Interview: Bree George, Assistant Farm Manager (& Official Tour Guide)

A Conversation on Sustainability, Community, and Oyster Farming in Maine 

Interview & words by Nolan Anderson, University of Maine ‘25

I recently got the opportunity to conduct a short interview with Bree George, Assistant Farm Manager of Blackstone Point Oyster Company. During our phone call, we discussed her background in aquaculture and marine biology, her adventures and stories from out on the river, and what being a part of the First B Corp certified oyster farm in Maine means to her! 

When asked about her background in aquaculture, Bree explained that she has experience growing oysters for market for about two years, but has worked with oysters since she was a fifth grader as part of river cleanup in North Carolina, where she grew up:

“I'm from North Carolina originally and from the southeast portion right on the water. The river I grew up on was super super polluted. It had a very rudimentary sewage processing plant. It left a really black sludge film along the entire bottom of the river system and so it was choking out a lot of the bottom feeders. I was a part of a project that cleaned up the river using oysters, and I took part in that project from when I was in fifth grade up until I was well into college.” 

Bree went on to study marine biology in college, where she worked in a research oyster hatchery as well as a variety of other aquaculture related projects. Upon moving to Maine, Bree worked at a neighboring farm for six months before joining the crew at Blackstone Point, where she has worked for almost two years since. 

When asked about being a part of a B Corp oyster farm, Bree explained that Blackstone Point’s sustainability focus is a huge part of why she ended up on the crew:

“It is a very very large reason that I chose to work at Blackstone, if I'm being honest. I'm very interested in sustainability, and when I started hearing more about how sustainable Blackstone is, It was absolutely the number one reason why I wanted to pop over and start working here…  I think having a B corp certification is an awesome thing and I think it's such a positive image for the aquaculture community at large.”

Bree also spoke to the importance of the aquaculture community along the Damariscotta River, and shared some stories about her time out on the water:

“This past summer we were having just a normal workday… the sun was shining, there was a little bit of a breeze, and we were looking at the sailboat and noticed that they started kind of going into a really weird area. They weren't in the channel anymore, they didn't have their sails up and it felt a little bit strange. They happened to be barreling straight towards our neighbor's float, so we hopped in the boat and went over there, and it turned out that their engine lost power and they didn't have any control of where their boat was going… Ryan ended up hooking their boat to our boat and towed them into the mooring so that they could get repairs done. These are people that we've never seen before in our lives… that sense of community is not just about saying “hi” when you see someone you know, it's also about helping people that you don't know. I can't count how many times something silly happened to us like running out of gas and there were two boats from other farms just headed straight for us to make sure that we were doing okay”

My conversation with Bree not only shed light on her personal journey within aquaculture, but also deepened my understanding of the sense of community and sustainability that defines Blackstone Point Oyster Company. 

Bree ended our conversation by mentioning studies that cite farmers as having the highest job gratification, being the most satisfied with what they do professionally. Bree says this fact is “100% transferable to oyster farming.”

Contributor Note

My name is Nolan Anderson, and I am a fourth year student of Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Maine. I have partnered with Blackstone Point Oyster Farms through a community learning course that connects University of Maine students with local businesses and organizations, collaborating on a community project while gaining valuable professional experience. My partnership with Blackstone Point Oyster Farms has piqued my interest in aquaculture, and encouraged me to pursue my position as an aquaculture apprentice at Glidden Point Oyster Farms following my graduation this spring. This conversation with Bree was crucial to my understanding of what a career in aquaculture means from both an individual and community perspective, and pushed me to further explore aquaculture professionally.