COURTESY OF MAINE SEA GRANT
Two years ago, Neil Stanton, owner of Scruffy’s Cove Oyster Farm, noticed some odd black lines on his oysters’ shells. He didn’t know what they were, so he called Dana Morse, the guy who helped him get into oyster farming back in 2020.
“I sent him a picture, asking, ‘What’s this?’” says Neil. “He said it was mud blisters.”
Mud blisters, a type of shell-boring marine worm common in Maine, aren’t harmful to people, but they aren’t appetizing either. They also slow an oyster’s growth, since it must fend off the parasite, and weaken its shell.
“It turns out that Dana is a real expert,” says Neil. Dana, a member of the Maine Sea Grant Marine Extension Team, has worked in aquaculture on the Maine coast since 1998 and has studied mud blisters, even publishing a paper on them. To assist Neil, Dana brought in marine scientist and geneticist Dr. Paul Rawson, a University of Maine Professor. The two visited Scruffy’s Cove, and a plan emerged.
Paul recommended pulling Neil’s intertidal farm further up the shoreline to dry mud blister larvae in the sun. Dana suggested pulling the oysters from the water and refrigerating them for a few weeks to kill the worms. (Oysters enter dormancy and can live for months when cooled.)
Dana and Paul weren’t sure the methods would work on his farm. They gave Neil their best research-backed guesses. “All I know is that I did those things, and I haven’t had mud blisters the last couple years,” says Neil. For the record though, he’s selling them more quickly than before. “People wanna buy them as soon as they’re big enough,” says Neil, giving the worms less time to set up shop.
Whether it’s the science or the market keeping Neil’s oysters blister free, he never felt like he had to tackle the issue alone. “The oyster community is really super supportive in Maine,” says Neil. “Lots of people are hoping for your success.” In a sea of supportive voices, he came to rely on Mr. Morse the most.
“ Everybody knows Dana,” says Neil. “He’s helped many, many, many farmers in Maine get going and maintain things over the years.”
Along with nearly 30 years of experience in the oyster industry, Dana’s worked with scallops for two decades and is now looking into other profitable species like razor clams and urchins. As Neil puts it, “ he’s an unbelievable resource for farmers in Maine.”
As for Dana, well, he’s serious about his work. “We realize that people and communities depend on healthy natural resources for their jobs, their livelihoods, their identity and their culture. And really, we just wanna make all those things work to the extent that we can.”
Dana is just one of Maine Sea Grant’s aquaculture research extension and community support experts. Their job is to help establish or improve your business, working with you to identify the hurdles standing in your way and how to overcome them. Maine Sea Grant provides similar support across a range of coastal and marine ecosystems and economies. We make marine science work for you.