The concept of town-leased clam flats for the purpose of aquaculture has been a topic of conversation for years. In recent months, the topic has come up again, and now, the Freeport Shellfish Conservation Commission has put forth an amendment to the town’s shellfish conservation ordinance that would accomplish just that – commercial clam farming.

The commission, which met last Thursday night, approved an eight-page proposal for the ordinance amendment, to be discussed during a public hearing when the commission next meets on Sept. 10 at the Town Council chambers.

Doug Leland, who was elected chairman of the Freeport Shellfish Conservation Commission on Thursday night, hoped to have the document placed on the town’s website sometime this week.

“This discussion has gone back a long way,” Leland said during the meeting, held at the Freeport Community Center. “What we’re attempting to do now is to pull together a draft amendment that would go to the public domain, sufficient for a public hearing.”

The commission is proposing a five-year pilot program for individuals to farm on the town’s mud flats on the Harraseeket River and Casco Bay. According to state law, no more than 25 percent of a town’s flats can be used for aquaculture, in which the clams are farmed rather than gathered in the wild.

Leland said that, according to a study he has read, statewide clam landings are less than half of what they were in 1980. Predation of soft-shell clams by green crabs, whose population many believe has increased due to warming ocean temperatures, is blamed. Proponents of aquaculture say the practice will allow individuals to seed their flats with juvenile clams, and manage the resource with better results.

Opponents say that the town’s clam flats are for everyone, and leasing to individuals is unfair to clammers who don’t have the resources to farm.

Brian Beal, a University of Maine professor of marine ecology who has studied green crabs and their effect on soft shell clams in Freeport for two years, said that the Freeport Shellfish Conservation Commission’s idea is long overdue.

“No municipalities are doing it,” Beal said. “It is a head-scratcher. I react by saying, ‘What’s taken so long for Maine communities to get to this, and I congratulate Freeport. The Maine Legislature approved municipal leasing in 1917. This is a historic decision by the commission. It creates opportunities for people in the future.”

There is one experimental soft-shell clam farm in Maine, located in Georgetown.

The proposed Freeport shellfish ordinance amendment would allow any holder of a Freeport commercial shellfish license to apply for a municipal aquaculture permit, “in a designated area in the intertidal zone to the extreme low water mark.”

The permit would be for a term of five years or less, and subject to renewal for subsequent five-year terms.

The total number of acres leased under the municipal aquaculture would not exceed one-quarter of the entire municipal intertidal zone that is open to the taking of shellfish.

The commission elected Leland to succeed Del Arris, who had been chairman for one year. Chris Grimm is the new vice chairman, and Andy Wilbur retains his position at secretary.