Oyster growers along the Damariscotta River, who have been in the industry longer than any other oyster farmers in the state, see many opportunities to grow in the future. But they recognize that the road won’t be smooth and presents several identifiable challenges.
One of the interesting opportunities, says Bill Mook, owner of Mook Sea Farms, is to improve harvesting techniques for oysters that are planted on the bottom of a lease site for final growout. At present, companies use a diver to hand harvest oysters or they drag across the site, often dragging the same area more than once and never sure of exactly what’s on the bottom where they are dragging. Mook is working on several ideas, including using a dragger fitted with equipment that identifies where it is on the oyster bed and allows the harvester to see what he’s about to harvest. Mook would like to combine that technology with a system that would clean and cull the oysters when they are brought up.
Mook, who started his shellfish hatchery in 1985, says, “I can’t speak for other hatcheries, but to me, the hatchery end of shellfish aquaculture has become far more sophisticated and predictable than I ever thought it would be. This allows us to work on improving the technology.” He has been awarded a Maine Technology Institute (MTI) grant to improve methods of hatchery food production, which he says is always a bottleneck in the hatchery. “My project’s goal is to produce a bioreactor to grow micro algae,” he says. “It would be more efficient than the system we use now.” This could speed up hatchery growth, permitting him to put out larger oysters in early spring. With summer growth, they would be better able to resist juvenile oyster disease in late July and early August, when it is most likely to be prevalent. Also, he says, a greater percentage of the oysters would be more likely to reach harvest size 18 months after being put out in May, eliminating the necessity to overwinter them for a second winter.
Damariscotta River growers have been using a strain of American, or Eastern, oysters, Crassostrea virginica, developed in a selective breeding program begun by Bob Hawes at the Darling Marine Center in the mid-1980s. This strain matures in 18 months to a little over two years in the Damariscotta River. “Right now, the Damariscotta River is seen as the focal point for oyster growing,” says Dick Clime of Dodge Cove Marine Farms. “Making it successful outside the river poses a whole new set of challenges. Each estuary is a bit different, and the animals respond differently to the different seasonal conditions.”
The selective breeding program has recently been rejuvenated with assistance from Mike Hastings of Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center and a grant from MTI. In this project, geneticist Paul Rawson and hatchery manager Scott Feindel are working at University of Maine’s Darling Center to develop strains of oysters that will achieve optimal growth in areas beyond the Damariscotta River.
Clime says the new research will crossbreed three different strains of oysters: the Flowers Select oyster from Long Island, New York; a strain from Rutgers, New Jersey; and a third strain that was developed from the Flowers Select in the original selective breeding program.
“The idea is to interbreed the three lines and then compare the performance of the different progeny of those crosses in various spots up and down the coast,” he says.
Chris Davis and Carter Newell of Pemaquid Oyster and Jon Lewis of the DMR are working on another research project. The aim, says Davis, is “to gain a sense of how much algae is being consumed by farms in the Damariscotta River and to look at how many farms the river can support without any depletion of phytoplankton. My sense is that the number of oysters is not the limiting factor in the number of leases the river can support,” he says, “but that it is the amount of gear – the aesthetic question.”
At this point, Maine oyster farmers cannot raise enough oysters to satisfy the demand in “white tablecloth” restaurants and seafood markets from Toronto to Atlanta. To help other people learn to grow oysters and build up the industry in Maine, Pemaquid Oyster formed the Maine Aquaculture Training Institute in 1998. It offers a 10-week course that teaches people to grow shellfish, especially fishermen who have been displaced from fishing or those who want to supplement their income with off-season work.
I think it’s most important for us to combine our knowledge with the fishermen’s practical knowledge of their particular area,” says Newell. He and Davis are working on a project to develop environmental modeling to determine the best spots along the coast to raise oysters.
Among other challenges Davis sees in the future for oyster farmers are proposed increases in aquaculture application, lease rental and transfer fees. Samantha Horn-Olsen, Aquaculture Policy Coordinator at the DMR, says the state legislature passed a bill (MRSA 6072), which delineates the maximum fees that the DMR can set. The DMR will hold public hearings on proposed changes before re-writing the rules which govern fees. “The amounts the department proposes can be different for different types of aquaculture,” Horn-Olsen says.
These legislative parameters include a maximum application fee of $1,000 or $2,000 depending on the amount of acreage; lease rental fees no less than $50 an acre or more than $100 an acre; lease renewal fee of no more than $1500; and lease transfer fee of no more than $5,000 “Some fees could increase by a factor of 10,” says Davis. “It will definitely have an impact. It’s a shame for a person to have to invest $1,000 to $2,000 in application fees (non-refundable, and presently $100) on top of money put out for site work and the initial investment in gear and not know for a year or longer how the site will work out for him.”
Davis says opposition to aquaculture leases, particularly by well-funded NGOs, poses another challenge. “Most people are going for the longer term standard lease (10-year) these days,” he says. “This has developed because the intent of the (3-year) experimental lease, to shorten the application process by not requiring a public hearing unless five people ask for one, has been undermined by the recent opposition to leases. It’s almost certain a hearing will be required.”
The DMR schedules two hearings a month. When a hearing is required, the leasing process takes at least a year, often much longer. To make it even more difficult, says Davis, the applicant frequently faces a lawyer representing interveners opposing the lease.
Newell points out that access remains an important challenge for any sector of the marine industry. “Once it’s lost, you can’t get it back,” he says. “It’s up the town and state to protect access for fishermen.” One of the founders of the state’s extensive water quality monitoring program, Newell also emphasizes that protecting water quality continues to be of vital interest to the success of shellfish aquaculture in the state.
Clime, who has been in the business since 1976, believes oyster aquaculture is ripe for expansion. “Now that Maine oyster farms have reached the point that we have a plentiful and timely supply of seed, and juvenile oyster disease has been beaten back, we have the opportunity to continue to refine our methods of culture through improved technology and understanding of biology and handling of the animals,” he says. He and other growers look forward to industry expansion and increased overall crop to meet the strong market demand for prized Maine oysters.
This article is the second of a two-part series. See the first-part in the September 2004 WWF