STONINGTON (AP) – A former storage building at the Stonington Lobster Co-op soon will be transformed into a nursery for thousands of young lobsters in the latest effort to create a hatchery capable of replenishing ocean stocks.

Lobstermen from the Zone C lobster region are working with the Penobscot East Resource Center to develop the hatchery to raise lobsters this summer.

“We should have what we need in a couple of weeks,” said Ted Ames.

The homegrown project uses technology developed by Brian Beal at the University of Maine at Machias.

Using eggs provided by fishermen, the hatchery will raise the young lobsters in 100-gallon conical tanks with air pumped into them. The aeration, Ames said, creates currents that encapsulate the young lobsters in layers of water and keep them suspended and separated so they don’t eat each other.

The Lobster Institute launched a similar hatchery initiative two years ago, but it differed by raising the lobsters in a mesh-lined device that was placed in tidal waters. It was designed by University of Maine researcher John Riley.

The Lobster Institute’s initiative had potential, but no one took it to the next level, said Bob Bayer, the group’s executive director.

The only current lobster hatchery that Bayer is familiar with is at the New England Aquarium in Boston. That one is used for research.

In Maine, lobstermen have long toyed with the idea of creating a hatchery that would provide insurance if the fishery collapsed for some reason.

Due to the late arrival of equipment needed to complete the hatchery, Ames estimated that 80,000 lobsters will be produced this year. Within a full season, the hatchery could turn out an estimated 150,000 in a season.

The tiny lobsters will be stocked at selected sites in Zone C, an area that runs from Cape Rosier in Brooksville to Jericho Bay and out to Matinicus Island. A hatchery committee, working with the 900 lobstermen in Zone C, will identify specific sites in the zone’s nine districts where the lobster will be stocked.

New research techniques that can monitor the sites regularly could determine whether a stocking program can help and also could help scientists and fishermen learn about critical phases of lobster development.

“There’s never been any definitive studies to show that stocking lobsters has any long-term impact,” he said. “That’s the question that has to be answered. Can we demonstrate through this stocking program that it makes a difference?”