The Working Waterfront - June 2020

News of Maine’s Coast and Islands

THE WORKING

volume 34, № 4

published by the island institute

n

june 2020 n free circulation: 50,000 n

workingwaterfront.com

Voter support sought on broadband investment

July 14 ballot includes $15 million for ConnectMaine grants By Tom Groening

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es, we have internet, but… That’s the response from business owners, healthcare professionals, educators, and more, with the “but” being that speeds fail to keep up with demand. And that gap is why the state should help build a broadband network, say proponents of a July 14 referendum question that seeks approval for borrowing $15 million toward the effort. In recent years, borrowing proposals by legislators of up to $100 million for broadband work have failed to make it to the ballot. And while $15 million is a

Jeff Boulet, a web designer and developer who lives in St. George, says he got to know neighbors by parking near the library to use its internet. PHOTO: COURTESY JEFF BOULET

relatively small amount in the context of state bond initiatives, proponents explain that the funds would leverage significantly more money from federal and local governments, as well as from private sources.

In January, ConnectMaine, a state entity charged with expanding broadband—which is defined as internet speeds of 25 megabits per second for continued on page 3

Lobstermen rally to fight right whale ruling Federal court finds regulators violated protection law By Laurie Schreiber

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or lobster fishermen, today’s uncertainties revolve not only around a tightening market during the pandemic, but a legal situation that questions the industry’s ability to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales.

In mid-April, a federal judge ruled, in a case brought by four conservation organizations, that the federal government was not doing enough to protect right whales from being entangled lobster gear. The case’s next phase will address whether new gear restrictions are needed. Recently, the Maine Lobstermen’s

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He recalls the 1990s, when restrictions Association launched a campaign to raise $500,000 for its legal team to first emerged in response to a crash in the right whale population participate in the second due to factors that include phase. gear entanglement, ship The industry is responding. Lobstermen “You feel hopeless strikes, and ocean noise. At the time, there were Lee Watkinson, Dustin when one federal about 270 right whales. Delano, and Travis Doughty are donating judge can change Since then, strategies to reduce entanglements a portion of their hauls things with a have included weak to support the defense links in rope, sinking fund, according to an stroke of a pen.” groundline, gear marking, MLA Facebook post; —Lee Watkinson seasonal area closures, Lee Marine, Midcoast and a minimum number Diesel Performance, and of traps per trawl (several Brooks Trap Mill have traps on one vertical line). also contributed. “Hopefully it creates some buzz,” That helped increase the right whale said Watkinson, who fishes out of population to 480 in 2010. But the population is now estimated Matinicus. “You feel hopeless when one federal judge can change things at about 400. Scientists say entanglement is a with a stroke of a pen.” Watkinson said he feared a possible leading cause of injury and death. closure of the industry, which would Conservation groups say Maine’s be devastating not only to lobstermen lobster industry is a primary source of but their communities, restaurants, entanglement. and tourism. continued on page 3

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The Working Waterfront . June 2020

Spartan Marine, stuck in the Bronze Age

Machine shop in Georgetown continues to cast and refine marine hardware Story/Photos by Kelli Park

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n a world churning with change, there is a workshop in a cove in Georgetown where the strength of bronze has withstood the test of time. Spartan Marine makes the case that there are some things better left unchanged. “The marine hardware business has endured,” says Neil Collins, general manager at Derektor Robinhood Marina, which owns and operates Spartan Marine. “We make deck hardware that really speaks to a different time in the marine industry,” he continues. “There’s not a whole lot of people making bronze hardware anywhere anymore. I think we’re the only ones who make it in the States with these kinds of offerings.” The story of Spartan Marine begins in 1963, when Andy Vavolotis founded Cape Dory Yachts in Massachusetts, which produced thousands of yachts over the course of 30 years. “Andy was dissatisfied with what was available for deck hardware, so he designed his own,” Collins said. “That’s what we still make. He started a bronze hardware business (Spartan Marine) for his own vessels,” and then sold the hardware to other yards. “They did everything from sailboat masts to tables to architectural pieces. They did a lot,” said Collins. And they stuck to proven designs, explains Skip Collins (no relation to Neil), machinist at Spartan Marine and the man behind the metal since the 1980s (off and on). “The hardware has stayed the same since 1963,” he said. “This hardware was in use in the 1800s. The cleats and everything have been like this for 300 years.” Skip Collins, whose father ran what was formerly known as Boothbay Region Boatyard, has spent the past 60 years working in Maine’s maritime industry. He started out as a dock boy and remembers working at the boatyard in Cozy Harbor, where they “hauled boats out with a 4-wheel drive and a winch.” The casting for Spartan’s hardware is done at a

Skip Collins in the shop at Spartan Marine.

Skip Collins working at the lathe.

foundry in Massachusetts, after which the pieces are transported to the workshop in Georgetown for Skip Collins’ finishing touches. He uses machinery from circa 1942 to shape and refine a variety of bronze marine hardware pieces, including cleats, ports, seacocks, and outboard motor mounts. “We have an excellent reputation in the industry for our opening ports, which are really the finest made anywhere in the world. They’re incredibly strong,” said Neil Collins. “Our outboard brackets were adapted from a turn-of-the-century design. We’re the only ones that make these. These are very popular with people who have traditional looking boats, but still want to be able to get off and on the mooring.”

Although the hardware remains the same, the business has changed a bit with the times. In 2018, Spartan started a website for online ordering, and it uses distributors in Europe and Australia. In a time when 3-D printing is changing the concept of production and redefining the notion of efficiency, and electronics and composites are taking over more traditional aspects of the maritime industry, Spartan Marine still relies on classic craftsmanship to create works of art with a purpose. “A lot of it hasn’t changed at all,” said Skip Collins, whose hands are weathered by bronze. And for now, the Bronze Age continues to live on in the workshop in Georgetown.

