Founded by Samantha Bohan in 2023, this small family-run farm operates in Reed Cove off Orr’s Island. Bohan comes from an eighth-generation fishing family, served on Harpswell’s Aquaculture Working Group and is vice chair of its Fisheries Committee.
This gallery is part of “Cultivating the Coast,” a special report that explores Harpswell’s rapidly growing aquaculture industry.
Samantha Bohan empties an oyster cage into a bucket on her floating wharf while her son, Richard, 5, traps older brother Thomas, 7, in another cage at Bella Bay Oyster Farm in Reed Cove on June 9. (Bisi Cameron Yee photo)
Samantha Bohan holds three sizes of oysters from the same batch of seed at Bella Bay Oyster Farm in Reed Cove on June 9. The oysters grow at varying rates, and Bohan separates them into different cages by size to make harvesting easier. (Bisi Cameron Yee photo)
Thomas Bohan, 7, steers a skiff while his father, Seth Bohan, directs him toward the wharf at Reed Cove in Harpswell on June 9. The Bohans’ three young children are the eighth generation of their family to grow up working Harpswell’s waters. (Bisi Cameron Yee photo)
A floating wharf provides a useful platform from which to manage the roughly 140 oyster cages at Bella Bay Oyster Farm in Harpswell’s Reed Cove on June 9. “We couldn’t survive on it, by no means,” said sea farmer Samantha Bohan, but she said the additional income is a welcome supplement to the Bohans’ lobstering business. (Bisi Cameron Yee photo)
Samantha Bohan clears debris from an oyster cage at Bella Bay Oyster Farm in Reed Cove on June 9. “I’m not selling right now,” Bohan said. “I wait til school’s out, and I wait til tourists are here and the restaurants are dying for oysters.” (Bisi Cameron Yee photo)
Thomas Bohan, 7, navigates his father’s lobster boat in Harpswell’s Reed Cove on June 9. “You can’t just look at the monitor, you gotta look out the window,” Seth Bohan tells him. (Bisi Cameron Yee photo)
Blue skies are reflected in Samantha Bohan’s sunglasses as she wraps up a visit to her oyster farm in Reed Cove on June 9. Bohan said she worked as a stylist for 20 years but always dreamed of working on the water. (Bisi Cameron Yee photo)
The Bohan family head out to visit their Bella Bay Oyster Farm in Reed Cove on June 9. Samantha Bohan holds a limited purpose aquaculture (LPA) license to raise oysters, while husband Seth is a lobsterman. (Bisi Cameron Yee photo)
From left, Thomas Bohan, 7, and brother Richard, 5, lug a large seafood tote toward the wharf at Reed Cove in Harpswell on June 9. The two boys often accompany their mother when she checks the floating cages at Bella Bay Oyster Farm, which she owns and operates. (Bisi Cameron Yee photo)
