Merrymetting Shellfish Co. in Bath has turned to printing new homes for shellfish in order to boost production.

The company is using 3D-printed hexagonal pods, which take about two hours to print, to expedite the process of growing oysters. Without the 3D printer, traditional pods take three months to assemble.

“Right now, most farmers either drop their cages to the bottom over the winter, and everything goes dormant,” said Matthew Nixon, owner of Merrymeeting Shellfish Co. “Or they will take their product in, stick it in a cooler and it will slowly [dry out] over the winter.”

A massive 3D printer at the University of Maine works on creating the pods that Merrymeeting Shellfish Co. uses to grow its oysters. Courtesy of Merrymeeting Shellfish Co.

The 3D-printed pods will be stored inside, allowing the shellfish to continue growing at the company’s headquarters in Bath. Nixon said the seed grows during the winter, and the larger seed is sold in the spring to shellfish farmers, half across Maine and half outside the state.

The 6-foot-wide, hexagonal 3D-printed pods were mainly produced in Orono at the Advanced Structures and Composite Center at the University of Maine and another company in Ohio called Additive Engineering Solutions. Nixon said that the materials used in the 3D printing process are wood flour and bio-resin, which are biodegradable and recyclable.

Nixon has been slowly building the Harpswell hatchery’s capacity from producing up to 60 million oyster seeds per year to around 400 million by next year.

Nixon said that growing oysters on land is much more expensive than growing them in the ocean. Since oysters are filter feeders, a type of Tetraselmis, or green microalgae, feeds the shellfish through the pump system in the pods. The oysters will begin feeding in December.

The hatchery is running at 380 million total capacity this year. Nixon said it was critical to keep oyster seed production in Maine, with significant competition internationally.

Oysters are being grown inside the larval room at Merrymeeting Shellfish Co. at the hatchery in Harpswell. Courtesy of Merrymeeting Shellfish Co.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has identified aquaculture as a significant need in the United States to reduce seafood imports from other countries, support national seafood production, rebuild protected species and habitats, and enhance coastal resilience. If a shellfish hatchery in Maine closes, the state cannot import seed.

“If one of these hatcheries goes out over the summer, for instance, it has a massive snowball effect because people that start calling around frantically looking for seed so they can meet their budgets for the season,” Nixon said.

Another challenge facing the shellfish industry is climate change. A couple of Nixon’s clients told him the January nor’easter wiped out some shellfish farms in Casco Bay and Yarmouth, causing everything to be lost overnight.

“That is going to become more of an issue as [the] climate continues to change and water continues to warm,” Nixon said. “So, having an option for them to take their product and store it over the winter where they’ll know exactly how much they are going to get in the spring, they can budget much better and build their business a little bit stronger.”

Merrymeeting Shellfish Co. produces oysters, quahogs, muscles and, more recently, acquired a grant to produce commercial scallops.

“Last year was the first year that quahog population — at least according to our surveys — was higher than soft shells, and that’s indicative of what’s going on in terms of green crab issues,” Nixon said.