oysters produced at DEI. 

Chris Bartlett photo.

Many oyster species are broadcast spawners, meaning that sperm and eggs are released directly into the water, in hopes that the one finds and fertilizes the other. But oh no, that's not good enough for the flat oyster. They have to go and be different, to the point that the female holds on to the eggs, and allows them to be fertilized by sperm in the incoming water. Then, she even goes so far as to allow the embryos to develop for a while attached to her gills, before then ejecting them as free-swimming larvae. Added to this the complexity, is the life-cycle of Ostrea being a “protandric hermaphrodite.” That is, this oyster has the capacity to change its gender twice during a single season – spawning as a female, then changing to a male for a while, then back again! All this causes a lot of difficulty for the hatchery manager, who needs to reliably produce millions of oyster larvae to be financially solvent.

Meanwhile, there is a limited supply of flat oysters to meet the demand, and even though demand is not as large as for say, the Eastern oyster, it's a dedicated following, and there is money to be made for them's that can grow and market the right product.

Which brings me to the Downeast Institute (DEI), on Great Wass Island in the town of Beals, Maine; and the name says it. You come out hear, dear (they say 'heah' and 'deah' of course – music to my Mainer ears), and you have indeed arrived Down East.

Dr. Brian Beal oversees shellfish production and research at DEI; he's a professor at nearby University of Maine at Machias, and he's been working with shellfish for a few decades now. He and his staff, Hatchery Manager George Protopopescu and assistant Kyle Pepperman have been trying to get their flat oysters through full production for a couple of years, and have had decidedly mixed success. In 2009, they had a good run, producing 100,000 juveniles, but since then have had little joy.

The main problem is in the larval phase; that roughly two-week period of time when the larvae have left the female, and are being fed and cared for by the hatchery. Worms and other animals that hitchhike on the shells of the adults end up spawning as well and their tiny offspring compete for food with the small oysters, or eat them, or just change the water quality to a poor state for oyster larvae. While the DEI staff have overcome a large part of this by the novel approach of spreading a marine adhesive over the shells (prevents the hitchhikers from spawning), they still have a bit of a problem to overcome.

Also, there seems to be a bacterium at play in the larval tanks, one that ends up killing small oysters such that they end up clumped up in a pile, dead. Brian, George and Kyle are experimenting with some prophylactic approaches for this, but I can tell you that she ain't solved yet.

So, when I stopped in to talk with George and Kyle on Monday last, George was realistic (not what you'd call giddy) about the chances for the upcoming spawn, while being optimistic about the effectiveness of their new procedures, and chances for success. If they are successful, then oysters will go out to cooperators in industry for nursery culture and growout. Since flat oysters like cooler, more moderate water temperatures than their Eastern cousins, and since we've got a lot of that kind of water around here in Maine, they are a reasonable species to culture, especially for the many fishermen in the state who are beginning to experiment with aquaculture.

Above: Dan Canfield, a shellfish grower out of Tenant's Harbor, Maine and a former commercial fisherman, has a few flat oysters on his farm, and hopes to begin going to market in 2011.

So, for now, my visit was a reinforcement of the promise and the problems with the flat oyster. A couple of years ago, I organized a session on O. edulis at the Northeast Aquaculture Conference and Expo (NACE) in Portland, and one of the titles in the session summed it up accurately. Dr. Andre Mallet, who hails from Shippagan, New Brunswick, and who is himself an accomplished scientist and shellfish producer, called the flat oyster the Beast of Sorrow. Sheesh. Nonetheless, given the allure of a steady supply of belons to the market, I'm sure that Brian and company will persist, and they are every bit as likely as anyone to succeed.

Aquaculture is not for the faint of heart.

Income Diversity and the Maine Seafood Producer

Just like fishermen throughout the nation and the world, the yearly cycle of the Maine fisherman has changed drastically in the last 25 years. One of the most profound changes is that regulations designed to protect stocks of fish and shellfish have set Maine's fishing men and women into boxes, often having to become single-species specialists, where before they were active in multiple fisheries. We all know someone who can say: "It used to be that I'd go scalloping and shrimping in the winter, dig clams on the side, fish a few lobsters, and go groundfishing when I could. Now, I'm shut out, and pretty much all I can do is go lobstering."


The effects of this pigeonholing are just as well known, ranging from economic hardship for fishing families, to having to fish harder and harder, just to stay ahead. Opportunities for diversifying have been few and far between, though the need to do so has remained.

In recent years, a handful of fishermen in Maine have found a way to diversify their income through becoming shellfish farmers. While aquaculture and fishing have not always gotten along, there are about 20 shellfish growers in Maine who are either still active fishermen, or who came from the fishing industry originally. In places like North Haven, Harpswell, Mount Desert, South Bristol, Brooksville, Machaisport, and Portland, fishermen have discovered a farmer living someplace inside, and have made a transition where 'Fisherman' includes both capture and culture. In places like Rhode Island, which has a rich commercial shellfishing history, probably 70% of the current aquaculturists are either active or former fishermen.

