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For over 50 years, government fishery agencies have recognized the need to transition excess fishing capacity in coastal waters to aquaculture. For the most part, investment strategies to move wild capture and harvest efforts into aquaculture have failed since the technology and capital expense for entry, such as large fish pens, was not conducive for acceptance. In contrast, low trophic level aquaculture of shellfish and seaweeds is suitable as an addition to the livelihoods of seasonal fishing communities and to those displaced by fishery closures, especially if vessels and gear can be designed around existing fishing infrastructures, thus allowing fishers to maintain engagement with their primary fishery, while augmenting income via aquaculture. In this study, an inexpensive, lightweight, and highly mobile gear for kelp seaweed farming was developed and tested over a 3-year period in southern Maine, USA. The system was different from existing kelp farming operations used in nearshore waters that use low-scope mooring lines, and heavy, deadweight anchors. Instead, a highly mobile, easy to deploy system using lightweight gear was designed for exposed conditions. The entire system fit into fish tote boxes and was loadable onto a standard pickup truck. The seaweed system had small but efficient horizontal drag embedment anchors connected to a chain catenary and pretensioned with simple subsurface flotation. The system was able to be deployed and removed in less than 4 h by a crew of three using a 10 m vessel and produced a harvest of 12.7 kg/m over an 8-month fall-winter growth period. The target group for this seaweed research and development effort were coastal fishing communities who move seasonally into non-fishing occupations in service industries, such as construction, retail, etc. An economic assessment suggests farmers would realize an 8% return on investment after3 years and $13.50/h greater income as compared to a non-farming off season job at minimum wage. This low-cost seaweed farming system for fall-winter operations fits well into a “livelihood” strategy for fishing families who must work multiple jobs in the offseason when their main fishery is unavailable.

In the Northeast USA, the aquaculture of macroalgae is a rapidly growing industry. Within this region, there are no established regulations for farm siting or methods of pathogen detection on macroalgae cultivated or harvested for human consumption. Bacterial pathogens from natural and anthropogenic sources may persist in coastal waters and can potentially contaminate macroalgae. During the winter growing season, sugar kelp Saccharina latissima and adjacent water were sampled from three sites of kelp aquaculture located in adjacent bays of ME, USA. Membrane filtration onto selective media detected Escherichia coli, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and Vibrio alginolyticus in kelp and water samples at all sites, however plate counts were very low. The foodborne pathogens Salmonella enterica ser. Typhimurium, V. parahaemolyticus, and enterohemorrhagic E. coli O157:H7 were detected on enriched kelp samples from 83%, 78%, and 56% of sampling events, respectively, using molecular methods. Even with low bacterial levels, this frequency of detection confirms the risk of foodborne pathogens present on kelp and recommends the development of best management practices to control microbial growth during kelp harvest and processing. Bacterial plate counts from kelp samples often varied from those of water, indicating the importance of sampling the kelp directly, and that the association between bacterial pathogens on kelp and in the surrounding water should be further investigated. This study provides the first food safety assessment of sea vegetables in this region with the goal of providing data to enable the expansion of its industry.

Aquaculture of the blue mussel Mytilus edulis in the Gulf of Maine is a growing industry at a time when wild mussel populations are threatened by a rapidly changing ocean. Intertidal mussel beds have largely disappeared in the region raising concerns over the long-term viability of mussel farming. Histology and lipid fatty acid analysis were used to assess gametogenesis, energy investment, and pathology of farmed mussels collected twice monthly for three years in Casco Bay, ME. Energy investment in reproduction and storage differed significantly between years, suggesting interannual variability. Wet weight of fatty acids such as DHA and EPA corresponded to pre-spawning periods, when gonad tissue was most abundant. Overall, pathology assessment showed low levels of common pathogens, parasites, and cellular abnormalities. The survey did, however, reveal high levels of oocyte atresia, a probable indicator of physiological or environmental stress from unfavorable spawning conditions. In addition, the presence of the potentially damaging digenetic trematode Proctoeces maculatus was documented using histology, marking the northernmost detection in the Northwest Atlantic and a likely climate-driven range expansion. These trends may signal a challenging future for blue mussels in the Gulf of Maine. Forward-looking farm mitigation practices informed by these results should be developed to ensure future sustainability of this industry.

