MIPS Project Detail:
Company
Company Description:
MeTompkin Seafood is a seafood processing company specializing in soft shell crabs, crab meat and oysters. The company is led by the Todd family, which has been working at catching and selling seafood from the Chesapeake Bay for eight generations.
MIPS Project
Advanced Techniques for Oyster Lease Profitability
Project #
6004.22
|
MIPS Round
62
|
Starting Date:
Aug 2018
MIPS Project Challenge:
The goal of this MIPS project was to develop a high-volume, spat-on-shell oyster production system based on remote setting technology.
Project Scope:
Researchers participating in this MIPS project planned to design, deliver, install, and test a system to handle large quantities (>10,000 bushels) of shell annually to be moved efficiently in and out of four setting tanks to the ground management vessel. This involved storing, washing, grading and containerizing shell, as well as moving shells into setting systems and subsequently to a planting vessel for final deployment.
Results:
The MIPS project allowed MeTompkin to expand over a two-year period with a fully automated production line to efficiently handle spat-on-shell, whereas it would have taken the company ten years without the expertise and input from University of Maryland partners to achieve the same level.
In August, 2017, MeTompkin commenced a new MIPS project with Meritt to use and evaluate a combination of new and traditional techniques for oyster bottom rehabilitation.
Aquaculture will allow the year-round production of oysters and expansion of both shellstock and shucked product markets. MeTompkin’s success could lead to the development of other processing operations. Lack of bivalve shellfish is one component of the overall nutrient input problem affecting coastal bays. Significant production of shellfish will benefit water quality.
Principal Investigator:
Michael
Roman
Director Horn Point Laboratory
Project Manager:
Casey
Todd
President
Technologies:
Aquaculture
Environmental Technology / Science
Nanotechnology
