Staff Writer

Call it farming on the half-shell.

Just off the banks of the Scarborough River near Seavey’s Landing, Abigail Carroll and her partner, Ernest L. Heether Jr., launched their new venture by tying 70 floating baskets of oysters to lines set over two, four-acre plots.

The mesh-covered floats allow about 3,500 virginicus oysters to enjoy the tidal flows of a river the partners say is uniquely suited for their new aquaculture business, Nonesuch Oysters. Heether and Carroll seeded their farm with oysters with hopes of selling some to restaurants in the near future.

“We will be selling oysters by the Fourth of July,” Heether said.

Heether and Carroll are also getting help from their friends – they were joined Tuesday by Biddeford residents Alex Hennedy and Chris Marshall as they filled, pinned and tied the mesh bags of oysters.

Carroll said the initial seeding at the farm will be 50,000 virginicus or “American” oysters and 14,000 belon oysters, a species native to the French coast of Brittany.

By growing the belon oysters, the two join nine other sites participating in a study to see how viable oyster farming may be in Maine, said Dr. Brian Beal, director of research for the Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education.

Beal said belon oysters, introduced to Maine as part of initial efforts to study aquaculture more than 60 years ago, are the focus of study again because officials want to see how well-suited they may be for farming in colder waters along Maine’s coast.

Carroll said the farm site is particularly good because it is in the state wildlife management zone that protects the river and tributaries that flow through Scarborough Marsh. The river also has a consistent level of salinity and a flow that ensures oysters will always be under water, Carroll said.

The location does not conflict with clamming grounds and Heether and Carroll said local support from Harbor Master David Corbeau and the town shellfish committee has been as strong as support from other oyster farmers in Midcoast and Down East Maine.

“Dave is so proactive, so fair and has a real vision of a working waterfront,” Carroll said.

Heether also credited Biddeford Harbor Master Marshall Alexander for his assistance getting the venture started.

Although Heether is a native of St. Michaels, Md., a town where single-masted skipjacks docked after harvesting virginicus oysters on the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, the two said they decided on oyster farming almost by accident.

Heether said his call to the water took him to different currents as he captained schooners and lived in Key West and Duxbury, Mass.

Carroll, a Biddeford native who is vice commodore of the Biddeford Pool Yacht Club, returned to southern Maine from France, where she worked in publishing and telecommunications.

Their search for a farm site in southern Maine was often frustrated by waterways where fecal coliform contamination could hurt the oysters, which filter water through their tissues.

“We wondered if we wanted to be oyster farmers or start a septic business,” Heether said.

Carroll and Heether said the farm and business will be environmentally friendly because oysters filter the water and they will strive to use as many recyclable products as possible in farm operations.

“Not too many oyster farmers can claim they are in a conservation area,” Carroll said.

An adult oyster filters about 60 gallons of water a day and as long as fecal coliform levels are low, oysters are safe to eat raw, Beal said.

Oysters raised by Nonesuch Oysters are intended to be eaten raw, on the half-shell, Carroll said, and will have a unique taste compared to oysters raised in different waterways. If the belons grow and thrive, they will be a delicacy oyster that connoisseurs treasure.

“People are talking about oysters like (some) speak of wine,” Carroll said.

Heether’s oysters will grow more slowly in Maine’s colder waters, but will mature more fully and carry a pungent flavor. He compared the characteristics of oysters raised at specific farms to the varied characteristics of the same grapes from different vineyards.

The farm is stocked in part with virginicus oysters raised at Barrett Lynde’s Cushing Harbor-based Gay Island Oyster Co.

As he parted company with virginicus oysters he had raised from larvae, Lynde looked wistful and figured he had handled all of them at least once during a stage of their lives. He agreed with Heether that colder waters mean slower-growing oysters, but said the Nonesuch Oysters’ farm waters are so much warmer than where his farm is located. 

That could reduce growing time by as much as a year from the more than three years Lynde says it takes him to grow oysters to market size.

Just as French grapes transplanted to California were a hedge against diseases wiping out French stocks, Heether said raising belon oysters domestically will ensure the species survives diseases that last year struck French oyster beds.

Nonesuch Oysters may someday provide about five jobs, and Heether hopes oyster farmers may form a co-op to market their product.

First, Carroll said they must work the crop.

“We will have a manageable farm where we can take our time,” she said.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219