Leveraging technology from the University of Maine to boost shellfish production.
According to Press Herald, Merrymeeting Shellfish Company, a shellfish hatchery in Bath, Maine, is leveraging LFAM to build homes for shellfish to boost production. The company is producing 3D printed hexagonal pods, which take about two hours to print – compared to the three months they would take to assemble using traditional processes.
“Right now, most farmers either drop their cages to the bottom over the winter, and everything goes dormant,” said Matthew Nixon, Founder of Merrymeeting Shellfish Company. “Or they will take their product in, stick it in a cooler and it will slowly [dry out] over the winter.”
The 3D printed pods will be stored inside, allowing the shellfish to continue growing at the company’s headquarters in Bath. Nixon said the seed grows during the winter, and the larger seeds are sold in the spring to shellfish farmers – half across Maine and half outside the state.
The 6-foot-wide, hexagonal 3D printed pods were mainly produced in Orono at the Advanced Structures and Composite Center at the University of Maine, as well as with Additive Engineering Solutions, a rapid product development and 3D printing service in Ohio. The materials used are wood flour and bio-resin, which are biodegradable and recyclable.
Nixon has been slowly building the Harpswell hatchery’s capacity from producing up to 60 million oyster seeds per year to around 400 million by next year and said that growing oysters on land is much more expensive than growing them in the ocean. The oysters will begin feeding in December 2024. The hatchery is running at 380 million total capacity this year, with Nixon noting that it was critical to keep oyster seed production in Maine, in light of significant international competition.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has identified aquaculture as a significant need in the United States – to reduce seafood imports from other countries, support national seafood production, rebuild protected species and habitats, and enhance coastal resilience. If a shellfish hatchery in Maine closes, the state cannot import seed.
“If one of these hatcheries goes out over the summer, for instance, it has a massive snowball effect because people that start calling around frantically looking for seed so they can meet their budgets for the season,” said Nixon.
Another challenge facing the shellfish industry is climate change. A couple of Nixon’s clients told him the January nor’easter storm wiped out some shellfish farms in Casco Bay and Yarmouth, causing everything to be lost overnight.
“That is going to become more of an issue as [the] climate continues to change and water continues to warm,” said Nixon. “So, having an option for them to take their product and store it over the winter where they’ll know exactly how much they are going to get in the spring, they can budget much better and build their business a little bit stronger.”
Read the rest of this story at VoxelMatters
