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V O L . X X X I N O. X I X 94 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine I N N OVAT I O N / R & D E arlier this year, a omaston startup that developed a new type of scallop farming grow cage scooped up $25,000 in cash prizes at a pitch competition held by Dirigo Labs in Waterville. Seascale, founded by Charles Walsh and Jon Steuber, swept the competition's three prize categories, receiving $20,000 as the judge's Pitch Prize winner, $3,000 as the Founder's Choice award and $2,000 by audience voting. e cash awards were sponsored by Skowhegan Savings Bank. e company's core innovation, the Maine Scallop Pot, is a modular aqua- culture system designed to integrate into the routines of working fishermen, without disrupting daily lobstering operations. "ese prizes will help us expand operations and empower more coastal communities to build resilience through sustainable aquaculture," said Walsh. e Maine Scallop Pot is designed to be used around the daily rhythms of working lobstermen, enabling fisher- men to cultivate scallops without add- ing labor-intensive tasks or disrupting established routines. "We built the Maine Scallop Pot to make aquaculture a real, viable option for working fishermen, not just in Maine, but anywhere traditional fisher- ies are facing pressure," said Steuber. Scallop pot e scallop growing gear Seascale developed looks like a lobster trap, hauls and sets like a lobster trap and can be stacked like traps. But each is fitted with shellfish bags and is purpose built for growing scallops With the tagline "Aquaculture integration for marine fishermen," the goal is to provide high-quality, easy- to-integrate aquaculture gear that helps lobstermen add revenue streams without changing the way they fish, the company says. Like lobster traps, the pots can be strung in trawls and set in different areas throughout the year to maximize productivity and to avoid conflict with lobster traps and scallop draggers. Partnership development Walsh grew up on the Maine coast and started his career cooking pro- fessionally and lobstering in the off season, while managing puffin and tern colonies for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the summer. He spent the last decade scaling aquaculture production and devel- oping sustainable seafood products for the retail and wholesale market. at included running the University of Maine's experimental shellfish hatchery, scaling nursery and farm production of organic sugar kelp with Maine Sea Farms, growing oysters for Pemaquid Oyster Co. and build- ing American Unagi's processing and smokehouse operations. Steuber has worked as a lobster boat stern man in the Knox County town of St. George since 2019. While commercial fishing, he helped his boat diversify income streams by expand- ing into kelp production. Gear for growing scallops is harvesting shellfish — and awards B y L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F S E A S C A L E Seascale, a Thomaston startup, makes a modular system for growing scallops. P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F D I R I G O L A B S From left, Andrew Fortin-Trimble and Dan Tilton of Skowhegan Savings Bank with Seascale co-founders Jon Steuber and Charles Walsh. We are currently bootstrapping Seascale's operations through our own funds, generating some income through initial sales and pursuing some early grant funding. — Jon Steuber Seascale

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