Business grew quickly after Dan Devereaux and Doug Niven started their oyster farm in Brunswick a decade ago.
They sold 10,000 oysters in their first season. Three years later, they were growing 25,000 a year to sell at the local farmers market, with so much demand they aimed to grow them by the millions in the coming years.
Today, Mere Point Oyster Co. employs 10 people year-round and 10 more in the summer, shipping its products to high-end, award-winning restaurants.
The farm has become a shining example of what Maine’s aquaculture industry says it can do for the state. With approval from state regulators, the family-run business has expanded and provided new economic opportunities, demonstrating what it says is a responsible alternative way to sustainably raise food on Maine’s coast.
But the operation has been controversial almost from the start, taking fire from neighboring landowners and wild seafood harvesters who have expressed concern about its impact on the environment and the ability of vessels to navigate through its growing areas, as well as what they characterize as the industrialization of the ocean.
In the years since, a group called Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage has formed out of that opposition and broadened its fight against what it calls industrial aquaculture, working with towns all along Maine’s coast to restrict it. It has also ramped up its push back against Mere Point, going to court late last year to challenge a temporary dock that the company hopes to build.
While numerous other high-profile fish farm proposals have failed to get off the ground in Maine over the last few years, the ongoing success of Mere Point has highlighted both the promise of the state’s aquaculture industry and the bitter debates that farmed seafood has spurred about the responsible use of Maine’s waters.
“It’s hard not to not take it personally, especially as someone born and raised here,” said Derek Devereaux, the son of Dan Devereaux, who now also works for the company. “But you know deep down it isn’t, because you’re trying to do the right thing … Emotionally, you’ve just got to keep kind of believing in the process.”
While there had been earlier disputes over aquaculture in Maine — which can include the organized growing of oysters, mussels, scallops, seaweed and fish — the expansion of Mere Point in Brunswick helped to push the debate to another level.
When Dan Devereaux and Niven applied for a 10-year, 40-acre lease in 2018 to expand their operation in Maquoit Bay, off of the eponymous Mere Point, they wanted to meet increasing demand, they told the Bangor Daily News at the time.
They also saw aquaculture as a reliable alternative to Maine’s traditional fisheries under changing conditions.
Neighbors of the project saw things differently, hiring an attorney to oppose the application and eventually organizing as a group called Save Maquoit Bay. They were worried about the size and environmental impacts of the project, as well as its effects on coastal navigation and fishing conditions for wild harvesters. They also questioned the idea of the water being privatized and transferred to another owner.
When the state granted Mere Point a reduced 34.52-acre lease in 2019 after 16 hours of public testimony over two-plus months, homeowners appealed to Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court, which ultimately sided with the Maine Department of Marine Resources.
A petition signed by lobstermen and landowners that year asked the state to put a moratorium on aquaculture leases above 10 acres. The Mere Point application served as something of a tipping point for the opponents, the BDN reported at the time, and petitioners asked for it to be retroactively halted.
Since then, several unsuccessful bills attempting to limit aquaculture have since made it to the Legislature.
Now, some of the people in the fight against Mere Point’s early growth are involved with Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage. The group is active at the local level, providing towns with model ordinances for limiting state-issued aquaculture leases and promising to pay legal fees associated with them — despite the state insisting that only it has the authority to regulate aquaculture in coastal waters.
The foundation has also kept up pressure on Mere Point. In December, it and unnamed “concerned neighbors” filed a complaint against Brunswick in Cumberland County Superior Court, appealing the town’s approval of Mere Point’s application for a temporary dock. The foundation first appealed the project to the local zoning appeals board and lost.
The foundation and town have disagreed about which municipal board should have considered the application, and whether the business had right, title and interest to the land.
The foundation also claims Dan Devereaux’s separate role as the coastal resources manager for the town was a conflict of interest; the town and state said he recused himself.
In response to emailed questions, the foundation’s director and spokesperson, Crystal Canney, said that this is a routine appeal of a permitting decision. She argued that it’s “completely separate” from the group’s work with towns on aquaculture limits and that it’s unfair to call it a legal action against Brunswick.
“The concern was bubbling all on its own and in varying degrees depending on which community,” Canney said, referring to the towns that have signed onto its recommendations.
Supporters of the aquaculture industry have argued that the skepticism is misguided.
They assert that scientific studies haven’t shown negative environmental impacts from aquaculture, that oysters can clean the water and that projects must go through a strict state regulatory process that includes municipal input before they’re approved. They also argue that aquaculture creates sustainable working waterfronts that employ young people, including those from families traditionally involved in fisheries which now offer limited licenses.
Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, said he didn’t take Canney’s group seriously at first. But now that several towns have approved ordinances pitched by the foundation, the association spends significant time and money countering it.
The draft ordinances limit leases to five acres, which Belle said isn’t enough to sustain most businesses and is an effort to squash the industry. Canney denies that.
In discussing the debate about aquaculture, both industry advocates and Canney also raised questions about which groups are funding the other side.
Belle argued that the opposition is driven by wealthy summer residents who want to preserve the views from their homes.
Benjamin Ford, a lawyer who represents aquaculture businesses, pointed to another organization that Canney has been involved with, Protect Downeast, which opposes a land-based fish farm proposed in Jonesport and lists as its fiscal sponsor the Kestrel Foundation, which is run by wealth manager John P.M. Higgins.
In a court document, another attorney for Mere Point wrote, “Certain waterfront property owners and their generously funded foundations do not like aquaculture and reflexively oppose development related to aquaculture, without regard for facts, law, or science.”
Canney noted that the Maine Aquaculture Association receives support from Cooke Aquaculture, a controversial Canadian company that raises salmon in pens off Washington County and was recently sued over alleged Clean Water Act violations. The company denies the claims. Belle said Cooke is a dues-paying member of the association.
But both sides can also point to support from Mainers who actually work on the waterfront.
Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage has found support from some commercial fishermen, who serve on its board, donate funds, push for its ordinances and actively converse on its Facebook page about changing conditions and the state’s role in regulating coastal waters.
Meanwhile, the people who run Mere Point say that the years of opposition have taken a toll.
Derek Devereaux and Tyler Niven — who is also a son of one of Mere Point’s founders — both grew up in Brunswick and have returned to work for the family business.
They said the legal expenses required to keep their operation going have been a financial drain that has made it harder to pay staff.
Tyler Niven said he could understand the fear of the unknown when the aquaculture lease was first proposed. Years later, he believes it has improved the bay’s health and not caused navigational issues. He said boaters come by just to see it.
Derek Devereaux said Maine’s aquaculture operations are smaller and more locally owned than those on the West Coast. He noted that he too would be concerned about out-of-state fish farms running huge factories in Maine.