We Can Get There From Here: Towards Plastic-Free Oyster Farming Down East

After years studying marine microplastics around the globe, Abby Barrows was ready to come home. In 2015, looking for a side-project that would keep her on the water, she bought the lease for an oyster farm in Deer Isle, Maine. When she saw the mountain of plastic gear that came with it, the side-project became something else. Today, Deer Isle Oyster Co. is a flourishing family business, a proving ground for plastic-free mariculture gear, a new pier for a working waterfront reliant on one fishery, and a purveyor of some of the best oysters in the world. This is the story of one season on the farm, which also happens to be the story of an old island’s precarious present and potential future.