www.workingwaterfront.com . June 2020 BROADBAND

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hampering his work in the office and when he works from home. “Our electronic health records are downloads and 3 mbps for uploads— hosted on the internet,” he explained, published an action plan that made the and usually, access to those records is available at the office. But when he’s case for approving the bond. “Download is how the world talks to on a call at home—at least one day a Maine. Upload is how Maine talks to week—the connection is poor. That means information about a patient’s the world,” the plan asserts. “Broadband is now a necessary medications, allergies, and medical asset to attract and retain businesses history are not available. With stay-at-home orders in place, and residents in Maine. Most rural communities do not have access to Clark relies on a web connection to viable high-speed connectivity,” the consult with patients. “This is the only platform we have for plan noted, and this “limits their ability to develop a strong workforce, incubate seeing patients now,” he said. But with innovation, create an environment to poor internet speeds at his home, the attract new residents and businesses, doctor is using phone calls, and “I can’t see the thing they want me and support seniors and to look at.” others to stay in their When the pandemic homes.” “Download is eases, Clark believes conThe $15 million would be distributed in grants how the world sultations over computer screens will be more prevato community efforts over the next few years, talks to Maine. lent than before the virus said Kendra Jo Grindle, a Upload is how changed life. “I think that going community development Maine talks to forward, it’s going to be officer with the Island something we rely on,” he Institute (publisher of The the world.” said, especially for elderly Working Waterfront), who patients for whom travel is works on local broadband difficult. initiatives. “It’s kept people out of the ER. It’s A total of $45 million in funding, including other sources, could be a healthcare productivity issue. It’s a brought to bear, she said, if the bond safety issue. Telemedicine is not going is approved. The scoring system to go away,” he said. “The stability of anticipated to award grants will give the internet is critical.” In the education realm, Bobby priority to rural areas, Grindle added. And rural areas are where the gap lies. Deetjen also sees much of the current More densely populated areas may use of web-based interaction remaining see a provider offer nearly universal after the virus recedes. Deetjen is soon access, but the ConnectMaine to take over as director of the Midcoast plan argues that “the private sector School of Technology in Rockland. “More devices are going home with broadband investment model doesn’t work in rural Maine. The low students,” he said, and predicted that population density and limited scale remote snow days, when teachers make it unprofitable for the private and students continue to do work, sector to expand their networks with even when storms close the road, will expand to many districts. private investment only.” The school, which serves area high Michael Clark, a family physician who lives in the Lincoln County town school students, has begun offering of Bremen and has his practice in associate degree programs, which nearby Newcastle, finds internet speeds requires good connectivity.

Even before the virus, students a private provider to secure universal struggled at times to get what they access for businesses and residents. “They need some catalyst to get them needed from the internet. “Students in the design technology there,” said Grindle. “Take” rates—the percentage of resprogram are working on projects that idents and businesses in a community are pretty complex,” and connectivity was slow. “The high-use times are willing to commit to paying a monthly fee for broadband service—“are challenging.” Now, with virtual meetings being the necessary to make the funding work,” norm, a quarter to a third of teachers Battista said. “Community engagement is the lose connection during their 9 a.m. path to take rates,” Grindle added. She Zoom call, Deetjen said. “We talk a lot about equity in works with rural towns to help them education,” he said, and the lack of win over skeptical residents. “Every community in Maine will have high-speed internet tends to hold back a different solution to those students in rural locations. challenges,” according to Small business owners in ConnectMaine, and its remote locations have long approach “is based on said the lack of broadband a community planning has hampered growth. The model. Communities, Whether it’s the inability whether a single town, a to process credit card sales private sector group of towns, a county or the challenge of sharing broadband or some other compilation, designs and plans with must be firmly in the driver’s clients, reliable uploads and investment seat in determining their downloads have become model doesn’t own broadband destiny.” essential components in work in rural Yes, $15 million will the marketplace. not achieve statewide Jeff Boulet, a web Maine.” broadband, Grindle says, designer and developer, but just as bond issues are moved to St. George in perennially on the ballot 2012. He met many of his for road, bridge, and port neighbors by going to the work, the state’s digital library to try to access the infrastructure also will need ongoing internet and get client projects done. “In the past there were times that funding. ConnectMaine’s plan has the state a client would tell me that they were sending me something that evening,” contributing 25 percent of the total Boulet explained, “so I’d get in the car cost of broadband expansion for rural and go to the library parking lot to do Maine. The plan recommends completion work and send emails from my car. You can do that for a little while, but it’s no of the program by 2025, with Maine’s investment at $200 million. Bringing way to live.” The nuts-and-bolts of building high speed connectivity to rural Maine a broadband network likely will is relativity cheap, given the economic vary, depending on a community’s payback, estimated to be at least a 4:1 make-up and needs, say the Island return, according to ConnectMaine. “Access to high speed internet is Institute’s Grindle and Nick Battista, the organization’s senior policy officer. extremely important to daily life,” said There already are models in Maine Battista. “We can help all Mainers, and of communities borrowing to build particularly in rural areas, who don’t fiber-to-the-premises systems—such have access to reliable internet service as Islesboro—and those that work with if we invest now.”

WHALES

gear you’ll be able to use, when you’ll be able to fish, where you’ll be able to fish, what modifications you might need.” The alternative, she said, is that the court doesn’t find a remedy.

continued from page 1

continued from page 1 But lobstermen say entanglements in recent years have come from Canadian fisheries. They note that warming ocean waters are pushing the whale’s feeding areas north, away from Maine’s lobster grounds, and that no right whales have been found entangled in Maine gear since rope reductions were implemented. The restrictions weren’t easy to implement. In 2008, floating groundlines—which connect traps on the sea bottom—were replaced with “sinking” groundlines to make it easier for whales to transit without catching on rope. Maine’s rocky bottom isn’t hospitable for rope designed to lie on the bottom, said Watkinson. But lobstermen were willing to do it. “There are places we just don’t fish anymore,” he said. “But it seemed that process worked. We gave up a little and

the whale rebounded. It seemed like a win-win.” In 2015, lobstermen had to reduce the number of vertical lines that connect bottom gear with surface buoys. This year, fishermen are integrating purple marks into their rope, to make it easier to tell whether Maine gear is implicated in future entanglements. “It’s extremely time-consuming,” said Watkinson. “But it’s something we’re willing to do.” But with the court’s ruling, the fishery is entering a chapter of unknowns, said MLA Executive Director Patrice McCarron, who spoke in April on a Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association podcast. The unknowns include potential measures that could affect how the fishery operates. “We are a fleet of small businesses,” said McCarron. “It is excruciating to try to plan your business when you literally don’t know what your business model will be, you don’t know for sure what

“The MLA will be in the courtroom to be sure we do find something that will work for whales and for fishermen, because in the absence of a remedy, our fishery closes down,” she said.

