The Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center was established in 1988 by the Maine Legislature with a mission to assist in developing economically and environmentally sustainable aquaculture opportunities in Maine. MAIC sponsors and facilitates innovative research and development projects involving food, pharmaceuticals, and other products from sustainable aquatic systems; invests in the enhancement of aquaculture capacity in Maine; serves as a source of educational information to enhance public visibility and acceptance of aquaculture; and encourages strategic alliances tasked with promoting research, technology transfer, and the commercialization of aquaculture research.
2023 Maine Aquaculture R&D&E Priorities Report
Now Available, click here to download
or use the interactive data dashboard link by clicking here
Maine Pilot “Farmer to Farmer” Exchange Program
Call for Applications now open
To download , click here
Assessment of US Consumer Attitudes and Preferences about Farm-Raised Seaweed
Interactive Data Dashboard now available, click here
Unlimited Ingenuity, Industrious Entrepreneurs:
Stories of Aquafarming in Maine 1998-2016
A Collection of Stories by Muriel L. Hendrix
To order a copy, click here
What We Do
- Pioneering GIS for shellfish site selection
- Developing a low cost environmental data buoy
- Market research on seaweed products
- Sea scallop culture and commercialization
- Developing rapid detection methods for oyster MSX disease
Increasing Maine’s aquaculture and marine research capacity:
- Constructed an algal production facility at the Darling Marine Center
- Oceanographic instrumentation lending program to assist aquaculture enterprises to identify optimal culture sites along our coast
- Enhancements to the aquaculture business incubator at the CCAR
- Improvements to the DMC Marine Culture Laboratory for business incubation
Business incubation:
- In partnership with the University of Maine, manage two incubator facilities at the Darling Marine Center and the Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research
- Provide business development and support services to incubator tenants (with support from the DECD)
- Recently renovated laboratory space for business incubation at the Darling Marine Center
Training and education:
- Partnered with the Aquaculture in Shared Waters Project fisheries retraining program
- Developing an electronic aquaculture curriculum
- Developing aquaculture curriculum for Washington County Community College
- Host the Northeast Aquaculture Conference & Exposition, held biennially throughout New England since 1998.