Beal wins grant to improve aquaculture for mussels and clams
At the end of a sharp point of land jutting into Western Bay, the Down East Institute for Applied Marine Research is a small campus of outbuildings, docks and a wharf centered around a large, nondescript metal warehouse. Inside, the air is humid and laced with the briny smell of shellfish and salt water.
A dozen tanks of sea water teem with life – European oysters here, articsurf clams there, blue mussels over there. Tall glass bottles and jugs bubble and glow with eerie colors in an almost Frankenstein’s laboratory-like setting as algae is grown for the shellfish's breakfast.
Rushing from teaching a marine ecology class at the nearby University of Maine at Machias, Dr. Brian Beal hurries in, flannel shirt flapping and green rubber boots squeaking on the cement floor.
There is a crisis.
The pump that provides vital sea water to the tanks has failed, affecting water quality and possibly endangering the survival of billions of soft shell clam eggs. With facility manager George Protopopescue, the pump is pulled, a part replaced and the relief is visible on Beal’s face.
"No one else is doing this," Beal says of the importance of his clam and mussel research. "We have to."