April 3, 2000

Dan Gerry, owner of Newport Industrial Fabrication (NIF), near Bangor, Maine, has launched a new company, Maine Aquaculture Equipment (MAI), which was started to produce mussels raft equipment for many of Maine's displaced fishermen and uses many Maine resources in their construction.

The various components of the rafts are shipped to MAE where they are put together to make the rafts. NIF does the steel work; the rafts are constructed out of Maine larch or tamarack; the rope used on the rafts comes from Crowe Rope in Winslow, Maine.