BEALS (AP) – Maine’s first private clam farms are taking shape in Molly Cove.

In their 20-foot-wide strips of mud flat between the high- and low-tide marks, farmers broadcast some 11,000 tiny seed clams over each 216-square-foot plot.

Protective netting is then stretched over the baby clams and tucked into trenches that surround the plots.

Farmers will tend their plots for the next two years, checking to assure that nets stay in place and aren’t torn by predators.

If all goes as hoped, the seed clams, now one-quarter to one-half inch in diameter, will grow to harvest size by October 2005.

“They’ll need to treat it like a garden,” said Brian Beal, a professor of marine biology at the University of Maine at Machias and a technical adviser for the project.

Beal created the Beals Island Regional Shellfish Hatchery – the state’s first public clam stock enhancement program – in 1987. Since then, the hatchery has produced seed clams for every town in the state that manages its clamming resource.

The hatchery has grown into the Down East Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education, which supplied the seed clams for the farms.

The institute recently acquired a National Science Foundation grant to create a new marine research laboratory and education center to create economic opportunities for area fishermen. The Beals clam farm project is a joint venture between the town and the institute.

Seeding town clam flats has its limitations, Beal said, because a small number of people did the actual work, but everyone wants to participate in the harvest.

The clam farm project gives each of the seven participating clammers exclusive rights to their plots by way of an experimental aquaculture lease from the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

Robert Alley, chairman of the town’s shellfish committee, was on hand for the seeding.

“In two or three years, I have an idea we’ll have quite a few clams to market,” Alley said.

He said clamming on Beals has eroded to the point that there are only 21 diggers, only three or four of them full-time.

“We had 100 diggers 25 years ago,” he said. “My father used to lobster-fish until October, take his traps out, and clam from November to July.” Clam stocks are so depleted that most young men no longer see clamming as a way to make money, he said.

Clam farming – where the seed stock comes from a hatchery and the clams are protected while growing to maturity – may be the future of the industry, he said.

“I don’t want to see this die,” he said as he looked out over the flats. “This is our way of life.”