Standing on the Bluffton Oyster Company wharf in South Carolina feels a world away from Maine, where snow is pummeling the coast. The live oaks up on the hillside behind the oyster company’s processing plant shine a lush green against a clear January sky. But the issues of retaining access to the water in the face of expanding coastal development surround us on the banks of the May River and bring me back to Maine.
The Oyster Company is owned and operated by the Toomer family, Larry and Tina. Larry’s phone rings constantly while we talk-if you want to buy oysters or shells for your landscaping needs, Larry has them. One of Larry’s daughters works behind the counter selling locally caught seafood, redfish, shrimp, mid-tide oysters to name a few while another daughter shows up to care for a new born in the family. His cousin pulls up to talk with some of the other fishermen on the wharf about the days catch. Meanwhile, a group of men unload the oysters they harvested from the companies leases on the May River.
Bluffton Oyster Company is the last oyster processing facility in South Carolina. And it is still here because of a unique agreement between a local land trust and the family. The land trust owns the property occupied by the company along with an abutting property that contains a public park. This creative approach to preserving working waterfront access, where land trusts hold development rights on commercial wharfs, was begun here in Maine nearly seven years ago now down along York Harbor. The company has a long-term lease to the property as long as it stays in its use as a commercial fishing facility.
On Ocracoke Island at the tip of the Outer Banks in North Carolina, the Ocracoke Seafood Company property is another example of creative approaches to securing working waterfront. The thoughtful Gene Balance provides a steady hand at the helm of this three-year old effort, in which almost 40 fishermen on the island banded together to create the Ocracoke Working Watermen’s Association.
Gene’s historical research and noteworthy math skills have enabled the documentation of a one hundred year snapshot of the oyster industry in southern Pemlico Sound. His work is certain to become the rallying call for rebuilding the oyster fishery to it former glory. Beyond oysters they gill-net and seine for flounder, bluefish, pompano, red drum, and mullet.
The fishermen’s’ goal on Ocracoke was similar to that of the Toomer family, to preserve the last fish house for future generations of fishermen. Here, The Ocracoke Foundation stepped in and assisted in raising the money to buy the fish house before it was lost and then turned it over to the fishermen to run as a cooperative enterprise. Federal fisheries management decisions aside (think right whales here and sea turtles there), this endeavor has been a success. The wharf side of the business is outfitted with modern equipment to move their product from the boat into regional markets while the storefront on the main street sells locally caught seafood at breakneck speed to the islands nearly one million annual visitors. Another working waterfront preserved.
North Carolina as a whole has invested nearly $2 million in preserving working waterfront access. The influence of recreational fishing interests have meant that their definition of working waterfront is broader than it is here in Maine, mandating public accessibility rather than restricting funds to support commercial fishing activities as we have.
In Maine we’ve invested $5 million dollars to preserve commercial fishing access in the state. With voter support we may have $2 million more to invest after November 2010. Nineteen wharfs owned by municipalities, families and cooperatives of fishermen are protected for future commercial fishing access as a result of Maine’s Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program. These wharfs support: 950 jobs; more than 16 million pounds of seafood landed annually; more than $40 million in income; and more than $80 million in additional economic contribution to the local economy.
Where do we go from here? The idea of bonding to save working waterfront access has worked here in Maine and in North Carolina. Partnerships with local land trusts are working as shown above as well. However, the need for preserving commercial wharves here and in other coastal states far outstrips our individual state capacities to bond to solve the problem.
It is time for a national working waterfront coalition. Through Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-1st District) and Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) offices we have national legislation pending that would significantly enhance working waterfront protection in those states that have taken the initial steps to create programs for securing access. They can only do so much. Maine and North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Oregon and others stand ready to benefit from these programs based on a track record of success.
Our level of investment here in Maine, our leadership in Washington, and our track record of developing innovative solutions to preserving access, demand that leadership for a Working Waterfront Coalition starts here in Maine.
Rob Snyder is the vice-president of programs at the Island Institute.