A five-year feud over oyster farms divides two New England towns

Scituate, a seaside town of less than 20,000 people that shares a harbor with the smaller Cohasset, wants to allow oyster farms in its portion of the bay. Cohasset says the farms inhibit swimming and boating.

Political feuds in small-town New England are nothing new. But this one stands out for its stamina—five years and counting—and spite. Five lawsuits have been filed, including one against the Massachusetts attorney general. More than 30 boat moorings have been seized. And a proposed joint sewer system that advocates hoped would stimulate development and clean up waterways? Circling the drain.

Technically the fight is over 3 acres of oyster farms in a more than 250-acre harbor. But for those involved, much more is at stake.

“For Cohasset, it’s about shellfishing. For Scituate, it’s about sovereignty," said Scituate Town Administrator Jim Boudreau.

“It’s a real failure of government," Cohasset Select Board member Jack Creighton said of the oyster farms. “We have an opportunity to preserve and protect from privatization and industrialization."

Harboring bad feelings

The nonprofit and Cohasset leaders say they believe Scituate plans to eventually expand the oyster farms to occupy much of the harbor, impeding activities including those of the Cohasset Yacht Club (founded in 1894) and the town’s youth nature programs.

Although part of the bay is within Scituate boundaries, historically Cohasset has regulated the harbor, paying for it to be dredged and watching over the navigation of boats.

Scituate officials said they could envision expanding the oyster-farming project a few acres but aren’t planning the expansive aquaculture operations that Cohasset fears. And while Cohasset argues the harbor is too polluted to grow oysters safely, the project was approved by the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries following environmental tests. Cohasset believes the tests were insufficient.

Opposition for the project dates to 2019, when a Scituate shellfish advisory committee began meeting about an oyster program. Tony Vegnani, then-chair of the Scituate Select Board, said he was “battered for hours" at public meetings on the issue.

Since the pilot program began, Jamie Davenport, one of the oyster farmers, has received three parking tickets from Cohasset police, he said. After the third one, he became convinced the Cohasset harbor master was calling the cops when she spotted his gray Toyota pickup truck parked illegally.

“There’s added scrutiny when it comes to us," said Davenport, a Scituate resident. “They’re making sure that if there’s an opportunity to write a ticket that they’re there for it."

In a legal filing, Cohasset’s harbor master confirmed she referred to police instances when oyster farmers parked at the town’s public boat ramps. The town used the violations, together with claims she made that the farm boundaries had at times been insufficiently marked, in a lawsuit against the farmers, the town of Scituate and the state Division of Marine Fisheries as evidence of the harm oyster farming posed to the harbor.

The fight has bled into other areas affecting the two towns—though their public-safety departments continue to cooperate, officials say.

After Cohasset sued Scituate last year following the beginning of the pilot program, Scituate claimed the boat moorings on its side of the harbor, which it had for decades allowed Cohasset to control, as its own.

Now, both towns are demanding fees from owners of Scituate moorings.

Some owners have paid the double fees to ensure they didn’t lose coveted places, for which many wait upward of 20 years. “Everything was so screwed up I just said I’m going to pay both," said Tina Watson, a local artist who has had her mooring in the harbor for more than 50 years. Watson said she paid Scituate and Cohasset about $300 each in fees.

Most significantly, discussions about a potential regional sewer system have fallen silent. The system had been discussed for years by Scituate, Cohasset and neighboring Hull, and would have connected previously unsewered parts of the region to a network.

“All of a sudden that became less interesting to the town of Cohasset when the oyster project was under way," said Vegnani, who left the Scituate board in 2023.

Creighton, the Cohasset selectman, said there were problems with the sewer plan unrelated to oysters.

But for Tim Davis, a retired manufacturing executive who lives in Cohasset and now serves as president of Friends of Bassing Beach, the issues are connected. “There is no way Cohasset is going to help Scituate with sewer when we’re still dealing with this," Davis said.

‘Everybody knows everybody’

Before the oyster fight, the two towns hardly ever had disagreements, residents say. Their kids often play together on joint football teams, and a Scituate and Cohasset Newcomers & Neighbors Club brings together more than 200 households from both towns for events. “Everybody knows everybody here," said Watson, a Cohasset resident of more than 70 years. “It’s a great community. People look out for each other."

But between town leaders, such friendship no longer exists.

“I don’t think there is [a relationship] at this point," said Andrew Goodrich, chair of the Scituate Select Board. “I wish the tension would go away."