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 here with the same spirit and goals. We hope to bring you up-to-date, get your ideas, and encourage you to visit Bunkers Harbor to see what’s happening and share your thoughts.

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 green crab predation. The town will provide housing and a stipend.

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 clams.

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 clams are and dig them.

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 Maine's offshore waters, and DEI is developing and testing techniques for raising them on intertidal mudflats.

Governor Mills Pays a Visit

When we talk about the longer-term goals of the Gouldsboro Shore program, we use two taglines. One is "Keeping Gouldsboro's shore at the center of the community." The other is "Keeping ahead of coastal change." Governor Mills' visit yesterday helped us develop a deeper appreciation of what those taglines mean.