Printing turns into latest device for Tub shellfish firm
Merrymetting Shellfish Co. in Tub has turned to printing new properties for shellfish as a way to enhance manufacturing.
The corporate is utilizing 3D-printed hexagonal pods, which take about two hours to print, to expedite the method of rising oysters. With out the 3D printer, conventional pods take three months to assemble.
“Proper now, most farmers both drop their cages to the underside over the winter, and the whole lot goes dormant,” stated Matthew Nixon, proprietor of Merrymeeting Shellfish Co. “Or they may take their product in, stick it in a cooler and it’ll slowly [dry out] over the winter.”
An enormous 3D printer on the College of Maine works on creating the pods that Merrymeeting Shellfish Co. makes use of to develop its oysters. Courtesy of Merrymeeting Shellfish Co.
The 3D-printed pods shall be saved inside, permitting the shellfish to proceed rising on the firm’s headquarters in Tub. Nixon stated the seed grows throughout the winter, and the bigger seed is offered within the spring to shellfish farmers, half throughout Maine and half outdoors the state.
The 6-foot-wide, hexagonal 3D-printed pods had been primarily produced in Orono on the Superior Buildings and Composite Middle on the College of Maine and one other firm in Ohio known as Additive Engineering Options. Nixon stated that the supplies used within the 3D printing course of are wooden flour and bio-resin, that are biodegradable and recyclable.
Nixon has been slowly constructing the Harpswell hatchery’s capability from producing as much as 60 million oyster seeds per 12 months to round 400 million by subsequent 12 months.
Nixon stated that rising oysters on land is rather more costly than rising them within the ocean. Since oysters are filter feeders, a kind of Tetraselmis, or inexperienced microalgae, feeds the shellfish by way of the pump system within the pods. The oysters will start feeding in December.
The hatchery is working at 380 million complete capability this 12 months. Nixon stated it was vital to maintain oyster seed manufacturing in Maine, with vital competitors internationally.
Oysters are being grown contained in the larval room at Merrymeeting Shellfish Co. on the hatchery in Harpswell. Courtesy of Merrymeeting Shellfish Co.
The Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has recognized aquaculture as a major want in the US to scale back seafood imports from different international locations, help nationwide seafood manufacturing, rebuild protected species and habitats, and improve coastal resilience. If a shellfish hatchery in Maine closes, the state can not import seed.
“If considered one of these hatcheries goes out over the summer season, for example, it has an enormous snowball impact as a result of those that begin calling round frantically searching for seed to allow them to meet their budgets for the season,” Nixon stated.
One other problem going through the shellfish business is local weather change. A few Nixon’s shoppers advised him the January nor’easter worn out some shellfish farms in Casco Bay and Yarmouth, inflicting the whole lot to be misplaced in a single day.
“That’s going to turn into extra of a difficulty as [the] local weather continues to alter and water continues to heat,” Nixon stated. “So, having an possibility for them to take their product and retailer it over the winter the place they’ll know precisely how a lot they’ll get within the spring, they will price range significantly better and construct their enterprise a little bit bit stronger.”
Merrymeeting Shellfish Co. produces oysters, quahogs, muscle tissue and, extra not too long ago, acquired a grant to provide industrial scallops.
“Final 12 months was the primary 12 months that quahog inhabitants — at the least in response to our surveys — was larger than comfortable shells, and that’s indicative of what’s happening by way of inexperienced crab points,” Nixon stated.
