Growing Shellfish Was 'Trial by Fire'
Stonington native Abby Barrows owns and operates the Deer Isle Oyster Company, a small-scale aquaculture farm where she raises oysters, sugar kelp, and—experimentally for now—dulse and scallops.
While she was born and raised on Deer Isle, Barrows' journey— fueled by a restless, wandering spirit-has been anything but short, straight, and narrow. She earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Tasmania in Australia, worked for a year in Papua, New Guinea, traveled throughout Indonesia, and spent time in Singapore, Nepal, and the Middle East. She's conducted sea turtle research in Uruguay, led a scientific expedition to Antarctica as part of her research into microplastics pollution, and explored Fiji.
But after a stint teaching marine science on a 125-foot schooner, she returned to Stonington and opened a new chapter in her life with her husband, Ben Jackson, and their six-year-old daughter, lo.
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