Phippsburg’s Basin Oyster Project awarded $190,000 grant

TIMES RECORD • November 30, 2023

A small oyster-farming operation in Phippsburg is getting a big boost in the form of a $190,000 grant. The Maine Community Foundation awarded the Basin Oyster Project a $190,000 grant, money that will fund the growing sustainable shellfish restoration and research for another two years. The project got its start back in 2019, when a pilot started by Nature Conservancy employees Jeremy Bell and Amanda Moeser in Phippsburg’s Basin Preserve was handed over to Kelly and Herrigel along with a Limited Purpose Aquaculture license and $1,000 in funding. Four years, plenty of collaborators and two $20,000 grants later, the BOP has two 40-by-10-foot floating oyster bags that Phippsburg resident Kelly helps tend to by kayak.