Freeport, Maine

Community-Run Clam Research

Problem

Research happens to rural communities, not with them. Data extraction leaves towns with reports on shelves and little say in what gets studied or how findings are used.

Solution

From 2013 the Town of Freeport funded field studies of green crab predation on soft-shell clams in the Harraseeket River, carried out by clammers with Brian Beal and the Downeast Institute (DEI); trapping, fencing, and predator-exclusion netting were tested, netting was the only treatment that raised clam survival and recruitment. A 2020 EPA-format citizen science QAPP (Freeport Police Department, Shellfish Committee, Middle School, funded by Casco Bay Estuary Partnership) covers a later student recruitment-box project, and DEI's Maine Sea Grant-seeded Clam Recruitment Monitoring Network added Freeport in 2026.

Patterns used: Community-Based Research

Read more success stories