Much of Gouldsboro’s Clam Lab was swept away on the morning of January 10, 2024, when a four-foot surge tore into Bunkers Harbor. All that remained were the tanks in the room Dana Rice Sr. had set aside for the lab’s use in his lobster-buying operation. The outdoor plumbing and pump house were gone, and the backup generator was useless after being submerged in salt water for hours.
Throughout 2024 and into 2025, Shellfish Warden Mike Pinkham and the Gouldsboro Shellfish Committee wrestled with whether and how to rebuild the Lab. Cost, as always, was a factor. Equally important, the Lab’s research and other work in 2023 indicated that its location in Bunkers Harbor might be contributing to the unusually high green crab predation rates the Lab had experienced since operations began. We built the Lab to determine whether a small community, by taking control of juvenile clam production, could reduce the cost of seeding clam flats enough to make it affordable. The extraordinary levels of crab predation and resulting clam mortality threatened to make the answer negative.
Would relocating the Lab to a location with deeper, cleaner water reduce predation and alter the economics of the Lab’s operation? Pinkham, who also serves as Gouldsboro’s Harbor Master and, from his years in the Marine Patrol, knows people all along the coast, spent the latter half of 2025 and the first half of 2026 searching for a location and a partnership that could realistically support the Lab and its focus on engaging volunteers, experimentation, and learning.
Throughout 2024 and into 2025, Shellfish Warden Mike Pinkham and the Gouldsboro Shellfish Committee wrestled with whether and how the Lab should be rebuilt. Cost, as always, was a factor. Equally important, the Lab’s research and other work in 2023 indicated that its location in Bunkers Harbor might be contributing to the unusually high green crab predation rates the Lab had experienced since operations began. We built the Lab to determine whether a small community, by taking control of juvenile clam production, could reduce the cost of seeding clam flats enough to make it affordable. The extraordinary levels of crab predation and resulting clam mortality threatened to make the answer negative.
Would relocating the Lab to a location with deeper, cleaner water reduce predation and alter the economics of the Lab’s operation? Pinkham, who also serves as Gouldsboro’s Harbor Master and, from his years in the Marine Patrol, knows people all along the coast, spent the latter half of 2025 and the first half of 2026 searching for a location and a partnership that could realistically support the Lab and its focus on engaging volunteers, experimentation, and learning.
A chance conversation with Betsy Lowe, the Chief Operating Officer of the new Bold Coast Seafood operation in Prospect Harbor, suddenly opened the door to a new beginning for Gouldsboro’s Clam Lab. Pinkham learned that, in addition to building a new business that builds on others’ past investments in the former Stinson Cannery, Bold Coast recognizes that Maine’s fisheries are facing rapid, substantial change. While running its business, it seeks to help build the wherewithal and know-how to navigate those changes. As Bold Coast Seafood president Curt Brown put it, “Our ultimate goal as a company is a sustainable future for Maine’s marine resources and the working waterfront communities that rely on them.”
Over the past weeks, Bold Coast staff helped Mike and the Shellfish Committee move the tanks out of Dana Rice’s operation in Bunkers Harbor and relocate them to the ground floor of Bold Coast’s operations. The Clam Lab tanks are only a few feet from a 4” pipe tapping into a constantly circulating seawater supply drawn from deep under the water off Bold Coast Seafood’s wharf. The flow available to run the Clam Lab’s upwellers is many times greater than what the Lab was able to get from the swimming pool pump it used in Bunkers Harbor. Just as important, the water is much cleaner. Pinkham notes that, “Silt was a huge problem in our Bunkers Harbor operation. We put the baby clams on a mesh that’s small enough to keep them from falling through, but hopefully large enough to allow water and the nutrients the clams need to grow to circulate. Silt clogs the mesh and starves the clams. Our volunteers spent countless hours cleaning the mesh. We think that relatively clean water will be a game-changer.”
The Clam Lab has no plans to grow clams this summer because it is already too late to start. But Pinkham and his colleague Bill Zoellick, working with volunteers and help from the Bold Coast staff, will hook up the system and get it running this summer to collect data on silt, temperature, flow volume, and other factors, so they are ready to begin growing clams again in 2027.
Zoellick notes that one of Bold Coast Seafood’s key contributions to this partnership is a genuine interest in the outcome of the Lab’s work and support for volunteer engagement in that work. One of the most valuable aspects of the Lab’s past activities was its ability to bring people together around meaningful work. In the words of Bold Coast President Curt Brown, “Bold Coast Seafood is excited to be the home for this clam hatchery. This hatchery has played an important role historically, and we are humbled to be a part of its future.”
