“The rate at which public water is being leased for aquaculture is increasing, which is likely contributing to the increased public opposition,” Woods wrote. BHA chapter chair Michael Woods indicated that CRMC prioritized commercial interests over recreational rights when it came to aquaculture. Recreational groups, such as the New England Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA) and the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association have submitted written testimony in support of the proposed restrictions for the Sakonnet River. Should state waters be used primarily for water sports and recreation? Or should it be utilized for economic development? The clashes boil down to who should be able to use state waters and for what. Similar clashes occur almost semi-annually whenever there is an aquaculture project proposed in state waters near a popular recreational site. Over the past few years, CRMC has taken steps to improve its notification process, adding an aquaculture section to the Narragansett Bay Special Area Management Plan setting standards for aquaculture, and creating an online listserv for easy notification of new farms and leases. “We have heard a lot of issues with our current aquaculture planning, regulatory, and outreach programs that have means to be improved,” CRMC director Jeff Willis said at the commission meeting, “and we agree with them all.” At a November 2021 meeting of the General Assembly’s study commission on CRMC reform, commission members heard numerous accounts from East Bay residents on how the notification to abutters over new aquaculture farms needed improvement, with more than 100 people asking for a temporary moratorium on new permitting until the conclusion of the commission. It’s not the first time CRMC has been criticized over aquaculture permitting. Tiverton officials and town residents allege CRMC’s notification process for abutters was insufficient, a fact complicated by the fact the primary abutter to the Bowen brothers’ proposed farm is the Department of Environmental Management’s Sapowet Marsh. The revised application was recommended for approval by agency staff, but has yet to receive final approval from regulators. According to the CRMC staff report, the initial application was modified to reduce conflict with recreational fishing. Their proposed farm, plans for which were originally filed in 2020, would grow oysters in 200 bottom cases in 2-4 feet of mean low water, with 20 trawls of 10 cages anchored on each side to avoid movement. “The same rules that everyone else followed and is in process.” “We applied for a farm lawfully under the same rules everyone else followed for the previous 20 years,” Patrick Bowen said. The applicants, brothers and Little Compton residents John and Patrick Bowen, said they were the target of the bill. The legislation was introduced at the request of municipal officials in Tiverton who are upset over a proposed 0.95-acre oyster farm sited in Seapowet Cove, according to Edwards. Opponents of last year’s bill noted it would have eliminated 80 out of the state’s 84 currently existing aquaculture leases. You have a lot of people who fish and kayak in that area.”Įdwards described the bill as a “slimmed down” version of legislation introduced last year, which would have applied the 1,000-foot buffer across the state. It has parking, it has an area of shoreline where you can go out and walk out several hundred feet in many areas because it’s very shallow. “This area is very unique to the Sakonnet River. “CRMC is going to allow an aquaculture license in close proximity to the shore, within 200 feet of shore, in an area that is highly used by residents and people of Tiverton,” Edwards said. In a committee hearing last week, Edwards told members of the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee that the state Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), the chief regulator and permitter of aquaculture leases in Rhode Island waters, “did not do its job” when it considered a new oyster farm off Sapowet Point.
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