Revitalization of Maine aquaculture

Tor-Eddie Fossbakk One of the six awarded companies is MariCal, Inc. of Portland. The company will receive USD 217,637, which will be used to develop technology to help the aquaculture industry's ability to apply a non-lethal mark on commercial salmon so the fish can be traced back to their freshwater hatcheries and through their growth in secure netpens in seawater. The mark will help distinguish commercially farmed Atlantic salmon from wild Atlantic salmon. The new technology offers an alternative that could help the industry fully utilize Maine’s aquaculture leases to farm salmon, significantly reduce the cost of marking and lead to the revitalization of Maine’s aquaculture within a number of years. MariCal is a privately held aquatic life sciences company that develops and licenses innovative solutions addressing the critical problems faced by the world's aquaculture industry for both marine and freshwater organisms. Through its breakthrough discoveries, MariCal has isolated the biological "thermostat," or "master switch," that enables fish to sense and respond to nutrients and salinity/ionic composition in their aquatic environment. The SuperSmolt process is the company’s most known technology. The awards will be matched by nearly USD 3.2 million from other sources, MTI said in a press release. "MTI's development awards help these technologies go to market and enable the companies to grow, pay good wages and attract conventional capital to fuel future growth," said MTI President Betsy Biemann in the Friday press release.