Federal court rules regulators failed In 2018, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Humane Society of the United States, and Conservation Law Foundation sued the National Marine Fisheries Service, arguing it wasn’t fulfilling its mandate under the Endangered Species Act to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. Assigned to Judge James Boasberg of the Federal District Court for Washington D.C., the case proceeded in two phases. Phase 1, completed April 9, determined NMFS violated the law. During Phase 2, Boasberg will evaluate the need for a solution to mitigate the potential risk that lobster gear poses to right whales and will hear the fishing industry’s perspective for the first time. As an intervener, the MLA will address allegations that right whales are being seriously harmed by entanglement in U.S. lobster gear. In 2019, ten right whale deaths were attributed to Canadian fishing gear.

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The Working Waterfront . June 2020

From fishing to farming— scallops and goats

Marsden Brewer is cautiously exploring scallop aquaculture By Laurie Schreiber

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or some fishermen, Maine’s aquaculture industry has been a thorny subject that includes concerns like navigational safety and environmental health. But as a third-generation fisherman, Marsden Brewer of Stonington sees the development of a new scallop farming sector as an opportunity for fishermen to diversify their income streams, maintain a robust working waterfront, and strengthen coastal communities. It also has great potential to complement, rather than compete with, wild-caught fisheries, he said. For one thing, Brewer and others select and design their aquaculture sites so they don’t interfere with traditional lobster fishing. As a fisherman himself, he would know. “We know where they fish because we fish there, too,” he said. “We’re leaving enough room between the gear so they can fish around it, so we can co-exist together. It’s the right thing to do.” But scallops aren’t Brewer’s only farmed product. He and his wife Donna also own Red Barn Farm, where they raise Nubian goats and run a retail shop featuring goat-milk cheese, soap, and lobsters. “We’re right on Route 15, so a lot of people who come for the summer, we’re the first stop they make when they get here to get goat cheese and the last stop when they head home,” he said with a laugh. As a lifelong fisherman—harvesting sea urchins, scallops, groundfish, shrimp, lobsters, and mussels— Brewer got into scallop farming as a natural outgrowth of work he was doing in the 1990s with scientists in Maine, including Dan Schick, Scott Feindel, and Dana Morse. Schick, a biologist with the Department of Marine Resources, recruited fishermen to collect wild scallop

spat, with the idea of using the tiny larvae to build up the wild inshore stock, which was in decline. Brewer was intrigued. “Everything’s always about worrying about our limitations, whether it’s drag limits, trap limits, seasons, you name it,” he said. “Dan was talking about realizing our potential, which was a little different.” After about four years of experimentation, the idea didn’t work out. But it laid the foundation for a new collaboration that emerged eight years ago to farm scallops. Brewer credited Morse, a Maine Sea Grant extension agent, for jump-starting the new effort. Brewer and his son Bob were part of a delegation to Japan, a leader in farmed scallops, to study methods and technology. He received an experimental lease permit to grow scallops, formed a company called PenBay Farmed Scallops, and helped found the Maine Aquaculture Co-op in Tenants Harbor, which seeks to expand Maine’s seafood-producing industries. Today, Brewer grows scallops using “lantern nets”—tiered mesh cylinders that hang in the water from a longline. It’s been a learning process. “It’s always better to start slow,” he said. “We started the first year with one line. The next year we had two lines.” Last year, he sold about 40,000 scallops through his distributor, Glidden Point Oyster Co. in Edgecomb. He’s applied for a standard aquaculture lease to expand the operation. “Now we’re really looking to moving forward,” he said. He urges caution as the industry progresses, though, given its potential to attract non-local interests that may be insensitive to the needs of local fishermen and their communities.

Marsden Brewer, right, is seen here with his son Bob aboard his 38-foot fishing vessel Lindsay Marie. Brewer is a lifelong fisherman who is helping to lead the new sector of scallop farming. Brewer’s lantern nets contain a haul of farm-raised scallops PHOTOS: MARNIE REED CROWELL

“We could get someone coming in with a big company and they can really screw up the coastal communities,” he said. “So while it’s good to move forward, I’m cautious.” Two of Brewer’s four children are fishermen. He feels lucky that his son Bob fishes with him and shares the scallop venture. He added, “There are a bunch of people like me, guys who have been in the fisheries a long time, who want to see a future for the next generation.” Brewer and Maine Aquaculture Co-operative Communications Manager Marnie Reed Crowell developed a downloadable recipes page for farmed scallops, at penbayfarmedscallops.com/recipes.

www.workingwaterfront.com . April 2020

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www.workingwaterfront.com . June 2020

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DefianceRmay be making reappearance in York cRanBeRRy epoRt The pre-Revolutionary sloop is rare example of New England ship

