The application for a 20 year lease for an oyster farm was approved by the Department of Marine Resources in September, 2023.

The application was made by the Muscongus Bay Acquaculture Company, which was acquired by the Atlantic Acquatic Farms, Inc. in December of 2020. Atlantic Acquatic Farms is owned by the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund, which acquired them in 2017 for $180 Milllion Canadian.

One of the concerns of some local residents of the Damariscotta River Region is the potential long term implications of a foreign investor who is not a part of our community.  While Tonnie Simmons and the Muscongus Bay Acquaculture Company are long time members of our community and one of the key drivers of the success of our local oyster community, there is now a large company who has ownership. This can be seen in various places of the application as shown below:

A second area of concern is the fact that the large farm is located directly in front of the Dodge Point Preserve.  While this is public land owned by the State of Maine, it is one of the most actively visited preserves in the area. The Preserve as an active dock visited by thousands of hikers and boaters each year that will be only 402 feet from 12 acres of oyster cages. The Shoreline Trail will have about 1,200 feet of black oyster cages as close as 140 feet from the trail.  

One of the potentially disturbing long term issues is that there is nothing in the way of leases being approved for the entire length of the shoreline of the preserve.

From the application, here are some images of the proposed 3,300+ cages and 36,000 baskets.