MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • September 28, 2025
For almost 1,000 pounds of invasive European green crabs each week, Erik Francis’ traps are the end of the line. He pulls one from the water. Armed with one beefy “crusher” claw and one finer “cutter” claw, the crustaceans are notoriously aggressive and insatiable predators. Francis is the steward of the Sipayik Community Clam Garden, an industrious mariculture project that sits yards offshore of his home community, the Passamaquoddy Reservation at Pleasant Point (Sipayik), population 600. Over 1 million soft-shell clams are growing there under Francis’ diligent watch. He is learning to foster them to size so the clams can feed his Indigenous community — and not the expatriate crustaceans that see his garden as a buffet.