This is a great week to get a seafood meal in Maine. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute is expanding its Split the Seafood Bill Day into Split the Seafood Bill Week from March 21 through 27. Related: See video above from the promotion in 2020.The first Split the Seafood Bill Day was held in December 2020 as a way to bolster sales of seafood during the pandemic. Restaurants reported a significant increase in total orders during the promotion, so the program is being expanded."When people dine out or get takeout from one of our culinary restaurants they can enter to win and split the bill with us," said Kyle Foley, Sustainable Seafood Senior Program Manager at Gulf of Maine Research Institute. During Split the Seafood Bill week, GMRI will give away 300 $30 gift cards to diners ordering seafood at any of GMRI's 24 culinary partner restaurants. To participate, diners can order seafood from one of the partner restaurants, take a photo of their itemized receipt, and submit it through GMRI's website for a chance to win a gift card."This program has shown great potential as a way to support the seafood industry and bring awareness to the struggles they have faced for the past two years," said Foley. "We think making this a weeklong event will mean even more people can participate, hopefully trying a restaurant they've never been to before."More than two dozen restaurants are participating in the Split the Seafood Bill; Restaurants stretching from Portsmouth New Hampshire all the way up to Bangor. Prior to the pandemic, restaurants were selling roughly over 2/3 of all the seafood sold in the United States. This event helps to promote the fishing industry during the off-season. "It's good for us, it's good for the local fisherman that we do business with," said Chris O'Neil, owner of Boone's Fish House & Oysters Room. While the seafood industry is no longer dealing with the closures of 2020, COVID-19 continues to make an impact through staffing shortages and increased costs of doing business.