Gulf of Maine

What Gulf of Maine does

Gulf of Maine, Inc. is a privately held, family-owned marine products company founded in 2000 by marine biologist Timothy F. Sheehan (Tidepool Tim) alongside co-founder Amy Sheehan, headquartered at 736 Leighton Point Rd., Pembroke, Maine. The company wild-harvests marine resources from the rocky shores and cold Atlantic waters of the Cobscook Bay region of the Gulf of Maine and ships products collected day-of or day-before, with no use of holding tanks for live specimens. Its brand is anchored on authentic wild-harvested provenance, founder scientific authority (via the Tidepool Tim YouTube channel and the Two Tides Blog), and sustainable harvesting practices accumulated over 25+ years.

The product portfolio is deliberately horizontal and spans edible seaweeds (Irish Moss/Chondrus crispus, Bladderwrack/Fucus, Sea Lettuce/Ulva lactuca, Sugar Kelp/Laminaria saccharina, Purple Laver/Nori, in whole leaf, flake, and powder forms), preserved marine specimens for classroom dissection, live and frozen marine life (mollusks, crustaceans, echinoderms, fish), filtered seawater (1–100 micron, 1- and 5-gallon packaging), substrates (fine sand, silt/sand/mud, cobbly seabed stones, fractured shale), fishing baits (frozen alewives, green crabs, squid, hermit crabs, sandworms, lugworms, live bait), kelp meal fertilizer (2 lb and 30 lb), and ancillary items such as Sea Kitty natural seaweed cat litter. Pricing is broad: $18–$20 at the low end (5 lb cat litter, sea lettuce), $25–$50 for mid-range seaweeds and preserved specimens, $89 for filtered seawater, and $180–$325 for ecology lab specimen collections.

Gulf of Maine operates primarily as a direct-to-consumer e-commerce business through its Squarespace-hosted storefront at gulfofme.com, with shipping included in product pricing across most SKUs. It supplements DTC with contact-based wholesale pricing for bulk orders of 1,000+ lbs of edible seaweeds, a 10%-discount subscribe-and-save subscription option on Irish Moss, and direct sales to educational institutions, aquariums, and research organizations. Marketing is anchored on organic content (Two Tides Blog, Tidepool Tim's YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and a Linktree hub) rather than paid acquisition. No proprietary technology platform has been disclosed, no external funding has been raised, there are no subsidiaries, and headcount is reported at 1–10 employees.

Name

Gulf of Maine

Legal name

Gulf of Maine, Inc.

Website

https://gulfofme.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Gulf of Maine, Inc. is a family-owned marine products company, founded in 2000 in Pembroke, Maine, that wild-harvests and sells edible seaweeds, preserved marine specimens, fishing baits, and aquarium substrates via direct-to-consumer e-commerce to educators, researchers, chefs, fishermen, and aquariums.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Wild-Harvested Marine Products

NAICS

Fish and Seafood Retailers (445250), Seafood Product Preparation and Packaging (3117), Other Marine Fishing (114119)

SIC

Food And Kindred Products (2000), Wholesale-Groceries & Related Products (5140)

akta.pro primary industry

Seafood Markets & Fishmongers (CRAHAHAC)

Keywords

• Edible seaweed products
• Preserved marine specimens
• Wild-caught fishing bait
• Marine biology supplies
• Kelp meal fertilizer

