STEUBEN – Banking on a mix of sea and fresh water in western Washington County, a local man has applied to the state Department of Marine Resources for an experimental lease to raise oysters in northern Dyer Bay.

Charles Wallace and his family do business as Petit Manan Seafood. He is the second Washington County resident to experiment with oyster farming, a sector of the shellfish aquaculture industry that is centered in Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc and Cumberland counties.

In 1999, John D. Wood of Machiasport was granted an experimental three-year lease to raise oysters in Salt Pond, but he let the lease expire because so many of the oysters died, according to DMR’s Mary Costigan.

Wallace said Monday that he believes the water in Pinkham Stream is warm enough to culture oysters.

“They have to have warm water and they like a mix of sea and fresh water,” he said.

Unlike regular DMR leases, which run for 10 years, experimental leases are for three years.

Wallace said in his application that he will know if the site is successful at the end of two years. If it is, he may apply for a full lease, according to his application.

Wallace is applying for two tracts totaling 1.706 acres in the upper reaches of Pinkham Stream north of Pinkham Bay in Dyer Bay.

One tract would be used as a nursery site to raise juvenile oysters and hard-shell clams in up to 100 floating cages.

According to his application, Wallace intends to buy his seed stock from Pemaquid Oyster Co. in Waldoboro, Muscongus Bay Aquaculture in Bremen or Marshall Point Sea Farm in Port Clyde.

Once the oysters in the nursery cages reach a certain size, they would be transferred to the ocean bottom in the second tract, where they could grow to market size and be harvested by divers, according to the application.

Wallace said his plan is to sell the juvenile hard-shell clams to other aquaculturists in places such as Maryland where they can seed bottom areas with the stock and raise them to market size.

He expects to grow 100,000 oysters a year and 300,000 juvenile hard-shell clams

DMR says it will accept written comments on Wallace’s application through 5 p.m. Thursday, May 29. To request copies of the application, submit a written request for a public hearing or submit written comments, contact Mary Costigan, DMR, PO Box 8, West Boothbay Harbor 04575, or call 633-9531.