Contrary to news reports, the state has not closed the Damariscotta River’s oyster beds.
“That’s an incorrect rumor,” Dr. Chris Davis, co-owner of Pemaquid Oyster Company, said in an Oct. 19 phone interview.
Oysters in the river are under quarantine due to an outbreak of the disease MSX, but the disease affects only oysters. “There’s absolutely no public health concern,” Davis said.
The quarantine, established Oct. 7, prevents oyster farmers from moving oysters out of the Damariscotta River and into another body of water. “We don’t want to spread [MSX] outside of the Damariscotta River,” Davis said.
According to Sebastian Belle, a South Bristol resident and Executive Director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, it’s rare for farmers to transfer oysters from the Damariscotta River. “That would only happen when a farmer wants to move juvenile oysters to another area to grow them to market size,” Belle said.
Although press reports have exaggerated the effect of the outbreak, local oyster farmers “are obviously concerned and we’re going to be monitoring for the instance of the disease,” Davis said.
“The real implications are what happens over the next three years,” Belle said. “If the disease outbreak is serious… this is a story that has implications for 2-3 years on the production cycles of [Damariscotta River] farms.”
Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Commissioner George LaPointe and other DMR officials did not return messages seeking comment.
Oyster farmers “take little oysters from the hatchery and plant them in the river and it takes 2-3 years to grow them to market size,” Belle said. Thus, the death of a mature oyster represents the loss of a 2-3 year investment, and that’s precisely what’s happening.
“My farm actually saw some low levels of mortality this summer,” Davis said. “It was about a three percent mortality [rate].”
After the discovery, the affected oysters were sent to Rutgers University for testing. The results arrived Oct. 6. On the morning of Oct. 7, Davis and his partners met with other local oyster farmers and quickly decided to ask DMR for a quarantine.
Later the same day, the state made an “emergency rule to make it illegal to transfer oysters out of the Damariscotta River,” Davis said.
MSX, caused by the parasite Haplosporidium nelsonii and first discovered in Delaware Bay in 1958, “is a disease that we don’t have the answers for in terms of how it affects an animal, how it spreads through a population,” Belle said.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen here,” Belle said. “We’re in new territory.” Despite the lack of answers, Belle expressed confidence in the ability of local farmers to counter the effects of the disease.
Damariscotta River farmers are “probably some of the most creative and innovative and technically advanced growers in the world,” Belle said.
Davis, for one, is already developing a defense. Local farmers may be able to protect against the disease with “selective breeding for disease resistance,” he said.
“There are lines of oysters that have been developed that show resistance to the disease so you can grow the oyster to market size before the disease kills the oyster,” Davis explained.
Growers suspect the unusual weather over the last two summers – last year’s frequent, heavy rains and this year’s warmth – may have contributed to the introduction of the disease. Ideally, Davis said, weather patterns will return to normal and the disease will retreat.
In the meantime, “We’re still harvesting oysters, as are all the other growers,” Davis said, and the popular delicacy will remain available at fine establishments throughout the region.