SCARBOROUGH – Standing on his pontoon workstation, Nate Perry scooped young inch-and-a-half-long oysters into plastic mesh bags. Good weather meant an opportunity to deploy some floating bags and get the shellfish on the way to market size.
By this time of year, nearly all the bags have been set out. The warm waters of the Scarborough River will encourage the oysters to pump and take in nutrients after their winter hibernation. When they reach cocktail size — 3 inches — Perry, a one-man operation, will be able to harvest them and sell them to markets and restaurants hungry for Maine oysters.
Perry and Abigail Carroll, another fledgling farmer, are among the first to try oyster aquaculture in the Scarborough River. The location, with its tidal currents and particular nutrients, creates oysters that they try to describe with such adjectives as briny, sweet, creamy and grassy.
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