Clamming Maps, Useful Links & Recent Shellfish Studies

• DMR current closure letter - Freeport
• DMR Current Closure Information...area 500 concerns the whole state; scroll down the page to see areas 14 through 16, which concern Freeport specifically.
• DMR Closure Map
• Current Tide Charts
• The Town Shellfish Conservation Ordinance.

RECENT SHELLFISH STUDIES:

In 2019, the Town of Freeport was awarded a grant through the Maine Shellfish Restoration and Resilience Project to research the effects of winter harvesting on the survival of quahogs.  This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a recent conservation closure for quahogs, and will inform future decisions by the Shellfish Conservation Commission regarding winter conservation closures.

Shellfish (Quahog) Research Project - Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3.

Below  you will find journal articles from Journal of Shellfish Research and Journal of Experimental Marine Biology & Ecology detailing the Freeport results from the 2014 and 2015 clam recruitment and survival studies and the 2014-2016 sediment buffering for coastal acidification vs predation.

 2018. Spatial Variability in Recruitment of an Infaunal Bivalve: Experimental Effects of Predator Exclusion on the Soft-shell Clam (Mya Arenaria L.) Along Three Tidal Estuaries in Southern Maine, USA. Journal of Shellfish Research, 37 (1), 1-27.

 2020. Interactive effects of shell hash and predator exclusion on 0-year class recruits of two infaunal intertidal bivalve species in Maine, USA. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology,  530–531, 151441, 

During 2013, the Town of Freeport sponsored two concurrent scientific studies to investigate various shellfish habitat preservation strategies. The final reports from both of those studies can be accessed below in .PDF format:

Freeport Shellfish Restoration Project – Final Report by Professor Brian F. Beal. January 24, 2014.

Shellfish Habitat Resource Planning Study by Resource Access International, LLC (RAI). February 5, 2014.

In addition, you may also find useful information at the Downeast Institute Website.