Shellfish Focus Day is a day dedicated to shellfish harvesting and aquaculture preceding the Fisherman’s Form. This event hosts multiple seminar speakers, a conversation hour, as well as multiple opportunities to ask questions of community leaders and discuss ongoing issues within the fishery. Shellfish Focus Day is held annually and for more information please visit the Maine’s Fisherman Forum Website.
Shellfish Focus Day 2021
We are excited to announce a plan B for Shellfish Focus Day, including an online webinar and radio program that will address a range of topics about soft-shell clams over the next three months.
Title: Shellfish harvesting for the future: A conversation featuring stories and lessons learned in town shellfish conservation projects
Dates/times: The live online event will occur on February 22, at 4 pm. A recording of this event will be broadcast on the radio, on WERU’s Coastal Conversations, on February 26th at 4 PM.
Description: This event will feature a conversation among harvesters, shellfish wardens, municipal officials, marine resource committee members, and organizations that collaborate with towns on their efforts to conserve and restore wild shellfish populations and intertidal mudflats. The topics will focus on efforts to grow clam seed, using equipment like upwellers and lobster pounds, connections to water quality issues, and how people are working together to restore shellfish and mudflats. Through informal conversation and stories, people working on shellfish restoration projects from across the coast will tell stories and share information about what they have learned along the way.
Panelists: David Wilson, Chair, Marine Resources Committee, Harpswell; Scott Moody, Vice Chair, Marine Resources Committee, Harpswell; Dan Devereaux, Coastal Resource Manager, Brunswick; Mike Pinkham, Shellfish Warden, Gouldsboro; Sarah Hooper, Education Specialist, Schoodic Institute; and Bill Zoellick, Education Research Director Emeritus, Schoodic Institute
Hosted by: Dr. Bridie McGreavy, University of Maine, Dept. of Communication and Journalism and the Mitchell Center for Sustainability, and Natalie Springuel, Maine Sea Grant (host of the Coastal Conversations radio show)
How to join: This will be a webinar using Zoom software. Pre-registration is not necessary. Use this link to join the event.
MSLN Featured Videos – 2020
The Maine Shellfish Learning Network (MSLN) hosted multiple talks at Shellfish Focus Day that were all centered around the diversity of voices within the shellfish community and updating . First, Bridie McGreavy and Gabrielle Hillyer co-presented on the ongoing efforts of the MSLN. This talk spanned the formation of the MSLN, various meetings held, as well as a deeper description of the major goals and action items for the MSLN on a whole. The MSLN also hosted an interdisciplinary panel with representatives from multiple shellfish communities including Marissa McMahan from Georgetown, George Powell from Deer Isle/Stonington, David Taylor from Thomaston, and Judy Colby-George from Yarmouth. Click the video below to watch this panel.
The Mudflat 