Harvesting softshell clams has been important to Gouldsboro’s economy and to the town’s culture for generations. Over the past decade, warming ocean temperatures and milder winters have made it easier for green crabs to survive the winter. They now also grow more quickly and reproduce sooner. Since green crabs eat clams, the explosion of the crab population has resulted in a collapse of the clam population along much of Gouldsboro’s shore.
With help from the Downeast Institute, the Schoodic Institute, the Maine Shellfish Restoration and Resilience Fund, and others, the town’s shellfish committee decided to begin restoring some of the most productive clam flats. At the center of that effort is the town’s new Shellfish Resilience Lab, where the town grows clams for use in restoring clam populations on selected clam flats. What Gouldsboro learns from the experiments and data collection at its “Clam Lab” will not only help local clam harvesters but also other communities that are confronting similar challenges to their clam fisheries.
For background about the Shellfish Resilience Lab and how Gouldsboro plans to use it, see Why a Shellfish Lab? To keep up with news about the lab and the town’s shellfish restoration work, check back here and sign up for news updates.
Latest Posts
Shellfish Lab at Fisherman’s Forum
Early this month, people from all along Maine’s coast gathered at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum to discuss the state of Maine’s fisheries. Mike Pinkham and I jumped on the opportunity to tell people what Gouldsboro has been doing in its Shellfish Resilience Lab, share our thinking, and get ideas and feedback. We share the presentation…
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Job Opportunity
Gouldsboro has a position open related to its shellfish and community resilience work. We have a full-time, summer position for a Shellfish Resilience Research Intern who will work with Shellfish Warden Mike Pinkham and Bill Zoellick, the Shellfish Lab project manager, to manage systems and gather data aimed at increasing clam growth rates and reducing…
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Community Clam Dig
Readers have emailed us questions about the Community Clam Dig in Prospect Harbor at 3 PM next Sunday, October 9 that we featured in our most recent newsletter. This post answers those questions and extends an invitation to join us and learn more about what clam harvesters do and how you can dig your own…
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Learn How to Dig Clams!
Gouldsboro Shore and the Gouldsboro Shellfish Committee invite the community clam digging demonstrations and lessons on Sunday, October 9, at 3:00 PM in Prospect Harbor. Whether you’ve dug your own clams for a while or have never been on the mud, this is an opportunity to learn from commercial diggers about how to spot where…
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Clam Research in Timber Cove
Timber Cove, located just west of Gouldsboro Point, is one of two research sites the Downeast Institute (DEI) is using to study Arctic surfclams. Over the last decade, DEI has been investigating whether Arctic surfclams might be a way to diversify the kinds of shellfish available to commercial and recreational clammers. They grow naturally in…
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