BY HANK GARFIELD

Maine historical novelist Kenneth Roberts (1885-1957) wrote of a time when lobsters were so plentiful along the Maine Coast that you could walk along the shore at low tide and find them among the seaweed covering the rocks in the intertidal zone. Today, it takes a bit more effort, but Maine’s drowned coast has been a bountiful provider of seafood since the last glacier receded.

Ancient shellfish middens on outlying islands attest to indigenous peoples’ awareness and use of these resources. With modern harvesting methods came increased yields, the threat of overfishing, and the pressure of demand from a hungry world.

Enter aquaculture, the practice of farming the sea.

By most accounts, the history of Maine aquaculture begins with the opening of the Craig Brook National

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