Back in 1999, I took part in a trip to Aomori Prefecture in Japan, together with several fishermen from Maine, as well as a processor, scientists and resource managers. We were investigating scallop production there, and ended up sitting down with a group of fishermen, at one of their cooperatives. When the talk got around to discussing the tension between aquaculture and wild harvest fishing, the Japanese fishermen looked confused – they didn't get what we were talking about. Eventually we came to understand that, for them, there has been no differentiation between fisherman and farmer for a long time now: those people are in fact the same person, and it all came down to just being a producer of seafood. Now, while Maine isn't Japan, it appears that this transition has been walking along slowly in our state for several years, and that it's likely to continue.

It's just as likely that getting into shellfish growing isn't going to be for every fisherman, but there are some good reasons why fishermen might want to try.

First of all, I'd argue that it's natural for some. There are those who say that hunters aren't farmers, and that's probably true to some extent. On the other hand, how many lobstermen have patted a short lobster, and tossed it over the rail saying 'See you next year." They know that with time and good management, they stand a chance of getting that lobster back in the trap when it's ready to go to market. There is some feeding involved, and observations made about health and disease, distribution and behavior. This is the essence of animal husbandry.

The other example of fishermen having a farmer living inside – even if they don't know it – comes from scallop spat collection right here in Maine. Over the years, we've worked with perhaps a couple hundred fishermen on spat collection for stock enhancement. One thing I notice is that when a guy hauls his spat collector up, and sees hundreds or thousands of seed scallops inside (and this does happen), he'll say at least one of two things. The first thing is that he (or she) will wonder is: who gets to fish on the scallops he's captured and reseeded? This is a natural inclination given the time and effort to collect them in the first place. The second thing that's usually said amounts to "Geez, I'd sure like to put these in a cage and grow a few out." That's the farmer speaking, and the businessman, too. So, I'm not in a rush to divide hunters and farmers just yet, they don't have to cancel one another out.

Fishing cooperatives are in a particularly strong position to be involved, and again, Maine leads in this area. Co-ops of course are member driven, so the organization exists to serve the individual fishermen, an important distinction when considering the Maine tradition of 'owner-operator' rather than 'corporate' on the waterfront. Co-ops market product efficiently, purchase materials more cheaply, and serve the many administrative functions that businesses need to survive. In this way, they can hold off the natural market forces that favor consolidation and growth (ie. 'AgriBiz'), and they can act big while staying member-focused. They can also stay connected to the customer, a big consideration in today's food market.

Make no mistake though, there are plenty of obstacles too, and the purpose of this article is not to turn all fishermen into shellfish growers. Space to grow shellfish will always be at a premium, although fishermen are in a great position to choose location well, and to fit in with other users. We also have too short a list of species to grow, and more diversity there would help. Eastern oysters are well proven, but do best in warmer waters than we have over much of the state. European oysters like colder waters and we have plenty of that, but they are tricky to grow; a project through the Downeast Institute is just beginning, that aims to work with fishermen on better husbandry and siting. Blue mussels are a solid product, though mussel farms typically take up more space than your average oyster farm, and require more in terms of capital and equipment. There are opportunities for hard clams (quahogs), scallops and razor clams, but it will be a while before they are fully developed. The good news in all this is that it's possible to start pretty small in the game, to gather knowledge and to test the economics. There is also a good network of technical, business and regulatory help out there, through Maine Dept. of Marine Resources, Maine Aquaculture Association, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, Downeast Institute, Maine Sea Grant (my own institution) and others.

It should be said that slow but solid growth in this transition is probably better than a boom – there are too many stories of booms going bust. There is no room for unprofessional producers, either in aquaculture or fishing, because the seafood industry has to survive on quality product, on safety to the consumer, and on sound business and environmental practices. Americans just don't eat enough seafood, and they demand too much in terms of quality and price to provide producers with a whole lot of wiggle room; and it takes both attention to detail and commitment to grow quality shellfish, just as it does to capture and market a top-shelf lobster. On the other hand, Maine has a spectacular reputation for seafood - this applies to products grown and caught - and the market for Maine-grown shellfish has traditionally been strong.

Overall, the world market for seafood is expected to draw more and more from aquaculture. The National Academy of Sciences notes that aquaculture already makes up more than 50% of global seafood production, and wild-caught seafood has apparently topped out at between 90-100 million metric tons (FAO); this seems to be the limit that the oceans can reasonably produce given current management. A growing population means that demand for seafood will continue to rise, and aquaculture is projected to fill this market.

