Resources Database

You need to plan ahead to make sure seed stock is available for the growing season. Without a lead on seed, you could end up missing the entire growing season of your first year.

This document is intended to help Maine restaurant owners and staff understand the risks of handling shellfish, and how to manage them safely and effectively.

The Bigelow Laboratory of Ocean Sciences, in collaboration with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, is developing a weekly, site-specific forecast for paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) levels. This forecast is experimental and represents ongoing research, and its predicted toxicity ranges are not representations of fact or guarantees of future toxicity levels. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forecasts.

Social license to operate (SLO), a concept that describes community acceptance and approval of incoming industry, offers a lens for better understanding these barriers and an opportunity to identify strategies for successful development. Efforts to measure and predict social license have begun, but these efforts primarily focus on company actions and impacts. This study seeks to expand the utility of social license within the aquaculture sector by developing a preliminary quantitative framework that can predict a community’s willingness to issue SLO prior to siting.

A list that contains the names of markets and restaurants that are licensed to purchase shellfish directly from harvesters, then sell them in the retail trade only.

Maine aquaculture marking requirements (effective January 1, 2023) for lease sites and LPA sites with a sample marker buoy image.

List all interstate certified shippers that can ship fresh and frozen oysters, clams, mussels, whole or roe-on scallops and is published monthly.

Lists all upcoming aquaculture public meetings, hearings, and scoping sessions and give the date, time, town and location for them.

This directory is intended to identify shellfish hatcheries and nurseries from along the east coast of the United States in order to serve as a tool for providing a stronger link between shellfish seed suppliers and shellfish farmers. The directory includes contact information for each business, as well as some additional information indicating the type of operation (i.e., hatchery, nursery, or research) and what products they expect to have available.

This flowchart visually maps out the Maine DMR Limited Purpose Aquaculture (LPA) application process.

This flowchart visually maps out the Maine DMR Standard Lease application process.

This flowchart visually maps out the Maine DMR Experimental Lease application process.

Answers basic questions about Maine DMR's Aquaculture Harvest License such as: Who should have it?, What is it? What does it cost?, What does this license allow you to do?, How do I apply?, and Who should I contact with questions?

This flowchart maps the different licenses you need to have to sell your aquaculture shellfish out of state by mail or by vehicle, and in the state of Maine including selling direct to restaurants, and wholesale distributors, at a farmer's market, your home, and your lease site.

A basic list of what licenses you need to sell your aquaculture shellfish at your home, at your lease site, to your local grocery/general store, roadside, to a restaurant, to a wholesale distributor, at a farmers market, or out of state.

This DMR page includes Experimental Lease Application, Riparian List form, Corporate Applicant Form, Renewal Application for Scientific Research Experimental Lease, and Experimental Lease Laws and Regulations.

All wild shellfish stock or seed used for cultivation or grow-out must originate from within the same Limited Purpose Aquaculture (LPA) license Health Zone as the LPA license site. A permit is required from DMR if the stock or seed originates from outside the Health Zone.

The Aquaculture License is now required in order to harvest and sell cultured organisms removed from an aquaculture lease or LPA license site. Aquaculture leaseholders and Limited-Purpose Aquaculture (LPA) license holders are required to obtain the Aquaculture License, regardless of which species they grow.

The goal of a Vibrio Control or Vibrio Management Plan is to control the safety of molluscan shellfish for human consumption by preventing unnecessary growth of bacterial pathogens resulting from improper or ineffective cooling or from time to temperature abuse.

The Bureau of Public Health oversees the the National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP) within Maine in order to keep molluscan shellfish safe for human consumption.

Maine Growing Area Closures: Shellfish Area Inventory with Legal Notices and Maps

Uses the standards outlined in the National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP) to monitor levels of PSP (“Red Tide”) and other marine biotoxins in the shellfish of the State of Maine.