Great Eastern Mussel Farms of Tenants Harbor, Maine, announced yesterday that it is immediately shutting down the company and laying off its 40 full-time employees.
The 30-year-old company blamed its demise on increased regulatory challenges, rising energy costs and competition from Canada.
Founded in 1978 by Endicott "Chip" Davison, the 30-year-old company was one of Maine’s largest mussel producers and a pioneer in the state’s mussel farming industry.
"Before Great Eastern, the mussel market was driven by individual and independent diggers and fishermen along the coast," says Michael Hallundbaek, the company's general manager. "Chip was able to organize, educate and create products that basically established mussels as an entirely new category of healthful seafood from a renewable resource at retail seafood counters and on restaurant menus nationwide."
