BRUNSWICK — Signs calling to “Stop the oyster factory” line Mere Point Road, dotting dozens of tree trunks and property lines on the roadsides leading all the way to the boat launch. The subject of residents’ ire: An unassuming business based out of a large red barn known as the Mere Point Oyster Co., now in its third year that operates on about a quarter-acre on Maquoit Bay.
That small operation might not be so small for much longer, after its owner submitted a 40-acre lease application. Doug Niven and Dan Deveraux hope their company will grow up to 1.5 million oysters per year by 2021 and have a “maximum stocking density” of 5 million by 2023.
The expansion proposal has drawn the ire of some in the community, including members of Maquoit Bay Preservation Group — 40 or 50 property owners concerned about the greater implications of the lease. There is not enough information out there, they argue, to adequately determine the ecological effects of an operation this size, which would be the second largest in the state of Maine.
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