May 6, 2014 — Massachusetts House leaders tucked an amendment into the state budget last week that would block a Mashpee fisherman’s oyster-farm proposal, long opposed by wealthy homeowners, including the Kraft family, owners of the New England Patriots.
The amendment, passed without debate and unbeknownst to Cape Cod lawmakers, would create what environmental officials called an unusual “marine sanctuary” about a quarter-mile off Popponesset Island’s shore. Declaring the area a sanctuary would thwart the proposal of oysterman Richard Cook to turn the same 2-acre stretch of water into an oyster farm.
“I just find the whole thing to be really, at best, odd,” said state Senator Dan Wolf, who represents the district, but was unaware of the amendment before it passed. That, he said, is “not an indication of good process.”
Cook’s attempt to set up an oyster farm has already won considerable local backing, getting the nod from town governing bodies, the relevant state agencies, and a Barnstable Superior Court judge. But since 2011, he has repeatedly run into trouble with property owners on nearby Popponesset Island and Daniels Island. Both Patriots owner Robert Kraft and president Jonathan Kraft are among those who own houses there.
Read the full story at The Boston Globe