Maine Sea Grant announces ‘Bouy Maine’ pitch-contest winners

(WABI) - Earlier this year, Maine Sea Grant launched Bouy Maine, a pitch competition to foster innovation that supports the state’s working waterfront and coastal communities.

Ten projects and ideas pitched by organizations from Maine’s aquaculture sector to help better address the challenges of operating a business during the pandemic were chosen. One is marketing gold mussels, a unique brand from Blue Hill Bay Mussels. They are farming mussels with a rare phenotype that gives them a bright golden color.

“They not only look really cool, they actually grow incredibly fast which gives them a fairly thin shell, so they have a high meat yield,” said Kyle Pepperman of the Downeast Institute. “So to the consumers, we feel this is going to be a prize product, and it’s a really unique Maine product because it’s the only place you can buy them in the world, is the state of Maine.”

Buoy Maine winners will work on their projects over the winter and share their lessons learned at a public celebration next summer.

For a full list of Bouy Maine winners, visit seagrant.umaine.edu.