ing, painting lines, eating , and throwing rocks By Jacqueline Weaver

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ime and again since 1958, fierce storms have peeled back an unusual amount of beach sand in York, temporarily revealing remnants of a 50-foot wooden hull thought to date back to an 18th century vessel. Maritime archeologist Stefan Claesson is hoping to conduct an archeological sford. dig piece of purple rope to thecargo end it ofwas the bright redhull withtoa firmly black stripe) and, of the establish itslike identity, provenance, and what izzas, carrying buoy line or toggle, but all attachments every other lobster fisherman in Maine on the ill-fated day it was swept ashore. busier this be made withstrongly a splice suspects— or a tuck. winter, he read about, talked about, Claesson, who first became aware of the must shipwreck in 2007, e the and I know it’s a stretch to compare and told experimented with purple paint. York selectmen and others in a presentation in March—that therefolis ason. a very The latest require lowing Maine whalea rope good whale chanceregulations the hull was the single-masted Defiance, sloop requirebuilt in portu- Massachusetts ments with a plein air workshop, but all Maine lobster to use in fishermen 1754 and used fornew transporting cargo. iends markings on the ropes they attach to a person could return homeMass., from eiIf it is the Defiance, the pinky-style sloop set sail from Salem, in rip to 1769 ther and say that they’d been paintlobster traps. Depending on how close with a shipment of flour, pork, and English products and was bound for g was to shore they fish, they will have to add ing in their spare time. If Bruce were Portland. A storm overcame the vessel, although the crew survived. re so 2-4 purple marks on each buoy line. writing an essay on how he spent his For now, the Maine Historic Preservation Commission has determined the hull is u did On warps that are 100-feet or less there winter vacation, painting would be a worthy of nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. But Claesson said ques- must be one 12-inch purple mark with- part of it. Another part would be the he would prefer to have more documentation before an application is submitted. ber at in a few fathoms of the trap and a 36- description I heard him tell his brother He has already done quite a bit of leg work using historical records and by taking e sub- inch purple mark within 2 fathoms of Mark about walking to get doughnuts, wood samples from the hull. He is 85 percent certain the sloop is the Defiance and meet- the buoy. If the warp is longer that 100 in February, with our son Robin, and one of few examples of a pre-Revolutionary War ship built in New England. These floor!) feet, the requirement is for a 12-inch our grandchildren Henry and Cora. I ships were the principal means of trade and commerce in the region. e and purple mark near the trap, a second 12- was away with friends in Portland, and During the latest reveal in March 2018, Claesson took wood samples from the h our inch purple mark halfway to the buoy, Stephanie was away with friends in plank and ship frame and sent them to the Cornell University Tree Ring Maine. hull and a 36-inch mark near the buoy. Florida. Father and son were in charge. in Ithaca, N.Y. The laboratory said there were three different species of oal of Laboratory “Yeah, we got doughnuts at The Bruce figures he will be putting 1,500 trees and they were cut in about 1753. Claesson said he would prefer that the hull onsid- to 1,800 markings on his rope in all; two Cookie Jar and then walked to the excavated, examined, and left in place for future residents and visitors to enjoy. n, but be to three weeks of extra work if he does beach for a picnic and to throw rocks.” What is remaining is about 10 to 15 percent of the hull, just to the bottom of virus- it without Eating homemade donuts and hiring help. A number of fishthe bilge he said. time ermen areturn, applying paint to their ropes throwing rocks at the beach—if that won’tthem reallyinknow it’s the Defiance until look image at moreofofmany the hull and to it. by“We resting 3-footif long gutters isn’t a we mirror childthe shape of the hull, ” he said. “Right now, we think it’s a sloop, but it could be a I can made from lengthwise-halved PVC pipe. hood summers on Islesford, I don’t schooner with two or Bruce’s first attempt wasmore with mastheads. spray paint ” know what is. q The excavation would entail work paint, but he soon moved on to the more effi-by a skilled crew of 10-20 who would be screening the sand for artifacts, managing documentation, samples “time cient brush and latex paint. Barbara Fernald and livescollecting on Islesford (Little to be sent to laboratories for analysis. The process could be open to the public. e and Some fishermen will add a 3-foot Cranberry Island) with her husband Bruce.

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The Working Waterfront . June 2020

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Machias confronts frequent tidal floods April spring tide threatened dike that carries Route 1 By Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Storm damage is often costly and paid for by the state, the town, businesses, tate snowplows descended on and even fishermen. The most recent Machias the morning after an storm caused the Machias Wastewater April storm, but they weren’t Treatment plant to have an overflow there to remove spring snow. Instead, event, seeping waste into the river they plowed debris from the Machias and closing lucrative clamming flats River, deposited during a violent storm in Machias, East Machias, and parts and spring tide. It was the second of Machiasport for 21 days. Though time in four months plows removed shellfish markets are currently down due to coronavirus, a clam flat closure in seaweed from Main Street. “That is the kind of scenario we watch high season is economically devastating. “An engineer who is very familiar for—a spring tide and, heaven forbid, a high tide that corresponds with a storm with the infrastructure in downtown surge,” said Tora Johnson, professor Machias told me we just narrowly and director of the GIS Laboratory at avoided catastrophic failure of the the University of Maine at Machias. The dike and other infrastructure,” said April 9 spring tide—the tide just after Johnson. “Another foot of storm surge a full or new moon—measured more and that would have been it.” To counter that threat, the town of than 15 feet, the highest of the month, Machias is pursuing a solution to protect and almost the highest of the year. Much of downtown Machias sits its businesses and infrastructure from floods, while creating below “base flood a scenic river walk that elevation,” the area celebrates the town’s expected to flood once historic relationship to every 100 years. But “An engineer… the Machias River. The Johnson says those flood told me we Machias Waterfront events are happening just narrowly Resilience and Renewal more frequently now. project began in 2018. “I think there are a avoided “Flood protection, couple of reasons for catastrophic protecting the land that,” said Johnson. from erosion, and “One is that in the Gulf failure…” bringing the focus back of Maine, the sea level onto the river, all those is rising faster than it is —Tora Johnson things are interwoven in other places, so we’re into [the project],” said seeing an increase in the Machias Town Manager height of the water.” The other is the frequency and direction of Christine Therrien. Public hearings, surveys, and intense storms. “Statistically, one or two of these economic analysis went into phase one, happening in ten years, you’d think, which was completed in 2018 using ‘Yeah, bad luck.’ But five of these? We funds from a Maine Coastal Program think no, this is a trend,” said Johnson. grant. Now in phase two, the town has

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For the second time in four months, the Maine Department of Transportation used snowplows to remove tidal debris from the Machias dike, which was nearly covered in water during a storm on April 9. PHOTO: SARAH CRAIGHEAD DEDMON

Timbers initially laid for a 19th-century railway were exposed in an April storm which wiped away wide swaths of the Downeast Sunrise Trail. PHOTO: TORA JOHNSON

applied for a Small Harbor Improvement Program grant to raise the elevation of its boat landing, a low point where the river often backs up onto Main Street. Using a $200,000 pre-disaster mitigation planning grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the town recently awarded Baker Design Consultants the task of creating the project’s final design. Johnson and her students also are using funds from the grant to assess “living shoreline” suitability for Machias Bay, including the Machias waterfront. “There are different ways of stabilizing shoreline. You can stabilize it using a seawall, a berm, or just plants,” said Johnson. “But only certain techniques work in certain places.” A seawall is a vertical or nearvertical wall, and a berm is a sloping lump of raised ground. The current plan for downtown flood protection is a combination of seawalls and berms,

the latter of which can be planted with grasses, but which would be more engineered than a typical living shoreline solution. If all goes well, phase three will construct the town’s flood protection solution, which would extend along the river behind Main Street, constructed where wharf timbers are still visible at low tide, remnants of Machias’ heyday as a lumber town. Therrien and others believe a riverside walkway built on top of the floodwalls could inject new life into the Machias economy. But if project funds won’t extend that far, Therrien says flood protection is the top priority. “I’ve been saying to the board of selectmen that this is absolutely an imperative project,” she said. “While I truly want the river walk for people to enjoy, the flood protection has got to happen for the businesses downtown and the long-term health of downtown. We have to start now.”

