Everyday Adaptation - Biofouling

If you talk to any fisherman in Maine about the impacts of warming waters, you’re guaranteed to hear about biofouling at some point. To put it bluntly, biofouling mucks up gear. Critters and plants like kelp, sponges, mussels, sea squirts, and algae grow thick on lobster traps and oyster cages, making maintaining gear and harvesting catch more challenging. Every inch of gear that is covered by biofouling organisms is an inch of gear that wild harvesters and sea farmers have to routinely clean to keep gear functional.

In this episode we’ll meet sea farmers who are tackling the issue of biofouling in unique and practical ways. On Great Cranberry island: an oyster farmer has found a better way for her team to flip oyster cages, a process necessary to stave off biofouling, and she’s even experimenting with introducing some predators onto the farm. And in southern Maine: a company that developed a plastic-free alternative to oyster bags is testing that product as a promising solution to biofouling on scallop lanterns nets.