--- title: Will Oyster Farms Spoil Maine's Coast Line? | TIME description: A lobsterman in Maine wants to create a sizeable Oyster farm on the coast. But his plan is meeting fierce opposition from neighbors. canonical: https://time.com/video/1gNRHFaC/ og:title: Will Oyster Farms Spoil Maine's Coast Line? og:description: A lobsterman in Maine wants to create a sizeable Oyster farm on the coast. But his plan is meeting fierce opposition from neighbors. og:url: https://time.com/video/1gNRHFaC/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/1gNRHFaC/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Will Oyster Farms Spoil Maine's Coast Line? twitter:description: A lobsterman in Maine wants to create a sizeable Oyster farm on the coast. But his plan is meeting fierce opposition from neighbors. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/1gNRHFaC/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Will Oyster Farms Spoil Maine's Coast Line? > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Will Oyster Farms Spoil Maine's Coast Line? [Watch (HLS stream): Will Oyster Farms Spoil Maine's Coast Line?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1gNRHFaC.m3u8) (5:42)  _Published 2012-01-04. A lobsterman in Maine wants to create a sizeable Oyster farm on the coast. But his plan is meeting fierce opposition from neighbors._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:21 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Maine's Governor Says at Least 18 People Were Killed in Shootings in Lewiston](/video/JSkpqj2B/) ### Maine's Governor Says at Least 18 People Were Killed in Shootings in Lewiston [Coast Guard Rescue](/video/CgcJWSKg/) ### Coast Guard Rescue [Teach a Man to \(Farm\) Fish](/video/hd6GobiZ/) ### Teach a Man to (Farm) Fish --- ## Transcript Yeah. Warren Pettigrow's family in Maine has been selling lobsters across four generations. We're boiling lobsters in sea water. But Pettigrow set off a storm of local troubles with his plans for nearby Goose Cove. I've been made out to be a villain most in the papers. People hollering at me and everything. What made people so upset? Oysters, lots of them. What I was planning was 225 acre tracks, here in Goose Cove for agriculture. If the state approves Pettigrow's plan, Goose Cove will be home to the largest oyster farm in the state of Maine to come in put in a big agriculture operation you have disease, you have pollution. And it's gonna change the environment that's around you. Don Ely a local conservation activist is against the farm. The scale of this would, would raise a lot of issue in terms of how it would effect the ecosystem. [ SOUND ] With fish supplies in the seas being depleted, aquaculture is expanding. And questions about the impact of fish farming are dividing communities like Goose Cove. Last year for the first time aquaculture worldwide produced more seafood than wild fisheries did. So whether we like it or not, aquaculture is a part of our future. [ SOUND ] Maine has both fin and shellfish farms. To get a sense of what the operation at goose cove might look like. One need only take a short drive to Maine's oyster farm country, along it's Estuary rivers. This is the [ UNKNOWN ] River. The clear waters of the Bagradas River lured Jessie Leach to set up a farm. All of our fisheries have collapsed. Aquaculture is the answer. It's it's how to keep providing food for people. Like most oyster farms here [ CROSSTALK ] My wife Deidre. It's a mom and pop operation. And my son over here Stewart. Jesse's farm covers seven acres of river. This is what they oysters look like after. Two weeks. These tiny seedlings will take three years to mature. They these are the mature oysters that I sell to restaurants. They're the best I've ever tasted! It's like a fine wine. Growing them to full size takes place in the same floating system that Pettegrow wants to use in Goose Cove. Opponents call them eyesores. [ NOISE ] Aesthetics aside, Leech says it's far from true that oysters cause pollution. Oysters actually filter the water as they feed. We're not putting any feed in the water. No chemicals, people that don't want to see it happen, they're out on the end of a limb reaching for anything they can come up with to try to stop this agriculture from starting. Just like Petigrow in Goose Cove when Jesse Leach first applied for leases from the state some wealthy waterfront home owners put up a fierce battle to stop him. Everybody was afraid, it was something new. They were so used to nothing going on up here, nothing. [ SOUND ] Now that, I've started it, a lot of the people that were, opposed to claim. Oh, Jesse, we don't even notice you. Jesse also believes that even an oyster farm as big as Pedigrows would end up helping not hurting the ecology. There're be more life there than there ever has been. Well, I can't say ever has been but more than there is. Back at Goosecove, Pedigrow's supporters say that the real issue isn't environmental. It's the scenic waterfront views. But opponents fired back that their concerns include pollution and the impact on people using the cove. Even though we get tagged with that not in my backyard, but basically they're saying, we should not have any concern for anything that happens in our backyard, and I just don't agree with that, I think the local community should be concerned about what the future impact is. And they have the responsibility to stand up. In the end, the fight may come down, to seabirds. And whether Pettigrow's operation could endanger flights from a local airport. And Federal Aviation Administration has got concerns about birds roosting on these cages being spooked into the air on planes on approach, and potentially looking at midair collisions. For that reason, the FAA has recently ruled against pedigrow's plans, pedigrow is appealing that ruling. There's bird to turn the vices on the top of each oyster grow unit to deter the birds from perching on them, they're very sharp and jagged. You make the clam chowder and the lobster stew. But for now, Pettigrow's oyster farm plans remain in limbo. That one's a little bit over two pounds, there. I stand to lose a lot. For a dream that I had at one point, you know. And I still do. I mean, I still have the dream, it's just, [ NOISE ] I think you really need to step back and say, okay, if, if this is what you would like to do, where is an appropriate site? We're at our appropriate places that fit both the needs of the aquaculture entrepreneur and the community. From Trenton Maine, this is Ed Robins reporting for Time video. [ SOUND ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Will Oyster Farms Spoil Maine's Coast Line?","description":"A lobsterman in Maine wants to create a sizeable Oyster farm on the coast. 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