. APRIL . June2020 WWW.WORKINGWATERFRONT.COM www.workingwaterfront.com 2020

BookisRback eview Offshore wind in motion

Regulators, developer explain process to fishermen

Carolyn Chute returns with character-rich novel

By Tom Groening

scenic character, air and water quality, or other natural resources in the area of the turbine. A project also must conform to the federal Natural Resources Protection Act, Livesay said, and not “unreasonably interfere” with recreation or navigation, or harm estuarine or marine fisheries. A developer also must provide a navigation plan, a fish and wildlife plan, and a removal plan. Brian Hookerusofthat theimportant Bureau ofcharacters Ocean Energy She reassures will Management (BOEM) outlined the eventually become obvious: “Don’tfederal twist role yourin offshore wind. BOEM’s jurisdiction in the”waters head trying to keep every characterlies straight. She that are three to 200 miles off state land. The multialso provides a “List of Icons,” with line drawings includes ofphased, images multi-year linked with approval what theyprocess symbolize. For planning and analysis, assessments of waters example, a dollar sign represents “the voice and of wind potential, andshape construction and operation. Mammon, ” a cloud is “cyberspace, ” and a BOEM is reviewing Vineyard project crown signals voices of the women at theWind Settlement, in Massachusetts, and Hooker said a fi nal decision “usually speaking to us from the future.” isThere expected by of thethese end icons, of the and year.they Theserve National are 20 to Marine Fisheries Service is partsome of thecontext review for proorganize the book, providing cess and is represented on a task force thatisincludes what situation, time, voice, or location being representatives from Maine, New Hampshire, and referenced. A chapter often has more than ten Massachusetts. of these, meaning a lot of disparate characters, Annie Responsible Offshore Develplaces, andHawkins plot linesofare in play, somewhat loosely opment Alliance, a Washington D.C.-based adwoven together. vocacy group formed to protect fi shery interests Despite those icons and character list, I have in admit offshore wind development, said her over groupthe into I often felt lost or confused cludes 170 duration of members. the book’s 745 pages. (The quarantine Regulators musttime consider she was good for that, to readfiashing very interests, long book.) said, and “We don’t feel that’s been done very well What Chute prioritizes is sharing a lot of very to date.” Developers use a “divide and conquer” provocative and controversial thoughts here. approach, separating states and projects to weak(Well, consider the book’s title.) enThese opposition. are ideas and history we may not have “We’re trying to takeShe the dialoguereaders back,” been exposed to in school. challenges Hawkins said. to step outside their comfort zone and question Fred Mattera, has fished for 40 years subjects from Port stereotypes andwhoassumptions about Judith, R.I., urged fi shermen to document where like Maine’s rural poverty versus coastal wealth, they work now to make the case for mitigation polygamy, gun ownership, capitalism, mandatory if they are displaced by wind turbines. education, and intentional communities. Chute “You must stay engaged,” said. or editors, has said she doesn’t write forhereaders, Beth Casoni, director of the or reviewers; she says it as she sees itMassachusetts and doesn’t Lobstermen’s Association, echoed that view, sayworry about others’ reactions. ing “comments matter” during public review, citChute’s quotes from “Critical Thinkers of the Past” ing a an project area off the State that was (icon: opened book) canBay serve to direct thereduced reader by 65 percent because of articulated concerns. to learning more, from thinkers like Thoreau, John This “Mother” spring, UMaine’s Ward said, theAngela project Milton, Jones, George Santayana, will hire a fi sheries liaison. Davis, and Yogi Berra. Not only is Chute clearly

T Icons, thinkers, and heroes populate the sprawling work he perception that Maine’s forays into offshore wind power have been on hold aren’t quite accurate, said Jake Ward of the University of Maine. Under the name New England Aqua Ventus I, the university is pursuing siting a floating wind turbine off Monhegan Island as a test for possible further development. “Someone this morning said this is coming fast,” Ward said of the university’s bid, speaking at a session of the Maine Fishermen’s Forum in Rockport on March 5. In fact, he has been involved in the pursuit of offshore wind power since 2007. “This is not coming fast,” he deadpanned. “I had kids when this started. Now I have grandkids.” Several years ago, UMaine had pursued—as Maine Aqua Ventus—siting two floating wind turbines off Monhegan to learn more about the floating technology and the potential to produce electricity. To that end, a one-eighth sized floating turbine was deployed off Castine in 2013, and has since been retrieved. Ward said the project is now operating as New England Aqua Ventus, and is seeking to site a single, 6-megawatt floating turbine. Late last year, the federal Department of Energy awarded the project $1.4 million for design, and the Maine Public Utilities Commission voted to approve a 20-year agreement for Central Maine Power to purchase electricity generated by the turbine. Offshore wind is the largest untapped energy resource “by far,” Ward said. He explained how the floating turbine structure will use pre-cast concrete segments. “We’re very confident it will survive” in the maThe Recipe for Revolution rine environment, he said. Carolyn “Anything happening Chute (2020) in the Gulf of Maine is going to be floating.” Still, permitting remains to be secured. Fishing interests will be included in weighing proposals, regulators fishing advocates urged those Review bysaid, Tinabut Cohen present to be vigilant. Nick the state Department of Envin theLivesay world ofofcontemporary Maine literature, ronmental Protection said the project off MonheCarolyn Chute is a prolific and highly original ganauthor. will fall under state jurisdiction. Th e site locaBest known for her first novel, tion law would hold sway, he said, which ensures subsequently made into a movie, The Beans of there be no adverse ectwritten on existing uses, Egypt,will Maine (1985), she eff has six more

