On a recent cloudy April afternoon, Jamie Johnson was up to his elbows in sole, black bass, and halibut. Johnson is a manager at Jess’s Market, a busy seafood supplier to the Midcoast region. Johnson married into this family fish market business, but his knife skills and product familiarity suggest he’s found his calling.

Today's post is from Sarah Redmond, our new resident seaweed expert, who recently attended a “Cooking with Sea Vegetables” event at Five Seasons Cooking School, a small demonstration kitchen set up in the home of Lisa Silverman, a whole foods chef, cooking teacher, and wellness coach.

I’m posting this from the 37th annual Maine Fishermen’s Forum, THE annual gathering of Maine’s fishing industry. Sea Grant helped start the forum in 1976, and we’ve had a role in the event ever since. This year we are hosting seminars on seaweed, shellfish aquaculture, Trade Adjustment Assistance for lobstermen, ocean wind power, and ocean acidification.

A few weeks ago I promised more information on buying and preparing Maine shrimp. Well, waddya know the season ended last friday. So, for those of you lucky enough to have snagged a final pound (or two, or three...), I'll offer some final words until next year.

With the addition of Sarah Redmond, our new marine extension associate, we are fast expanding our research and extension into seaweed aquaculture in Maine.

I haven't yet been smelt fishing this year, but now that it seems cold enough for the rivers to actually freeze, I'm getting anxious. Rainbow smelt are a native, sea-run species that are good to eat (the fresher the better) and fun to catch--at night, in a shack suspended above a frozen tidal river, warmed by a rusty wood stove and whatever you may have brought to drink. You can find cleaned smelts in fish markets and some grocery stores this time of year, but why not catch your own?

Shrimp season is upon us, and with big cuts in catch limits, winter-hungry souls should waste no time getting their share. That’s what I was attempting to do a few weeks ago, when I stopped by a Portland fish market to pick up a few pounds of Pandalus borealis.

A Pilot Project to Stimulate Seaweed Production on Mussel Farms in Maine

Seaweed is a $6 billion-dollar industry worldwide. Different types of seaweed (also called sea vegetables or marine macroalgae) are harvested for a variety of uses including fertilizer, food ingredients, and nutritional supplements.

Maine’s established seaweed companies are industry leaders, and more people are looking to grow seaweed as a business or for supplemental income.

Earlier this month, I joined my Sea Grant colleagues from around the Northeast on a tour of Matunuck Oyster Farm & Bar in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. I had met the oysterman, Perry Raso, last June, and was excited to see his farm. I was also interested to see whether and how his operation might be different from those I’d seen in Maine.

Our friends at Gulf of Maine Research Institute and Maine Aquaculture Association successfully kicked off this year’s Harvest on the Harbor with a mid-day seafood event featuring “lesser-known, yet abundant and w

A great time had by all at the eleventh annual Pemaquid Oyster Festival on Sunday.

The new issue of Maine Policy Review is a special issue all about food. It is the journal's largest issue ever, perhaps a testament to the importance and interest in the economy and environment of food.

Fresh Crabmeat.
Live Lobster.
Cherrystones, Mussels, Clams.

The hand-made signs that decorate the roadsides of downeast Maine are clues to the region’s seafood industry, an independent and enterpreneurial collage of individuals and families who dig for clams and worms, collect periwinkles, dredge for scallops, rake seaweed, trap lobsters and crabs, and tend salmon.

One of the highlights of Day 3 of the Baird Symposium on Sustainable Seafood was the scup versus tilapia challenge. Tilapia is a freshwater, farm-raised fish that has skyrocketed in popularity in the last decade due to its low cost and ease of production (it is an herbivore and is raised in land-based ponds and tanks).

This week is the 10th annual Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science Symposium in Rhode Island.

Last Saturday at the Orono Farmer’s Market, the Lobster Shack had a crate of live Jonah crabs for $1 apiece. Crabs are rarely sold live in Maine; crabmeat is the dominant product. I was so excited I forgot to ask where they were from.