As for space, there is something to be said for aquaculture: the roughly 700 acres in shellfish production in Maine produces about 3 million dollars in product, supporting over 50 on-the-water jobs. If you assume that a lobster trap in a densely-fished area is about 60 feet from its nearest trap, and that a fisherman has 600 traps, then that fishermen's traps cover roughly 38 acres, and about 18 fishermen cover 700-odd acres. So, in terms of jobs per unit area, aquaculture has something to recommend it, given our crowded coastline.

Shellfish aquaculture is by no means perfect. There are risks for invasive species and disease, and it's possible to overload an area so badly that problems arise. However, just like traditional agriculture and in other aspects of fishing, there are a host of good management practices that keep these risks to a minimum. Integration of fish, shellfish and seaweed (and seaweed also presents another large opportunity) may help to increase the resiliency of our heavily used coastal waters, and because they are filter feeders, shellfish promote good water quality.

More to the point though, what this industry might be able to provide is an opportunity for Maine's fishermen to diversify their income, to use their experience and their vessels, on a venture that can exist quite well with the existing fisheries.

Food for thought.

Shellfish Marketing Workshop

Hi everyone; Below is a quick writeup of the recent workshop...happy reading!

Marketing of cultured shellfish was the topic of the day at a workshop held in Portland, Maine, on April 8th. Producers, two industry associations, specialists in cooperatives and marketing , seafood dealers, scientists, a top-shelf chef, gear suppliers and members of the media were all on hand for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on everything from market-based production on the farm, to the benefits of strong relationships with restaurateurs and chefs.

The workshop was one of a series sponsored by the Northeast Regional Aquaculture Center, through the Regional Extension Project, and was coordinated by Maine Sea Grant / Univ. of Maine Cooperative Extension. Partners in organizing, planning and funding the event include the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, Maine Aquaculture Association, East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, Univ. of Connecticut and Salem State College.

The keynote speaker was Skip Bennett, founder and owner of Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, MA. Island Creek has become a well-recognized producer of quality oysters throughout the country and internationally, and Skip made it clear that quality product and good connections with everybody in the distribution chain – right down to the customer – play a big role in their success. "When I started delivering oysters to the chefs right in the kitchen" he said, "that's when I realized that they really like knowing all about the food they serve, and what I do as a farmer." That experience stuck with him, and he uses it to guide his business, so that his wholesalers, truckers and employees can be responsive to the needs of the market.

Keeping in touch with your markets, and having a marketing plan to drive your production was one of the points followed up by Sebastian Belle of the Maine Aquaculture Association. "Deliver what you market, and market what you deliver" he said, and noted that detailed data on your marketing activities and costs should always be kept, so that your planned work can be judged against reality, allowing the grower to adjust effectively.

He also covered the traditional 4 points of marketing: Product, Price, Packaging and Place, with examples of each, to get producers thinking about how their business are positioned, and how they could look for improvement.

Cooperatives for production, purchasing and marketing were covered by Bill Brockhouse, an agriculture specialist with the USDA in Washington, DC. Bill went step-by-step through the process of cooperative development, and provided a number of materials that growers can use to figure out if a cooperative is right for them. Given that many shellfish producers are smaller operations, one of the advantages of the co-op approach was that a co-op manager can play the role of marketer for the whole group, whereas producers may have a hard time allocating time and financial resources to the important job of marketing.

The topics of branding and certifications were covered by Bob Rheault of the East Coast Shellfish Grower's Association, and it all starts with quality, quality, and quality. Development of your brand in the mind of the customer is a product of hard work and attention to detail, and is a fragile thing. When talking with people in your distribution chain, listen more than you talk, and be open to changing your practices if warranted.

He emphasized the mindset of 'never stop marketing;' use your box, your shirt, your hat, everything to convey a consistent message. On certifications, he things the jury is still out on the market advantage of eco-certifications, but the issue bears watching. For now, the process is driven by larger wholesalers rather than consumers.

The afternoon was devoted to two panel presentations. In the first panel, Tollef Olson (mussel and seaweed grower, Casco Bay, ME), Terry Callery (marketing consultant, Waldoboro, ME) and Jeff Payson (Northeast Transport, Waldoboro, ME) were focused on reaching customers, literally and figuratively, and showed that there's more than one way to skin the cat – or shellfish.

                                 Tollef Olson - Bangs Island Mussels, and Ocean Approved, LLC
          
Tollef began by recognizing that farming shellfish is like farming and fishing everywhere: it's not just a job, it's a way of life. He also emphasized the value of getting in front of customers, through personal contact at events, persistence with distributors and the use of social media, while Terry's message was that growers should focus on growing the best product possible rather than spending their time marketing. He added that, by working with marketing specialists, larger dealers and distributors, and by using some available information on distribution routes, that the jobs of marketing and sales could be taken care of, without taking the farmer off the farm.