I

well-educated (who needs diplomas to prove that?), but she is a gifted writer, with inventive language since then. Born in Portland in 1947, she rejected formal and inventive structure in her books. It was in a sentence from the last chapter, where schooling and dropped out of both high school and college, but she has taught college classes and a main character, Claire, is examining a shiny ring left on a windowsill by a regularly visiting crow, won literary awards. Living for a number of years now in rural that I realized what I love about Chute is her western Maine with her husband, she is a lyricism: “Oh, but the pearls melt her heart most; she envisions them being ‘birthed’ strong supporter of the Second patiently by the humble majesty Amendment and gun ownership According to National Institute for OccupaBy Wanda Curtis ofthesuch helpless funny-looking rights and a founding member tional Safety and Health, commercial fi shing creatures as oysters pinnedis one intoof of several citizen groups, the 2nd the most dangerous occupations in the U.S. Its data he Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association place by the cruel but blessed Maine Militia and the Border shows that commercial fi shermen experienced a fahas won a $5,000 grant to promote mental power of the sea.” Mountain Militia. What Chute tality rate of 114 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivahealth awareness in the commercial fi shIt reminds me of the kind of Considered a populist political prioritizes lentisworkers between 2017. That compares ing industry. writing2000 I feeland Emily Dickinson was activist, she describes herself in a to an average of four deaths per 100,000 full-time Monique Coombs, director of marine programs sharing a lot of referring to when she wrote, “If I “New Democracy” newsletter in U.S. workers. for the“Inonprofi t, said will be used to de- equivalents among feel all physically as if the top of my 2000: especially likethe thefunds stories very provocative Common hazards include vessel disasters, velop informational materials to assist commercial head were taken off, I knowfalls thatoveris of heroic deeds by ordinary board, and a variety of onboard gear and equipment fipeople shermen in managing stress, anxiety, and depresand controversial poetry.” And Chute’s book works . when they have faced Coombs saidbest, fishing is a very industry, sion, wellcruelties as materials menI think, seen isolating as that: an epic downasthe and showing injusticeshow to staythoughts… with some fi shermen out on the water and away from tally fi t. A website with phone numbers for fi sherpoem full of exultant descriptions of the elite.” families for days at a time, which adds to stress. men to reach out for help may also be in the works. of heroic actions. Chute’s newest novel certainly “Depression, anxiety, thoughtswhen of suicide Thethat grantfocus. was awarded the Fisher Recipes and we consult we has The by Recipe for Charitable Trust. are not uncommon in any fi shing community, Coombs said fi shermen may be experiencing cook require work, time, andno Revolution (2020) is third in coast you are Here, on,” said stress due to changes “four-ojilly” in the industry over which matter which ingredients. I’d Coombs. say, The“It her self-described is an isolating, dangerous occupation, full book of unthey have no control. e ever-present dangeron in Recipe for Revolution takes time as the of overlapping books,Thfollowing The School certainty and expense.” the work also adds stress. Heart’s Content Road (2008) and Treat Us Like is long, and work as the book can be tediously The grant she said, buttheit’s “It’sand not We fishing produces stress for fiInsherButis just witha beginning, Chute’s ingredients, Dogs Willthat Become Wolves (2014). an detailed. a step toward bringing issues into the openmix: to be men,” she said. “Many of them love being out on author’s note, Chute says they do not need to be resulting concoction is a tantalizing addressed. Th e hope is to humanize the fi shing the water. It’s dealing with a lot of uncertainty due read in a certain order, that each book stands humorous, instructive, clever, and colorful. industry and make the public aware of stressors to things like“Author’s climate and changes, alone. And Noteregulation 2” explains there isand a fishermen day.resident of Vinalhaven. how those things are going to impact their busicharacter list at the back of the book. Tina Cohenface is a every seasonal Alex Todd, a 10th generation fisherman from ness and income.”

Fishermen’s group wants to raise mental health awareness Changing climate, resources, danger produce stress

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Chebeague Island, said changing regulations, such as those concerning right whale protections, are among the biggest stressors for him. “There’s also a lot less mobility between fisheries today due to licensing issues, which makes things more stressful, too,” he added. “I know some fishermen have gotten therapy and it’s helped them, but many are reluctant to admit they need help. “I get relief from stress by going to the gym or playing my guitar, but everybody is different,” Todd said. “I appreciate what the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association is trying to do by drawing attention to these issues.”

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The Working Waterfront . June 2020

Rock Bound

Economy should focus on entrepreneurs State’s strategy must be less reactive, less complacent By Tom Groening IF YOU HAD TO describe Maine’s economy to someone who had never visited, what would you say? The caveat, of course, is the answer should reflect the state of the economy on, say, Jan. 1, not today. Another question, admittedly nearly impossible to answer, is: What will Maine’s economy look like six months from today? As devastating, tragic, and profoundly sad the virus has been for victims, their families, and health care workers, we now must consider the impact this crisis will have on our economic life. Just as most of us did not imagine the severity of the pandemic when we first learned of it, understanding the degree of economic disruption may also be underestimated. But back to my first question: What was our economy like? My thesis is that it was, and has been, opportunistic, reactive, complacent, and vulnerable. That’s not to say that state government and other institutions have been asleep at the wheel. Most of those who try to manage economies take what they can get, and make informed judgments in doing so. A restaurant owner, for example, in a town with several seafood restaurants, might be wise to tout the

pasta or vegetarian options instead of lobster. That’s being opportunistic. In the post-World War II era, Maine found its niche in manufacturing shoes, paper, lumber, and ships; processing agricultural products like potatoes, milk, and chicken; and sourcing fish— from sardines, to cod, to lobster—to other markets. It wasn’t foolish to support these industries. They were labor intensive, for the most part not seasonal, and the resources that powered them were largely renewable. Tourism, too, began to emerge when Americans became mobile with reliable cars and roads, trending upward from the war years through the 20th century. If opportunistic is a strategy that’s defensible, reactive is not. Paper companies first built mills in river towns because the logs were delivered via water from up north. Then, when trucks and trains delivered the wood, the rivers were convenient conduits for waste. For decades, Maine state government looked the other way on restricting this environmental assault. The jobs—which were plentiful and high-paying—were too valuable, so the reaction was to appease, not regulate paper mills. If we regulate, the thinking went, they’ll leave. Of course, many left

anyway, some because trees grew faster in warmer climates, and others because of the global decline in paper use. On the local level, this scenario played out more obviously, and maybe more shamefully. Too often, we’ve had a deferential attitude toward business, and instead, we should be confident of the assets we offer. Maine tends to be complacent, too, about the successes of today, whether it’s tourism, a booming lobster fishery, or military contracts at Bath Iron Works. Conditions on the global level can change—fast, as we now know. So what is the better way? As noted above, we must be opportunistic in the best sense of the word. What do we have, in a realistic self-assessment, that others want? I believe our best shot, especially coming out of a downturn, is to create an economic environment that fosters entrepreneurialism. A young person with a great idea for a new service or product might try to launch in Boston, where the stakes are high—high rent, high labor costs, and a highly competitive market. But bring that same young person to Belfast, Damariscotta, Falmouth, or Biddeford, and the plan can hatch and grow in a more nurturing environment.