Kelp farming is increasing along the temperate coastlines of the Americas and Europe. The economic, ecological, and social frameworks surrounding kelp farming in these new areas are in contrast with the conditions of progenitor kelp farming regions in China, Japan, and Korea.Thus, identifying and addressing the environmental and social impacts of kelp farming in these regions is vital to ensuring the industry’s long-term sustainability. Here, a conceptual model of the human and natural systems supporting this nascent kelp aquaculture sector was developed using Maine, USA as a focal region. Potential negative impacts of kelp aquaculture were identified to be habitat degradation, overfishing of wild seeds, predation and competition with wild fish and genes, and transmission of diseases. Increased food security, improved restoration efforts, greater fisheries productivity, and alternative livelihoods development were determined to be potential positive impacts of kelp aquaculture. Changes in biodiversity and productivity resulting from either negative or positive impacts of kelp aquaculture were confirmed to have downstream effects on local fisheries and coastal communities. Recommendations to improve or protect the ecosystem services tangential to kelp farming include: define ecosystem and management boundaries, assess ecosystem services and environmental carrying capacity, pursue ecologically and socially considerate engineering, and protect the health and genetic diversity of wild kelp beds. Recommendations to ensure that kelp farming improves the well-being of all stakeholders include: increase horizontal expansion, expand and teach Best Management Practices, and develop climate change resiliency. Additionally, an integrated management strategy should be developed for wild and farmed kelp to ensure that kelp aquaculture is developed in the context of other sectors and goals. Keywords: Aquaculture, Ecosystem, Kelp, Maine, Saccharina latissima, Ecosystem approach to aquaculture

Variability in life history traits and structural diversity of commercially exploited fishes in response to stress can impact their population dynamics and sustainability. Using data from a fishery dependent sampling program from 1978 to 2011, we evaluated temporal variability of size and growth of adult Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) in the Gulf of Maine. We then developed and tested the hypotheses on the links of such temporal changes to population density and environmental factors and found decreases in size and growth potential. Generalized additive models found that density dependence was the main driver of such changes over sea surface temperature and salinity. Our results highlight the importance of density dependent processes in regulating growth and population size structure for Atlantic herring in the Gulf of Maine.

Siderastrea siderea is one of the most abundant corals at high latitude shallow sites along the Florida Reef Tract (25°–27°N). This species is able to tolerate wide seawater temperature fluctuations and sedimentation stress, but its reproductive status at high latitudes and under marginal environmental conditions is poorly understood. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the reproductive potential of S. siderea along a latitudinal gradient (25°–27°N) and to determine if sexual maturity occurs in small (

