The other oyster: How an alien shellfish with a strange taste made Harpswell its home

An “other oyster” story in Harpswell traces how a nonnative European shellfish became part of the town’s identity after Maine’s native oyster collapsed. Around 30 years ago, Scott Moody was clamming near Harpswell when he found an unidentified “monster bed” and learned from lobsterman and seafood buyer Bob Waddle that it was European oysters (Ostrea edulis). The background dates to the late 1940s, when Maine’s native oyster (Crassostrea virginica) nearly disappeared, with soft-shell clams also declining—reportedly tied to predation by green crabs. Federal and state biologists introduced European oysters, hoping they could survive green crabs or provide an alternative harvest. Seed oysters were brought in the fall of 1949, and researchers believe they took root mainly on Southport Island near Boothbay Harbor. While early harvests were minimal into the 1960s, a later seeding effort in 1952–1953 under state marine biologist Dana Wallace is cited as a potential driver of longer-term growth near Cundy’s Harbor.