Jeff reinforced the value of working with closely with a transport company, noting the several cities his company can access with good regularity, and with full loads, delivery can cost as little as $0.10 per pound. This led to the possibilities of growers working together, and marketing to buyers at a distance, to reduce local competition.

Dave Cheney - Fisherman and oyster grower (left) and Jeff Payson - Owner of Northeast Transport

Jeff (and other speakers) also talked about the value of good packaging, so that your product looks good, and arrives with the best quality possible – sagging, drab, leaky boxes on a pallet are two strikes right off the bat.

The last two speakers – Peter Ramsden (CEO, Foley Fish, Boston, MA) and Jeremy Sewall (Owner and Executive Chef, Lineage and Eastern Standard restaurants, MA), closed the travel of the product through a wholesaler, and finally to the chef's plate. Once again, good lines of communication and strong relationships were watchwords, as was quality. As Peter noted, speaking about relationships and family-run operations like Foley Fish: "We're going to be in the business, and we hope you'll be in the business. We want our grandkids to be buying shellfish from your grandkids."

              Peter Ramsden, CEO of Foley Fish (left) and Abigail Carroll, Nonesuch Oyster Co.

From the standpoint of a distributor, Peter looks for a few key things in his shellfish vendors: a passion for what they do, willingness to be a good communicator, ability to run their operations as real businesses, and a desire to always improve the product.

And to close things up, Jeremy returned the group back to where we began, which was that he loves to hear about the food: how it's grown, where it came from, who grew it, and all those details that help to create a good story behind the food.

A full transcript is in progress for the event, and a companion CD is being developed for distribution through NRAC, extension agents, ECSGA, MAA and others. The CD will contain the transcript, presentations, and a list of printed and on-line resources for producers to help them become effective marketers.

      Jeff (Smokey) McKeen, of Pemaquid Oyster Co, and Peter Fischer, of Pemaquid Mussel Co.

For more information about the workshop, contact Dana Morse, Maine Sea Grant / Univ. of Maine Cooperative Extension, at 207.563.3146 x 205, or by email: dana.morse@maine.edu.

Shellfish Farming and Commercial Fishing - Rob Krause

Nov 17, 2009

Rob Krause, Ninigret Oyster Farm, Charlestown, Rhode Island

Rob has had his own oyster lease for about 5 years now, and has seen steady growth during that time.  He has fished commercially, and continues to do so part time, which was one reason I gave him a call: in Maine, many of the recent entrants into the shellfish aquaculture industry either come from the commercial fishing industry, or they are doing both.  This transition is a really interesting one, and I was curious to hear Rob's take on things.

Rob says that the production from his shellfish farm allows for a relatively steady and predictable income. This is in contrast to the fishing that he does, and even though he'd like to fish more (for example, potting for black sea bass), he finds a nice balance between the two activities, and for him, the industries complement one another.  He's sort of a fisherman with an aquaculture habit.  Or the other way around, it's hard to tell.  Anyway, his operation uses a combination of bottom growing and raft culture (nursery and staging for shipment) in his business, and business appears to be good.

He likes being a price maker rather than a price taker, like many other oysters growers, and it's a little grating some times when he sees product dumped on the market at really low prices. The care he takes in growing a top-quality product has paid off, and he'd like to keep it that was.

As for reactions from other fishermen in the area, he acknowledges that there is some friction, and that loss of fishable bottom has been an issue to some of the guys he talks with. At the same time, he's gotten a fair number of inquiries from other fishermen about his business, and the aquaculture industry.  These guys don't particularly want others to know that they are making the inquiries - which tells you something about the state of affairs generally - but the questions are asked nonetheless.  He estimates that about 2/3 of the state's 30-some shellfish farms are run by folks who have a fishing background, or who still fish commercially as well. Most of these are younger guys, who seem to be a bit more open about the possibilities of shellfish culture as a marine enterprise.

We got talking about the differences between fishing and farming, such as the fact that fishing usually results more or less in an immediate return - you go fishing and you come home with fish - whereas with farming, you have realize that the payday is down the road a piece.   He sees this firsthand for sure, but also says that watching his oysters grow has been helpful in that regard, and that others would probably feel the same way.  It's a little easier to take, knowing that your seed oysters have grown; you develop a kind of relationship with them.  Having said that, he's not expecting a boom in fishermen becoming shellfish growers any time in the near future; it's just too different and difficult a business. 

He and several other shellfish growers have joined forces to create a co-op, and he sees real benefit in this group.  "It's an aquaculture think tank" is what he says, and instead of being competitors, is a forum for sharing ideas and trying things out.  It also really helps in sharing the costs for becoming a Certified Shellfish Dealer, and he figures it is saving him about $1200 a year. 

To get in touch with Rob, drop him a line a ninigretoysters@cox.net. or give a little Google on Ninigret Oyster Farm; though he does not have his own website, there is information on various pages on the web that will be useful.

Nice talking with you, Rob!