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Sea Scallop Aquaculture Project

 

Entrepreneur:Tom Pottle

Address:
PO Box 252
Perry, ME 04667

Telephone:(207) 853-4714
FAX:(207) 853-4714
Email: pottleJ@yahoo.com

Grant Amount: $37,500

Mission Statement

To develop a system for the commercial production of sea scallops and to provide those techniques to commercial fishermen in Downeast Maine.

Purpose of Grant

Great Bay's grant was for the general support of the project, construction of barge, acquisition of materials and develop a scallop cage system.

Additional Information

Tom Pottle wants to perfect a way to cultivate sea scallops.  His goal is to devise a way that one man can generate approximately $50,000 per year cultivating sea scallops on a small piece of ocean bottom.

Tom, who is himself a fisherman, decided that the fisherman of today will have to find a way to supplement what they earn in the traditional fishing industry.  He learned that the Japanese were cultivating sea scallops and thought that if they could do it so could he.  With sponsorship from the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, Tom leased a small portion of the bottom of Cobscook Bay in Eastport, Maine, built a barge from which to tend his plot, and has been growing sea scallops for almost two years. Through trial and error he has been perfecting his method.