June 6, 2018 — Should oyster farming in North Carolina be a cottage industry or marine industrial operations owned by nonresident corporations?
That is the question facing legislators working on changes to the state’s oyster aquaculture statutes enacted in 2017.
Senate Bill 738, sponsored by Sen. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow and Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, drew strong opinions when it was discussed on May 30 at a meeting of the Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Committee co-chaired by Cook and Sanderson.
The meeting was announced late the afternoon before and caught many by surprise because the bill is still assigned to the Rules Committee.
Proposed changes include removing the residency requirement and allowing individuals or companies to own up to a total of 300 acres in water column/bottom leases. Now, individual leases can range from .5 acre to 10 acres.
Oyster aquaculture consists of suspending bags or cages of oysters in the water column while they grow to an acceptable size. Traditional oyster leases involve leasing the bottom and planting oyster shells to attract spat — baby oysters.
In a rare instance of unity, the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) and commercial fishermen attended the meeting to voice objections to lifting the residency requirement and the increase in total leases from 50 to 300 acres.