PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 3, 2024
Maquoit Bay is a shallow saltwater body enjoyed by boaters, fishermen and appreciators of nature. The bay has been taken over by a commercial oyster farm. The farm is depositing sludge, produced as effluent from the oysters, along the banks of this shallow, not-self-cleaning body of water. Our local government is reviewing the oyster company’s application for a 160-foot-long dock into the bay, disrupting the quietude of neighbors and others who enjoy the serenity still present. This water, which used to nourish shellfish and other spawning species, is now bereft of precious eel grass, which had been the critical component for the life of this bay. This loss is probably irreversible, damning the future of this precious resource to being a dead zone. Where have sensibility and forethought gone? As has been said often: Follow the money. ~ Prentiss Tubby, Brunswick