July 19, 2021, was a foggy, drizzly day, but that didn’t stop more than 70 Gouldsboro residents from coming to the town park in Prospect Harbor to sample clams harvested by Gouldsboro shellfish committee member Mike Cronin. The year-round and seasonal residents attending the event learned about the new Shellfish Resilience Lab that is under construction in Bunkers Harbor.
Shellfish warden Mike Pinkham, Schoodic Institute Education Specialist Sarah Hooper, and 2021 Shellfish Intern Sophie Chivers explained that warmer winters have resulted in an exploding green crab population that has decimated the soft-shell clam population. Gouldsboro has been successful in restoring once productive mudflats by seeding them with juvenile clams that they protect with netting. The Shellfish Lab will enable the town to grow clams for use as seed.
Below is a more complete description of the event that was published in the Ellsworth American. If you have difficulty seeing the embedded copy of the story, below, you can read it on the Ellsworth American website.
