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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 32 Number 12
July 2005
New Zone C lobster hatchery well underway in Stonington, Maine
 STONINGTON, ME - The lobster hatchery project in lobster Zone C was well underway in late June, with the first year’s fund-raising goal in hand and construction of the facility in progress.
The goal of raising $25,000 from Zone C lobstermen and community members was reached, according to Robin Alden, director of the Penobscot East Resource Center (PERC), a nonprofit organization in Stonington. That amount is being matched by a $25,000 grant secured by PERC from the Tides Foundation.
The $50,000 will finance the hatchery’s startup including costs such as building materials, algae and lobster growing tanks, pumps and plumbing, and scientific monitoring equipment.
The hatchery was intended as a collaboration among the lobster Zone C council, the Stonington Lobster Co-op, and the Stonington Fisheries Alliance. It is organized and run by PERC, which provides all the fund-raising and administrative support.
Over 100 donations were received in support of the hatchery, Alden said. They included contributions from Zone C lobstermen, some of the towns in the zone, local businesses, and community members.
PERC was recently awarded a $140,000 Community Development Block Grant to create jobs, Alden said, which can also benefit the hatchery.
The next hatchery fund-raising effort will be initiated in the fall to raise money for next summer’s operationing costs.
Construction
The hatchery is being built within an existing building owned by the Stonington co-op, which is donating the space. The 25'x65' area has been divided into an aseptic “clean” room, a large culture room, and a small office.
Ted Ames of PERC is overseeing the hatchery design and construction. Local lobstermen are volunteering their time and labor for construction.
While there have been the usual holdups with the back ordering of equipment and scheduling work time around volunteers’ fishing schedules, Ames plans to have the hatchery operational by fall.
A design by Dr. Brian Beal of University of Maine at Machias and the Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education provides the model for the hatchery. It involves growing algae to feed brine shrimp, which are fed to the larval lobsters. Algae, brine shrimp, and lobsters are held in various sizes of conical tanks that are supplied with circulating seawater. The lobster tanks are also aerated.
The hatchery aims to raise 100,000-150,000 stage IV (4) lobsters annually from ripe eggs dropped by female lobsters caught and brought in by local lobstermen. Stage IV is when the larvae settle on the bottom and start their lives as lobsters.
“This first year is really a shakedown,” Ames said. “There’s a real orchestration to getting all the parts going smoothly.”
Lobsters will be released in each of the nine districts making up Zone C. Fishermen in each district will decide where they should be released. Then fishermen will work with scientists to monitor the survival of the hatchery-raised lobsters over the next 5-7 years.
“No one has demonstrated that a hatchery can affect the natural system,” Ames said. “Or do it cost effectively.”
Zone C lobstermen and their hatchery may be the first to show it can be done in the years ahead, he said.
Donations to the hatchery project can be sent to PERC, PO Box 27, Stonington, ME 04681.
For more information, contact Ted Ames at (207) 367-2473 or e-mail <amest@verizon.net> or Robin Alden at (207) 367-2708 or e-mail <robin.alden@verizon.net>.
Susan Jones
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