Every time they take the road down to the site of their proposed oyster farm at Seapowet, Sean and Patrick Bowen of Little Compton can't help but notice the dozens of bright yellow lawn signs that have sprung up over the past few months and point squarely at them:

"Preserve Your Right to Seapowet Waterway," they read, listing www.saveseapowet.org, an opposition website. "Act Now!!!"

The signs are seemingly everywhere in that stretch of Tiverton, and the brothers said Thursday that each reminds them to keep their heads up.

"We constantly have to remind ourselves to stay positive," said Patrick, a carpenter who also works as a vocational teacher in Fall River. "You can't go down that wormhole of negativity. People are going to say all kinds of crazy things."

Since they first proposed their farm in 2019, went through three preliminary hearings before the Tiverton Harbor Commission, applied for a permit with the state Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) and paid $100,000 for a tiny strip of land just to the south of the Seapowet bridge, Patrick and his brother Sean, an environmental scientist focusing on aquaculture, said keeping that positivity intact has been difficult. As one of two applicants who propose establishing farms in the area — the other, a three-acre farm proposed to the north, is not as far along in the CRMC process — the Bowens say they've been unfairly maligned by a "misinformation" campaign they say was designed to spread fear about their plan and its potential impact on the area.

"It's like going through McDonald's to get dietary information," said Patrick of the website and the opponents behind it, who have raised more than $12,000 for their cause.

"I don't want my reputation being tarnished by false information and largely what that website is, is false information."

One recent afternoon, the brothers dodged raindrops to walk through the site, parking in the dirt area north of the bridge and walking over the bridge to their property, which is just about wide enough to drive a truck down. Through it all, they talked about their plan:

Why here?

Patrick: "In August 2019 we started looking around to see if we could find a place that was good for growing oysters. We started in Little Compton and kind of all through the area."

Sean: "It's ideal. When you go beyond Fogland, it's a straight shot out to the south-southwest. So you get waves, you get wind. This is protected."

The proposed farm is .97 acres. Can you describe its construction?

Patrick: "There are a bunch of different types of gear. From the get go, what we said was, 'We want as little to be seen as possible.' The system we came up with is basically like lobster pots placed in rows."

Sean: "So there are 200 cages in rows, 16 inches off the bottom. The average depth is two to four feet at mean low tide. There's nothing visible, even at low tide. So with a kayak or a canoe, you're fine."

Why that design, instead of floating cages?

Patrick: "Because it's ugly; basically out of respect for the area. It was our assumption that floating gear would be looked at unfavorably."

Will they interfere with boaters, kayakers and recreational fishermen?

Patrick: "No one brings a power boat through there anyway. From our first meeting, we made it absolutely clear that what we're doing will not prevent anyone from kayaking over through our lease area or canoeing. As a matter of fact, if we were working there and people came through on kayaks, we would welcome the opportunity to speak to them, because ultimately it's going to sell our product. I have no problem talking to anyone. And number two, this is not going to prevent anyone from fishing. "

Sean: "We also have a plan for rows that are 25 feet apart. So there's plenty of room between those for casting."

How would the farm be serviced?

Patrick: "What we've heard and read is that there's going to be be big trucks and equipment ... nothing could be further from the truth. Nor is it an industrial operation that involves industrial equipment and power washers."

Why buy the land?

Patrick: "One of the biggest impediments to aquaculture statewide or anywhere for that matter is access to the shore." Buying the small piece of land "enables us to have a place to park. We've applied for a mooring, so forever more we have a mooring, and a place to park the car. Ideally, at low tide we can wade out there."

Will this farm be enough to sustain you as is?

Patrick: "We don't have to grow a lot of oysters, we just want to grow the best. If you sell direct to consumer, the max we could grow here would be about 100,000 oysters" per year.

Sean: "We don't need to make a million dollars."

Have any of the opponents reached out to either of you personally?

Sean: "Not once."

What is your take on the claims that the public has not been brought into the process?

Patrick: "There is a claim that nobody knew anything about this. The first newspaper article was published in February 2020. There were several meetings. All of our meetings (since the pandemic began) have been on Zoom. We feel the public has had ample opportunity to follow this. A notification was posted on the Town of Tiverton website."

Should area residents have been given notice directly?

Patrick: "The state is the only abutter. The argument about zoning and abutters is that if this were a zoning issue and someone were seeking zoning relief, any abutters within 200 feet would have to be notified. I totally get it. But the fact here is that our proposal is more than 200 feet.

Sean: "285 feet from mean low. Even if this were a terrestrial zoning issue, it wouldn't apply."

Patrick: "One of the things that we would like to counter is the idea that no notice was given. Giving notice is not the responsibility of the applicant according to state law, and that goes with any aquaculture farm in the state. It's not as though this was done in a vacuum."

Sean: "That's the part that gets insulting. The assertion that we've gone behind people's backs is insulting. We didn't go behind anybody's back. We did most hearings at least twice, and even if you live in Arlington, Va. you can log on and take part. We've done this as openly as we possibly could."

Patrick: The hearings before the harbor commission required by CRMC are "actually a pretty good way to do it. The harbor commission is a body that represents the people of Tiverton with regard to coastal issues. So it starts at that local level."

Are you willing to change the boundaries to respond to placement concerns?

Sean: "We've moved it three times."

Patrick: "So what the harbor commission sent us away with was, 'We'd like to see you move it to deeper water. We proposed the idea that we would like to access it from the state parking area. DEM didn't like that. No problem. So ultimately, we'll move it further out and we'll access by private land or by boat. No problem."

How does this plan fit with the way of life in Tiverton?

Patrick: "What makes a rural place rural? If everyone who lives here works somewhere else, it isn't rural. If a kid growing up in Little Compton or Tiverton wants to stay around here and work around here, what do you do? I guess, maybe cut people's lawns or build houses. I think — I know — that aquaculture provides an opportunity for young kids to be able to stay around here and have a quality of life that they otherwise might not have. So as part of the community, that's definitely something we want to do."