Hydrodynamic characteristics are needed to optimize the design of kelp aquaculture systems. To support this need, the objective of this study was to resolve both the normal and tangential drag forces acting on a dense aggregate of kelp blades using full-scale physical model tests. The physical model was designed to match the exposed length, individual blade flexural rigidity, the number of blades per unit width, the mass/length of biomass, and the aggregate mass density of kelp cultured at the University of New England experimental aquaculture lease site in Saco Bay, Maine USA. Tow tests were conducted at the United States Naval Academy in a tank with the dimensions of 116m × 7.9m × 4.9 m. The large tank size enabled the use of the full-scale physical model, minimizing dynamic similarity issues. In a series of tests, the model was towed in orientations both aligned and perpendicular to the tow direction. Horizontal and vertical reaction forces were measured for five tow speeds, along with the deflection of the dense kelp aggregate. With these datasets and the wet weight biomass per length of the model, normal and tangential drag forces were calculated. Drag components were processed into corresponding normal and tangential drag-area values. The drag-area representation was chosen since reference areas were ambiguous for both the actual kelp and model. At the higher speeds, the total horizontal drag in the aligned configuration were slightly lower than for the perpendicular orientation. Normal drag-areas as a function of tow speed ranged from 2.36 m2/m to 1.39 m2/m for the aligned case and from 2.49 to 1.88 m2/m for the perpendicular case. Tangential drag-areas as a function of tow speed ranged from 0.264 m2/m to 0.0325 m2/m for the aligned case and from 0.213 to 0.0415 m2/m for the perpendicular case. A transition from a bluff body to a streamlined body occurred as the tow speeds increased. To investigate this transition, horizontal components of the normal and tangential drag forces were reconstructed with the results of the tow tests. The reconstructed forces were obtained using a force balance system of equations with drag-area values for tow speeds less than 0.25 m/s extrapolated from the experimental datasets. For both aligned and perpendicular orientations, the model-aggregate reconfigured at a threshold of 0.25 m/s. We defined the threshold for reconfiguration as the tow speed at which the horizontal component of tangential drag equaled or exceeded the horizontal component of the normal drag. The drag-area results from this study can be incorporated into a dynamic fluid-structure interaction model representing kelp aggregates as a finite element beam prescribed with in-situ values of length, volume, mass density and flexural-rigidity of kelp material.

Bivalve aquaculture farms are an integral part of the surrounding coastal marine ecosystem and associated food webs. What is not well understood is how these anthropogenically manipulated, dense, single-species cultures influence species trophodynamics in the coastal ocean. Fouling macrofauna biodiversity, macroalgae biomass, sediment, and food web structure were studied at two blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) floating raft rope-culture aquaculture farm structures and two analogous floating dock structures without mussels in Casco Bay, Maine, USA during the summers of 2016 and 2017. Shannon Wiener diversity index of macrofauna was variable across structures compared depending on month. Macroalgae biomass was significantly higher on farm structures exclusively due to green macroalgae. There was no shift in food web structure determined by stable isotope analysis (δ13C and δ15N) and Layman metrics. This study is an initial step critical to assessing interactions of bivalve farms with coastal food webs.

Mercury (Hg) contamination testing was conducted on winter-caught male spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) in southern New England and results compared to available data on Hg concentrations for this species. A limited risk-reward assessment for EPA (eicosapentanoic acid) and DHA (docosahexanoic acid) lipid concentrations of spiny dogfish was completed in comparison with other commonly consumed marine fish. Mean Hg concentrations were 0.19 ppm (±0.30) wet weight. In comparison, mean Hg concentrations in S. acanthias varied geographically ranging from 0.05 ppm (Celtic Sea) to 2.07 ppm (Crete, Mediterranean Sea). A risk-reward assessment for Hg and DHA+EPA placed S. acanthias in both "low-risk, high-reward" and "high-risk, high-reward" categories for consumption dependent on locations of the catch. Our results are limited and are not intended as consumption advisories but serve to illustrate the need for making more nuanced, geo-specific, consumption guidance for spiny dogfish that is inclusive of seafood traceability and nutritional benefits.

In the Northwest Atlantic Ocean (NWAO), spiny dogfish ( Squalus acanthias ) is a promising commercial species following of collapse of traditional groundfish stocks. There are little available data assessing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in NWAO spiny dogfish. Here, six non-dioxin like PCB indicator congeners used in European Union regulations (EU NDL-PCB) were quantified via gas chromatography/mass spectrometry in 50 mature male spiny dogfish landed in southern New England. The average total concentration of EU NDL-PCBs was 58 ± 43 ng/g (mean ± 1 standard deviation). PCB values (corrected for co-elution) were below the 200 ng/g EU regulatory limit. Results provide first recent regional insight into the PCB content of spiny dogfish in the NWAO. However, our study offers only a snapshot of one particular dogfish population, and might not be representative for the whole NWAO. This study underscores the need for further testing in this species.