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Maine Clam Farming Experiment Aims to Protect Resource from Green Crab Invasion

This article was originally published by Maine Public Broadcasting on September 2, 2015. The article was written by Tom Porter. View the original article here. GEORGETOWN, Maine - For generations, Mainers have harvested clams by digging down into the tidal flats along the coast, moving from spot to spot and carefully pulling them out one by one from the muck. But the clam, and the clamming industry, are facing a new challenge, with the huge increase in recent years of the invasive predator known as the green crab. One harvester in the Midcoast has employed an unusual method to protect his resource from green crabs, and it's an approach that could one day be adopted statewide. If you're going out onto the mud flats at low...

Clammer Says He’s Hit Paydirt

This article was originally published by the Portland Press Herald on August 2, 2015. The article was written by Colin Woodward. View the original article here. GEORGETOWN — Marching across the clam flats near the head of Heal Eddy, you notice two things. First, both the seafloor and the sea grass meadows on the shoreline are cratered with holes – the work of green crabs, the voracious crustaceans blamed for the widespread destruction of the state’s soft-shell clams. Then you see Chris Warner’s response: five long rows of what appear to be net-covered garden beds, some 70 patches in all, spread across the exposed ocean bottom at the mouth of a 300-foot-wide cove. Beneath the netting, protected from the hungry crabs, the tiny seed...

Lessons from ‘the last clam’: Casco Bay shellfish ‘renaissance’

This article was originally published by the Bangor Daily News on July 31, 2015. The article was written by Beth Brogan. View the original article here. BRUNSWICK, Maine — Tim Johnson of Harpswell had been clamming for more than 30 years when, in 2014, he hung up his hoe. Between predators such as the invasive green crab and other factors, the flats just weren’t profitable any more. “We’d go out, and there’s nothing there,” Johnson of Brunswick said. “It’s kind of depressing to dig the last clam.” In fact, the legal amount of softshell clams being harvested are down 70 percent since the green crab invasion of recent years, Brunswick Marine Resources Officer Dan Devereaux said — though he said the invasive crustaceans seem to...

Digging for Answers: Students, Science and a Whole Lot of Mud

Written by Liza LePage, Digital Media Specialist   On a sunny June afternoon, I joined the entire 4th, 5th, and 6th grades from Georgetown (Maine) Central School for a field trip down to a local clam flat. The students and their teachers came eager to discover the results of an experiment that they had started this past fall.   Their study site is situated next to the state’s first commercial-size soft-shell clam farm—an experimental project that Manomet and shellfish harvester Chris Warner started two years ago.   When I first arrived, I was immediately greeted by Jay Holt, who owns the property that surrounds the flat. Like the students, Holt was eager to see what the students’ experiment would uncover and...

Beating the green crabs in Georgetown

This article was orginally published on May 19, 2015 by the Island Institute. The article was written by Heather Deese and Susie Arnold, view the orginal article here. "We believe, yes!" This is Georgetown clammer Chris Warner's answer to the question: Can a single shellfish harvester with a small up-front investment create a viable soft-shell clam farm and beat the green crabs? But you don't need to take his word for it. Just visit the Heal Eddy Clam Restoration Project in Georgetown. Under protective netting keeping the green crabs out, you can see evidence of clams everywhere. In an adjacent experimental plot, without a net, there are no clams. Warner first started to notice the impact of green crabs about five years...

Celebrate Delaware Bay

  Each May, hundreds of thousands of shorebirds log almost 10,000 miles flying from the southern tip of South America to the Arctic. Thin and tired, they take a break at Delaware Bay to double their weight eating the tiny, green eggs of horseshoe crabs. Because of its importance for spring shorebird migration, in 1986, biologists, local stakeholders and political leaders came together to recognize Delaware Bay as the first Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) Site of Hemispheric Importance.   Overharvesting of horseshoe crabs for bait in the 1990s led to a drastic decline in the number of crabs and their eggs. Without sufficient eggs available, many shorebird species experienced population declines, including Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, and Semipalmated Sandpiper....

Celebrate Delaware Bay: Taking Action on the Delaware Bay

Spring is just around the corner, which means that shorebirds throughout the Western Hemisphere will be heading to the Arctic from South America to breed. Meanwhile, the largest population of spawning horseshoe crabs on the Atlantic Coast will be laying their small, green eggs on the sandy beaches of the Delaware Bay. The shorebirds will stop on the Delaware Bay during their journeys to feast on these green eggs, before continuing on.   In 1986, biologists, citizens, and political leaders came together to recognize Delaware Bay as the first Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) Site of Hemispheric Importance for shorebirds because of this critical role as a stopover site during spring migration.   But the story on the Bay...

Heal Eddy Restoration Project in Georgetown

This article was originally published in The Times Record on October  15, 2014 and was written by Rosanna Gargiulo. View the original article here. As the invasive green crab continues to influence the trajectory of the local clamming industry, early results from a study in Georgetown indicate that seeding clams in late fall — after crab activity has ceased — may prove beneficial to the vulnerable juvenile clams. Three green crab traps are set biweekly at the site of the Heal Eddy Restoration Project, a 2.3-acre conservation closure at the mouth of the Sheepscot River. Harvester Chris Warner planted a 70-plot demonstration clam farm at the site with support from the nonprofit sustainability organization Manomet and Georgetown Shellfish Committee member Jay Holt. The traps allow Manomet president John...

Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier: Green crabs a sign the tide is turning

This article was originally published in The Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier (Maine) on September 5, 2013. It was written by Ben Meiklejohn. View the original article here. SCARBOROUGH, MAINE – About 50 people attended a public presentation sponsored by the Scarborough Conservation Commission Aug. 28 to learn about the possible impact of a global rise in sea level on the Scarborough Marsh. Marine geologist Pete Slovinsky of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry presented projection scenarios for rises in sea level from one to 6.5 feet over the next century. Scarborough is also part of the Sea Level Adaptation Working Group, which has worked since 2009 on sea level and storm issues in Saco Bay communities, including Saco, Biddeford and...

keepMEcurrent.com: Planners ‘test the waters’ on Scarborough Marsh migration

This article was originally published on keepMEcurrent.com on September 4, 2013. It was written by Duke Harrington. View the original article here. SCARBOROUGH, MAINE – Steve Stracqualursi doesn’t need a government-funded study to tell him things are changing in the waters around Scarborough. “I catch more crabs than fish now. They grab right on to the line,” he said last week at a Town Hall forum held to discuss the impacts of sea level rise. Stracqualursi, one of about 60 residents to attend the session, was referring to the growing numbers of European green crab, which can take over native clam flats. But this summer also has seen an explosion in Asian shore crab, which burrow into sandy areas, killing marsh...