Saving Seafood

Crowd overwhelms, forces postponement of hearing on shellfish farm expansion in Maine

September 21, 2018 — KITTERY, Maine — After upward of 80 people showed up to the state-held public hearing for Spinney Creek Shellfish’s aquaculture expansion application, officials postponed the meeting on the spot due to capacity issues.

The meeting was scheduled for the basement room in Kittery’s Rice Public Library. By the start time at 6 p.m., seating was full, nearly 30 people were standing, and a line formed out the back door.

Amanda Ellis, aquaculture hearings officer for the Maine Department of Marine Resources, announced the agency would be postponing Wednesday night’s meeting, and rescheduling to Thursday, Sept. 27, at a larger venue to later be decided.

“When we try to schedule these, we never really know how many people to expect,” Ellis said. “It makes sense for a variety of different reasons to move it to Sept. 27, so everybody can hear the testimony and hear about the proposal.”

Spinney Creek, a 127-acre salt water pond split between Kittery and Eliot in the shadows of the Piscataqua River Bridge, has recently become the center of an aquaculture debate, where a 35-year shellfish company wants to grow their business and expand local farming opportunities, while residential abutters are concerned with the impact and appearance of the proposal.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

 

Maine communities torn apart by age-old debate: Business growth or water views?

September 18, 2018 — It’s a 127-acre salt water pond shared by two southern Maine towns. The Piscataqua River Bridge surmounts its natural landscape, the perpetual buzz of interstate traffic a striking juxtaposition with the hum of wildlife and stillness of water.

It’s a special place for the 60-some residences, split between Kittery and Eliot, affixed to its shoreline.

A proposal by a local shellfish company to expand its aquaculture operations to the length of three football fields within the body of water has posed a considerable question some abutters are hastily trying to answer: Who exactly owns Spinney Creek, both literally and figuratively?

As a state-held public hearing date draws near, attention surrounds the application for a 3.67-acre, three-year experimental aquaculture lease submitted to the Maine Department of Marine Resources by Spinney Creek Shellfish, a business with 35 years of seafood history in Eliot, specifically on the creek.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News