The vast majority of businesses in Maine employ fewer than 50, which means this is where the action is. So what can be done to create that nurturing environment? A short list includes: · building broadband networks · growing the University of Maine, the University of Southern Maine, and the community college system into a statewide powerhouse with a presence in more small towns · tax credits for student loan payments (even if the education was out of state) · offering tax incentives for employee ownership · investing in the vibrancy of downtowns. I don’t know how badly bruised—or broken—our economy will be in the next six months, but I am confident that people will still be trying to build a better mousetrap. Why not invite them to do it here? Tom Groening is editor of The Working Waterfront.

Reflections

Yearning for a place that’s the same Virus will remake the places we love Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.

By Ellie Mason FOR YEARS NOW, I have been turning the term “solastalgia” over in my mind. Coined by the Australian eco-philosopher Glenn Albrecht, solastalgia, in its simplest form, is about missing a loved place that still exists but to which the old birds and plants and animals no longer come. It is a yearning for a place you still inhabit, but has been irrevocably changed, usually due to a physical disturbance. Just last week, I went storm chasing during a super moon full tide and watched the waves crash against the shoreline, eventually flooding the narrow road right along the ocean’s edge. I thought about growing up as a child of Maine’s islands, about leaving Maine for college, and about ultimately coming home. I grew up on Mount Desert Island, where the mountains meet the sea and

where you can hike a peak to escape the the same, what will change, and what crowded summer traffic below while will look different in a month or a year? In St. George, the town I live and work picking wild blueberries alongside the trail. It’s a place that only too well in, there are markers of the community that I have come to know and love. The knows the cycles of seasonal change. There is a mystery intrinsically tied to marsh trail where I can look for birds the places we inhabit so dearly, a sort of and evidence of nocturnal animals. The unknowing about what is coming next, library community room where I can but a comfort in knowing the places we always count on seeing a familiar face. drive and walk by each day look enough Or the neighborhood access paths that the same as they did yesterday. Right cut through private property that has now, in late April, I am eagerly awaiting graciously been opened for foot traffic to spring—a consistent spring—where the beautiful secret patches of shoreline. I think the best thing we can do for each weather is warm enough to read a book other and for ourselves is by the water, or to not to acknowledge the worry worry that all the school’s and the uncertainty and garden seedlings will die I leave my to live in companionship in an overnight frost. with it. What I mean is, I leave my window window open we are all yearning for open each night just each night just the places we still inhabit hoping to hear the spring peepers as they hoping to hear the even though they are irrevocably changing. But crawl their way out of spring peepers… we are also yearning for winter hibernation. a hopeful future where As spring makes her things look the way they slow way home, I keep journal pages cataloguing all the new did only a few months ago. During this first year of my fellowship shades of green I see on my daily walks. I worry, too. I worry about what will I have grappled with understanding happen next. What places will remain how my sense of place has changed. To

be honest, I’m not sure it has changed much except I love things in a bigger way now. I love the way the trees look when the fog rolls in, and the crook of the harbor where there’s a house with an old bathtub in the front yard, and I love jumping in the puddles on the school trail with students after a big November rainstorm. I want to exist in tandem with the changing seasons and the changes of the world, to appreciate the colors of spring and to acknowledge the ephemeral nature of each day—that this day might be the only day I ever see the sunset light up the clouds in that shade of purple. Ellie Mason serves as an Island Fellow in St. George through the William Bingham Fellowship in Rural Education. She works with the St. George School and Blueberry Cove on a sustainable afterschool program. A graduate of Smith College, Mason majored in arts in environmental science and policy.

www.workingwaterfront.com . June 2020

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Down by the River—

This image from the Library of Congress shows Sewall’s Bridge and York Country Club, photographed or printed in 1908. If readers have information to share about this photo, please contact Tom Groening, editor, at tgroening@islandinstitute.org.

Op-Ed

Appreciate local food producers—especially now Seafood harvesters, growers: as close to home as it gets By Sebastian Belle TIMES LIKE THIS make one remember what really matters in life. They cause us to refocus on core values and reflect on the essentials: family, friends, and food. In an age of super stores and online shopping, food seems to magically appear with ease, and in huge variety. That variety matters when we are all cooking at home and trying to find healthy and simple ways to feed our families. The folks who actually produce that food are often forgotten, hidden by efficient delivery channels and the various places we buy our food. But those folks matter, and they are working incredibly hard, often in the face of increased personal risk to bring you that food. With increasing concerns about the movement of people and products around the world, local food production is more important than ever. We are lucky in Maine, where a significant portion of our food is produced almost literally in our own backyard. A great example of that is Maine seafood. Although over 80

Island Institute Board of Trustees

Emily B. Lane, Chair Tom Tinsley Vice Chair Charles Owen Verrill, Jr. Secretary Douglas Henderson, Treasurer, Finance Chair Donna Wiegle, Programs Chair Kristin Howard, Development Chair Bryan Lewis, Governance Chair Michael P. Boyd, Clerk Natalie Ames Sebastian Belle Shey Conover David Cousens Megan McGinnis Dayton Michael Felton Luke Holden Nathan Johnson Michael Sant Barbara Kinney Sweet Kate Vogt Carol White John Bird (honorary) Louis W. Cabot (honorary)

percent of the seafood consumed in Historically, most seafood in the the United States is imported, Maine’s U.S. has been consumed in restaurants. commercial fishermen and ocean The Maine restaurant scene and our local chefs do an farmers have been amazing job of creating producing local, healthy wonderful dishes with seafood for generations. our local seafood. But Those same fishermen like other businesses, and ocean farmers Remember that restaurants are operate under some of the very definition many temporarily closed. the strictest regulations of “local” is “in As ocean farmers, our and policies in the world. hearts go out to the chefs Occasionally you will your backyard.” and restaurants that are hear public discussion hanging on through about what we should be these tough times. With allowed to do or where the restaurant sector we should be allowed to do it. Those are fair questions, and temporarily shut down, markets for Maine has a rigorous regulatory and local seafood products have taken permitting system to ensure that a huge hit. Like many others who everyone has a chance to ask questions, depend on small businesses, working express concerns, and that the waterfront families and the coastal environment is protected. Sometimes communities they support are you might hear coastal landowners struggling to make ends meet. Let’s do our part to support them expressing concerns about impacts on the view or the noise or smells associated by purchasing local seafood. Take with working farms “in their backyard.” it home and experiment with a new As you hear those discussions, dish or recipe. Celebrate local food remember that the very definition and the folks who produce it for you of “local” is “in your backyard.” literally in your backyard. As you do

