Coverage of Washington County is made possible by a grant from the Eaton Foundation.

After more than a year of planning and lengthy application procedures, the Maine Aquaculture Association has received federal funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aquaculture program and the agency’s northeast regional office for a new program, Cod Farming for Maine’s Commercial Fishermen.  The “Cod Academy”, as it has been dubbed by Sebastian Belle, director of Maine Aquaculture Association, will provide a unique opportunity for fishermen of Hancock and Washington Counties to develop an alternative business which utilizes their existing skills as fishermen.

The program, which aims to provide an option to keep displaced commercial fishermen working on the water, was initiated by the Maine Aquaculture Association (MAA), and developed in a partnership with Great Bay Aquaculture of Maine (GBAM), Coastal Enterprises Inc. (CEI) and the Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research (CCAR) of the University of Maine.

The program will offer free training for 10 to 15 fishermen in all aspects of cod aquaculture and will raise funds to help graduates launch their own pilot-scale cod farms. NOAA awarded $183,000 for the initial coursework phase of the project. Fishermen who graduate and want to establish farms will be required to invest an estimated 50 percent of the cost. Sponsoring partners will seek grants to fund the remaining 50 percent.

The Cod Academy is the first program of its kind in the U.S.  It is modeled on government-sponsored programs begun in Norway during the late 70s and early 80s, which led to Norway’s becoming a world leader in fin fish aquaculture.

At that time, Belle, who has extensive experience in aquaculture in the United States and abroad, was working in Norway. “Like Maine today,” he says, “the coastal communities were facing tremendous economic challenges.  The North Sea herring fishery had collapsed and sheep farmers, the other principle industry, were being outdone by sheep farmers in New Zealand.”  He says the Norwegian government, looking at the success of aquaculture in Asian countries and at two pioneer fish farms in Norway, decided fin fish aquaculture would be a good option to diversify the economic base of coastal towns. 

The Norwegian government funded training for young people (who had been leaving the coast for work elsewhere), and set up demonstration commercial farms. It then provided financing for trainees to start their own small farms. “The people who went through that program are now the owners of very successful aquaculture companies in Norway,” Belle says.

“Our program is very modest by comparison,” he adds, “but when I first pitched the idea to Mike Rubino of NOAA a year ago, his reaction was ‘What a great idea. I’ve never heard of anything like that. Let’s see if we can find a way to help you financially do that.'”

The first step in Maine’s program is an application process. Requirements for participation include that the applicant be either a working commercial fisherman, or from a fishing family and unable to obtain a permit. The person must own a boat or have access to one, demonstrate the ability to finance or provide collateral for amounts up to $100,000, and be willing to sign a letter of commitment indicating determination to complete the entire course. The program schedule, one day a week in the summer and fall of 2010, will permit participants to continue fishing or work in other jobs.

The weekly classroom sessions will cover all aspects of cod aquaculture, including the biology of cod, applying for a lease, farm management, environmental monitoring and hands-on training with early stages of cod aquaculture at The Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research.

There will be further hands-on experience spread out over several months at the Great Bay Aquaculture cod farm site in Frenchman Bay off Sorrento (see “Cod Farming Returns to Maine” The Working Waterfront, July, 2009). Belle explains that time spent at the Sorrento farm will cover several months because “the important thing is to give them training in all aspects of raising fish that go on around the year, from how to install and anchor a cage to stocking, feeding, watching for disease and learning to understand fish behavior.” 

George Nardi, owner of GBAM, and Clayton Coffin, the Sorrento Farm manager, will work with students. Fishermen in the area have been showing great interest in the Sorrento site, which celebrated its first harvest in September with a party in Sorrento. 

To graduate from the first phase of the program, Belle says a participant must be able to fulfill several requirements, including having satisfactorily completed all homework assignments.

After graduation from Cod Academy, participants may enter the second phase of the program where they will begin to raise their own fish on pilot-scale cod farms. To qualify, they must work with CEI business counselors and experienced farm owners to develop a business plan for their own farm, including how they propose to market their fish. They will then present the plan to a panel of experts in order to qualify for partial funding.     

“They’ll need to put up at least 50 percent risk money,” says Richard Clime, administrator of the Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program at CEI, noting that, “As a former entrepreneur, I can say that the fear of losing your risk money is the single most powerful motivator to make you succeed.”  However, he adds that if fishermen cannot raise all the necessary risk money by themselves, CEI will work with them as a lender.

Belle says the groups who have put the project together hope they can diversify the funding base to include many people, groups and government agencies that are interested in preserving Maine’s working waterfront.  “The real issue,” he says, “is that the numbers of commercial fishermen in Maine are decreasing, and young people are having a harder and harder time getting into commercial fishing.  They need to find another way to make a living on the water.”

Meetings to introduce and explain the project will be held June 24 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Ellsworth City Hall and June 29 from 4 to 6 p.m. at University of Maine at Machias, science bldg., Room 102.

For further information, visit www.maineaquaculture.com, www.ceimaine.org or www.ccar.um.maine.edu. By phone: Sebastian Belle at MAA, 622-0136 or Dick Clime at CEI, 882-7552.

Muriel Hendrix is a freelance writer who lives in Bath.