Published by Penobscot Bay Pilot on February 4, 2026.
The Maine Farmed Seafood Coalition (MFSC) is launching a campaign to educate the public about Maine aquaculture, an effort to address recent sea farming disputes in isolated Maine coastal communities. The campaign, titled “Maine Farmers Are Why,” puts sea farmers at the front of the conversation and tells the stories of innovators who make a diversified living on the coast of Maine, according to MFSC, in a news release.
Krista Tripp is one such sea farmer. She is a member of the MFSC, a commercial lobsterwoman, the mother of a four-year-old boy, and a lifelong Midcoast resident. Having grown up fishing for lobsters with her father, Tripp has spent her career continuing that family tradition. In 2018 she decided to start a second business, Aphrodite Oysters, her four-acre sea farm in South Thomaston. She runs the business, employs three full time workers for most of the year, and continues to fish 800 lobster traps.
“There’s always uncertainty in the wild-caught fisheries, so I went into oyster farming,” said Tripp, in the MFSC news release. “I wanted to pass something on to the future generations. My son Sebastian is growing up alongside the business and can get into oyster farming when he’s older if he chooses to.”
According to 2023 data from the USDA and the US Department of Commerce, at least 80% of seafood consumed in the United States is imported—the majority of that is farmed abroad.
“The global demand for farmed seafood is continuing to grow, and Maine’s cold clean coastal waters produce premium seafood,” said MFSC. “Additionally, Maine’s skilled maritime workforce and working waterfront infrastructure make the state an optimal location for sea farming. The Maine Farmed Seafood Coalition recognizes this potential to bring seafood production and consumption close to home and identified the public’s lack of aquaculture knowledge as a barrier to the acceptance and growth of the industry in Maine coastal communities.”
Andrea Cianchette Maker, president of FocusMaine, sits on the MFSC steering committee along with representatives from Maine Aquaculture Association, World Wildlife Fund, Coastal Enterprises Inc., and the Island Institute. Cianchette Maker notices a promising trend regarding the potential for public education.
“The more people learn the facts about aquaculture,” she said, “the stronger their support for it is. This campaign will help Maine people understand and appreciate the tremendous value aquaculture provides to our state, economically, ecologically and culturally.”