Headquarters

HQ city

Pembroke

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. E-commerce Retail Sales: Direct-to-consumer online sales of marine products including seaweeds, marine specimens, preserved specimens, fishing baits, and substrates. Products are sold as one-time purchases with various sizes and quantities. Shipping is included in product prices.
2. Wholesale/Bulk Sales: Wholesale options for edible seaweeds available at quantities above 1000 lbs, with pricing breaks built into larger volume orders. Contact-based pricing for bulk commercial orders.
3. Subscription Model: Subscription option available for Irish Moss products offering 10% savings with recurring monthly deliveries. Customers can choose between one-time purchase or subscribe-and-save model.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Gulf of Maine, Inc. hand-harvests, processes, and ships wild marine products from the cold Atlantic waters of the Gulf of Maine, including dried edible seaweeds (Irish Moss, Bladderwrack, Sea Lettuce, Sugar Kelp, Purple Laver), live and preserved marine specimens, filtered seawater and substrates, wild-caught frozen and live fishing bait, kelp meal fertilizer, Sea Kitty natural cat litter, shells and collectables, and ecology lab collection kits. Products are sold primarily through the company's own e-commerce storefront with shipping included, with wholesale and institutional channels supporting bulk and education/research buyers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Wild Dried Irish Moss (Chondrus crispus)

Quantifiable outcome

• Products collected and shipped either day-of or day-before to ensure maximum freshness
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Atlantic Sea Farms: Maine-based kelp aquaculture company (formerly Ocean Approved) selling kelp products including seaweed jerky and fermented kelp. Directly comparable because it competes in the Maine edible seaweed category with overlapping grocery retail and foodservice distribution.
• Maine Coast Sea Vegetables: Maine-based wild-harvested edible seaweed company selling dulse, kelp, alaria, laver, and sea lettuce directly to consumers and wholesale. Closest direct competitor because it shares Gulf-of-Maine-adjacent sourcing, wild-harvested provenance, and a similar multi-SKU dried-seaweed catalog targeting health-conscious and chef buyers.
• Ocean's Balance: Maine-based seaweed company producing organic seaweed products for food, supplement, and agricultural applications. Comparable due to shared Maine-sourced edible seaweed positioning, B2B/wholesale go-to-market, and overlap with Gulf of Maine's kelp meal and food-grade seaweed lines.
• Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratories: Florida-based marine specimen supplier providing preserved and live marine specimens, marine invertebrates, and aquarium supplies to educators, researchers, and aquariums. Highly comparable as a small specialty operator selling marine specimens, touch-tank animals, and aquarium substrates into the same institutional buyer segments.

Regional players

• Cascadia Seaweed: British Columbia-based seaweed cultivation and processing company producing food-grade and agricultural kelp products. Comparable on edible seaweed and kelp meal categories, but operates on the Pacific coast and does not directly compete in Gulf of Maine markets or in preserved-specimen or fishing-bait verticals.
• Mara Seaweed: Scotland-based wild-harvested and sustainable seaweed brand selling edible seaweeds to retail and foodservice across the UK. Comparable due to wild-harvested edible seaweed positioning, chef/health consumer target market, and similar SKU strategy, but operates in a different geography with no overlap in fishing bait or preserved specimens.
• The Cornish Seaweed Company: UK-based small-scale wild-harvested edible seaweed brand selling dried seaweeds, seaweed seasonings, and bath products direct-to-consumer. Comparable due to similar small-operator, wild-harvested, multi-SKU dried-seaweed model targeting health and chef consumers, but serves the UK market exclusively.

Broad incumbents

• Carolina Biological Supply: Major US distributor of preserved specimens, dissection materials, and life-science classroom supplies. Comparable on the preserved-specimen-for-education side of Gulf of Maine's business, serving the same teachers and labs with a much wider catalog and established institutional sales force.
• Ward's Science: Large established educational science supplier offering preserved and dry specimens, dissection supplies, and classroom kits. Comparable because it sells preserved marine specimens to the same educators, classrooms, and homeschool market that is one of Gulf of Maine's primary segments, though it operates a much broader life-science catalog.
• Acadian Seaplants: Canada-based global seaweed ingredients company producing wild-harvested and cultivated seaweeds for food, agricultural, and nutraceutical applications. Comparable due to shared wild-harvested edible seaweed sourcing and a similar kelp-meal-for-agriculture product line, but operates at significantly greater scale and breadth.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/gulf-of-maine-co
• Instagraminstagram.com/gulfofme
• Xx.com/localcfood

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Gulf of Maine