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Oyster Farm for York River Runs Into Tide of Opposition
April 24, 2002, York Independent
By Virginia L. Woodwell

A Freeport, Maine, family seeking state approval to lease approximately four acres on the bottom of the York River for commercial oyster-growing met skepticism and some opposition last Tuesday night (April 16), at a sparsely attended public hearing held at York High School.

Present to defend their petition publicly before a hearing officer of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, were Peter J. Horne, his son, Eric L. Horne, and Eric's wife, Valy Steverlynck. Doing business as Chance Along Farm, Inc., of Freeport, they seek a 10-year lease on 3.96 acres of riverbed just west of Sewall's Bridge, where, they said, they would like to broadcast oyster seed one to one-and-one-half inches long, to be harvested two or three years later when the oysters have matured to three inches.

From among only about 10 residents attending as audience, some six persons present sharply questioned the Hornes about issues ranging from the terms of the proposed lease to the effects of the harvest dragging on siltation and lobster stock, with several persons taking issue with a report on the lease area prepared by Jon Lewis, a Department of Marine Resources biologist who was also present.

The speakers represented the interests of abutters, and of lobstermen and fishermen, and of the York Rivers Association. No other federal, state or municipal agency representatives were present.

According to Eric Horne, who serves as Chance Along's treasurer and, with his wife, as its co-manager, the oyster-growing would involve no apparatus at the lease site other than four 7.5" acorn buoys marking its four corners. Seeding, which would be of stock grown in Chance Along's own nursery, he said, would be done in late December, simply by broadcasting the oysters; harvesting would occur from April through November.

Harvesting, he explained, would be done by dragging the bottom with a small, 16-tine rake, two feet wide and about one foot high, pulled slowly, at between two and three miles per hour, by a 21-foot Carolina skiff. Powering the skiff would be a "quiet, clean-burning and energy-efficient, four-stroke, 40 horsepower Honda outboard engine."

Typically, he added, oyster-harvesting would occur probably for four hours a day, maximum, on two days a week, and not on weekends, to avoid conflict with traffic on the river at that time.

The oysters planted, he said, would be Eastern American, a species found on this coast though one not yet tried yet here commercially, and one more apt than others to withstand silting.

Oysters like a fairly strong current that scours a river bottom and prevents them from being smothered by silt, and the York River at the spot in question has that, Horne reported. On the other hand, he noted, an experiment in measuring sediment build-up at the site showed a disappointing amount accumulating, as well as the presence of green crabs, in amounts more than occurred 10 years ago, and they are enemies to oysters. The project, envisioned as small, therefore remains also tentative and experimental at this stage, he suggested.

The bulk of the questioning challenging this proposal turned on two issues: whether the dragging involved in harvesting would kick up sediment in a harmful way, and whether it, and the introduction of a new species, would harm the lobsters in this breeding ground.

Lobsterman and river resident Jack Holbrook said that the sediment issue was his major concern. He had scuba dived, he said, above and below Sewall's Bridge, though not in the proposed lease area, and seen "a lot of sediment." More dragging, he said, "will add to what's already in the river." Told that the dragging would amount to "just scratching," rather than digging, as in dredging, and that alewives and smelt would not thus be affected, he said that he "disagreed." The oyster-growers' rake, he said, might be only two feet wide, "but every bit contributes," and the resulting increased silting costs everybody, not only in the need for repeated harbor dredging, but in moving moorings and floats. Moreover, the silting, he added, appears to be occurring "faster and faster."

Hearing officer Laurice Churchill, who was chairing the meeting, said that she would research the question of that frequency with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Holbrook said that he was also concerned about potential damage done to river lobsters by the proposed dragging.

Damage to lobsters was an issue paramount for lobsterman George Sewall.

"There used to be a ton of lobsters in that river," he said, noting that it was his concern about what had happened to them that was prompting worries he has now about the introduction of new species, and about the effect on the lobsters of the dragging.

Lobsters, he said, would not "move out of the way" of the dragger, as Peter Horne contended, and, when told that lobsterman Patten White had told Eric Horne that there weren't many lobsters in the region of the proposed lease site, he said, "I can tell you that that's wrong."

Responding to concerns about species take-overs, Eric Horne reported that the American Oyster would not be able to propagate in the leased section of the York River because, for that function, it needs warm water not present there. Nor, he added, would it be able to migrate elsewhere in the river. Hence the need for breeding the oysters elsewhere and seeding them in York. "It's not an invasive species," he said.

What would happen to the oysters, he asked the Hornes, if they abandoned their project?

The Hornes would try to harvest what they could, they said, then leave the rest to die.

Sewall also asked if the presence of the oyster operation would mean that lobstermen would be prevented from going fast on that portion of the river, as is their custom, and was told that the oyster harvesters' skiff should be regarded as "just another boat."

Taking issue with the findings of state biologist Lewis, resident Nancy Rohr, who said that she lives about 3000 feet upriver from the proposed lease site, challenged the proposal on several fronts: she hadn't, she said, received notice of it in sufficient time to register officially as an intervener; similar previous applications had met with strong public opposition and much exchange of scientific fact, more than was currently being presented; it ought to be the job of the applicant to prove that harm would not be done to the river, which serves as lobsters' breeding and shedding ground.

"I have not seen that here," she said of that last point.

Rohr questioned Department findings that the oyster enterprise would not interfere with striped-bass fishing, or with navigation in that region (which she termed already "dangerous for boaters"), and she suggested that evidence about riverbottom flora and fauna (or the lack thereof) shown in a 27-minute video tape made by Lewis in a dive at the site (and shown at the hearing) might need correcting by more study and an infusion of local knowledge.

Dave Gittins, however, who serves as a fishing guide and lobsterman, reported that he did not have much of a problem with the proposal save for a concern about ways in which the harvesting might disturb lobsters, and he recommended that the Hornes make a video of their rake in action on the river's bottom, to illustrate the extent to which it disturbed, or did not disturb, sediment.

Gittins also recommended that the proposal be amended to apply to American oyster-growing only, and the Hornes readily agreed to that. "We would be happy to limit ourselves to them," Peter Horne said.

(As written, the proposal gives the applicants rights to grow surf clams, European oysters, and quahogs, as well as American oysters, and the Hornes explained that, in reality, they would probably not attempt to seed and harvest those, in part because of low prices but chiefly because that effort would require diving and deeper digging. The other species had been added initially, they said, as an administrative convenience in case they decided to expand.)

Caroline Donnelly, of the York Rivers Association, sought and received Department of Marine Resources information about transfer rights in the lease.

Several times throughout the hearing the Department came under fire for publicizing it inadequately. Hearing officer Churchill said that, as required by law, town officers and abutters had been notified, and notice placed in newspapers serving the area. Notice was placed, she said, in the March 14 and April 4 issues of Foster's Daily Democrat, and in the March edition of Commercial Fishing News. Also as required by law, the Hornes advertised the hearing in "a newspaper of general circulation;" according to Eric Horne, notice appeared in the April 1 issue of The Portsmouth Herald. No notice was placed in either of York's two newspapers.

Churchill said that her recommendation on the application would be submitted within 120 days, and a final decision issued 10 days after that.

The hearing, which began at 6 p.m., concluded shortly after 9 p.m.