Perhaps it was the agreeable location, or maybe it was the town Christmas party beckoning them from the table in the corner of the Marion Music Hall, but whatever it was, the Marion Board of Selectmen on December 6 swiftly approved Shea Doonan’s latest request to establish a half-acre shellfish farm at the end of Hammetts Cove in an area dubbed ‘Mitton Flats,’ only weeks after the board denied Doonan’s proposed aquaculture farm off Meadow Island.
Doonan is proposing to use floating cages to culture soft-shell clams, quahogs, American oysters, and bay scallops in an area he claims “no one ever goes,” a site diagonally across from the Harbormaster’s Office at 1 Island Wharf.
Assistant Harbormaster Adam Murphy told the board that the exact location of the shellfish farm would need to be fine-tuned; however, “That is an area that we’d like to see go on our end because of the lack of eelgrass,” Murphy stated.
“It’s already kind of a ‘dead’ area,” said Doonan, “It’s only a foot and a half of water. No one goes there at all.”
The meeting served as a “blessing of the board,” as Town Administrator Paul Dawson put it. Doonan still must proceed through the state’s application process for the aquaculture license, which entails a series of surveys including, but not limited to, the presence of eelgrass.
The selectmen denied Doonan’s last request due to their opposition to the location that selectmen and some abutters claimed would inhibit the recreational use of the area.
“I wish you the best on this,” Selectman Steve Gonsalves told Doonan.
After the unanimous vote, Board of Selectmen Chairman Jody Dickerson said, “This is one of many steps. We wish you the best, Shea.”
The board enjoyed a light agenda that evening due to the scheduling of the Town Christmas Party right after adjournment.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Marion Board of Selectmen will be December 20 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.
By Jean Perry