Two new Oyster Farms could sprout up in Little Bay next year. If approved, it would make ten farms in operation in the estuary.
The max size for an oyster farm in New Hampshire is four acres, but the two proposed farms are both considerably smaller. One, from a UNH Masters student would be 2.5 acres, and the other would be just an acre in size.
“We’re going to be a recreational aquaculture operation,” explains Ralph Jimenez, a semi-retired writer for the Concord Monitor and one of the principals of the Joe King’s Oyster Cooperative. “It’ll take us a couple of years to find out whether we can raise enough oysters to have some parties.”
Commercial oyster farming can pack as many as 500,000 oysters into an acre, and while those oysters are tasty, they also filter the water, helping to clean up an impaired water-body.
A public hearing on the proposed farms will take place February 11th.
