Shellfish Science and
Co-Management

1. Support and strengthen co-management of the shellfish fishery.
2. Work with municipalities to ensure harvesters and the public can access the coast into the future.
3. Develop new techniques to improve shellfish stock enhancement and monitor impacts of conservation and harvesting activities.
4. Determine impacts of sea level rise on intertidal habitat, shellfish resources, and harvester livelihoods.

• Casco Bay Regional Shellfish Working Group: Founded in 2019, the Casco Bay Regional Shellfish Working Group aims to collaboratively address pressing issues facing the wild-harvest shellfish community. Shellfish in Maine are collaboratively managed between the state and municipalities. The goal of the Working Group is to equip municipalities with the knowledge and experience to manage their wild intertidal shellfish resources in the changing Casco Bay ecosystem, through providing a forum for sharing information, resources, and tools. Manomet co-facilitates the Working Group with our partner, Tidal Bay Consulting. Learn more here: https://www.cascobayregionalshellfishworkinggroup.org/
• Access to the Intertidal: Shellfish harvesters are facing an increasing loss of access to the intertidal on both private and public land. This trend is driven by changing coastal property ownership, aging infrastructure, gentrification pressure, limited parking, and a fragmented approach to identify and preserve working waterfront areas statewide. Manomet is collaborating with towns in Casco Bay to inventory public and private access points to the intertidal, and identify opportunities to improve, preserve, or acquire access in priority places.
• Shellfish stock enhancement: Stock enhancement is part of many municipal shellfish programs. Seed clams are purchased from a local hatchery and ‘planted’ in the mud in an effort to sustain and enhance the local shellfish resource. We are partnering with towns in Casco Bay to monitor the success of these efforts and to develop new techniques that may enhance success. For example, we’re using cutting edge environmental DNA, or eDNA, technology to monitor quahog spawning events. eDNA is a relatively new technique that can detect the presence and quantity of species through the DNA that an organism naturally sheds into its environment in the form of scales, gametes, waste products, and more. By analyzing water samples, we can detect the abundance of quahog DNA and determine the success of stock enhancement activities. Learn more about eDNA from our partners at Maine eDNA and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. We are also developing new techniques for seeding quahogs, which includes testing new gear that will protect the seed clams from predation when they are small and vulnerable.
• Ecological survey – We are working to improve survey techniques for shellfish and other intertidal species by developing a more comprehensive intertidal monitoring protocol. In addition to providing information on shellfish stocks, this protocol also targets ecologically important species such as milky ribbon worms and green crabs, as well as other commercially important species like sand and blood worms.
• Impacts of Sea Level Rise on Shellfish Resources: Sea level rise poses an immense and unprecedented threat to Maine’s coastal ecosystems and communities, with predicted increases in flooding, salt water inundation into coastal lowlands, erosion, and loss of habitat. We are working to better understand the impacts of sea level rise and coastal flooding to mudflat habitat and shellfish resources, and to develop planning tools and approaches that will support coastal communities and municipal and tribal shellfish programs.

• Casco Bay Regional Shellfish Working Group website
• Preserving Access to the Intertidal: A guide for coastal stakeholders and municipalities
• Guidebook: Municipal Shellfish Conservation Activity Summary
• Community Intertidal Data Portal
• Intertidal Access Report: Mapping Access to the Intertidal in Six Towns in Casco Bay
• Intertidal Access Guidebook: Guide to Developing an Inventory of Access Points to the Intertidal

Partners include harvesters, municipal shellfish programs, Tidal Bay Consulting, Greater Portland Council of Governments, Maine Coast Heritage Trust,  Bigelow Labs, University of Maine, Maine Shellfish Learning Network, Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, Maine Department of Marine Resources, Nearview LLC, Viewshed, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, and Maine Maritime Academy.

• Maine Shellfish Restoration and Resilience Fund
• Maine Coastal Program
• USDA SARE
• Maine EPSCoR
• Maine Community Foundation 
• Doree Taylor Charitable Foundation