THE WORKING WATERFRONT

Published by the Island Institute, a non-profit organization that works to sustain Maine's island and coastal communities, and exchanges ideas and experiences to further the sustainability of communities here and elsewhere. All members of the Island Institute and residents of Maine island communities receive monthly mail delivery of The Working Waterfront. For home delivery: Join the Island Institute by calling our office at (207) 594-9209 E-mail us: membership@islandinstitute.org • Visit us online: www.islandinstitute.org/membership

that, remember that if the view is a little less pristine or the boat a little noisier than you like, those working waterfronts are helping provide local healthy food that would otherwise have to be imported. Finally, remember that those farms and fishing operations are helping support local jobs, schools, and keeping your taxes down. We are all in this together. By supporting local food producers, you will help make Maine stronger and ensure that the next generation will be able to continue in Maine’s maritime heritage. Visit our website—www.maineaqua. org/directory—to find farm fresh Maine seafood near you or visit us on Instagram to see short videos on easy seafood recipes. Full recipes are available at: www.maineaqua.org/recipes. Sebastian Belle is executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, based in Hallowell. He also serves on the board of trustees of the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.

Editor: Tom Groening

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The Working Waterfront . June 2020

Governor’s order would kill Bar Harbor business, say owners MDI-based tourism generated $387 million in 2018

This file image shows Bar Harbor’s town landing, with the Bar Harbor Inn at center. PHOTO: TOM GROENING

By Jacqueline Weaver

B

ar Harbor business owners, from restaurants and shops to hotels and vacation rentals, are reeling from an executive order by Gov. Janet Mills that effectively prohibits out-of-staters from traveling to Maine this summer. An estimated 37 million tourists arrive in Maine each summer and many are from states currently or recently “hot spots” for the coronavirus— Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. “People are understandably livid,” said Eben Salvatore, operations manager for Bar Harbor Hotels, which owns four hotels in Bar Harbor with a total of 700 rooms. “You can’t say for sure that letting people from New York vacation here is going to cost people their lives. But I can guarantee you canceling our summer season will cost people their livelihoods.”’ Bar Harbor has more than 400 businesses, 4,000 hotel and motel rooms, more than 1,000 vacation rentals, and hundreds of camping sites. The National Park Service estimated tourism in the Bar Harbor area generated $387.7 million for the local economy in 2018. No tourists are allowed in Maine until June 1, and then the state restricts entry to Maine residents only or anyone who has already completed a 14-day quarantine. In July and August, guests from out of state can travel to Maine but must quarantine for 14 days. Salvatore, like many others in the hospitality industry, was holding out hope that Mills would change her mind.

“There will be losses, inevitable practices ranging from staying home losses,” Mills said in making her if vacationers have symptoms of the virus or have recently been exposed to announcement April 28. As of May 11, Maine had 1,462 someone who is infectious to coughing confirmed cases of the virus and 65 into a tissue and disposing of it in a wastepaper basket. There also are best deaths. Bar Harbor Hotels includes the Bar practices for employees and patronizing Harbor Regency; Harborside Hotel, tourist attractions. Jeff Dobbs, chairman of the Bar Spa & Marina; West Street Hotel; and the Day’s Inn. Salvatore said July and Harbor Town Council, said tourist dependent businesses August tourism account were resigned to the fact for up to 75 percent of the they might lose May and annual revenue for many June, but never thought seasonal businesses. The Bar Harbor “I can guarantee they would not be allowed Chamber of Commerce you canceling our to take in visitors from out of state because of the 14urged Mills to reconsider, summer season day quarantine. saying the financial “If she continues with impact would deal a will cost people this mandate, no one is “catastrophic blow” to their livelihoods.” going to come,” he said. “It many small businesses, does not make any sense families and employees —Eben Salvatore to pay lots of money to that depend on hosting stay in a hotel room for a visitors. few weeks. I haven’t heard “The idea that we of anyone who is happy could survive until 2021 on a partial and limited season is about this. A lot of them who have unsustainable, as there are no other called me are scared, as I am.” Dobbs owns the advertiser-backed opportunities,” said Alf Anderson, executive director of the chamber. “The Acadia Channel, a local cable channel small businesses of Bar Harbor, and the that alerts tourists to area attractions. state of Maine, deserve the opportunity He said this change, if it goes into effect, to provide a safe visitor experience that would effectively end his 40-year-old business. will give us the opportunity to survive.” The council is considering closing Earlier on the day Mills made her announcement, the chamber portions of two streets and adding picnic sent a proposal to Heather Johnson, tables to make it more comfortable for commissioner of the Maine Department visitors to order take out. “Distancing is of Economic and Community the key to this thing,” Dobbs said. Julie Veilleux, owner of Window Development, outlining its plans to Panes, which offers higher end home provide a safe experience for visitors. The plan included hand sanitizing goods and gifts, said her business stations at many locations around town; usually begins to ramp up in April. a “visitor code of conduct” outlining safe The governor’s order allows most

retail businesses to open June 1 with restrictions on in-store capacity limits. Like many business owners, Veilleux was preparing to compensate for the expected reduced number of visitors by putting up a new website and offering curbside pickup of online purchases. “In this day and age, we have to adapt and be flexible to get a piece of whatever is out there,” she said. Todd Graham, general manager of Acadia Corp., and a Chamber of Commerce board member, said his company has seven retail stores, one of which is an ice cream shop. “This is onerous on everybody,” he said, adding that he was monitoring information for any possible changes at the state level. “We look forward for all of us to get through this and stay as whole as we possibly can.” Susanne Hathaway is one of three owners of Cafe This Way, a popular seasonal eatery that opened in 1997 and serves breakfast and dinner starting around Mother’s Day. She and her partners are taking a wait and see approach to the expected dramatic decline in visitors from out of state. They are thinking hard about ways to innovate, and plan to hold two pop up dinners from a food truck on June 12 and June 26. The first dinner will be farm to table using food from Mandala Farm in Gouldsboro. “We’re taking baby steps right now,” said Hathaway. “We’re already in the restaurant business so we’re used to being stressed out. Whoever survives in the end are the people with the deepest pockets and who are the most popular. I have a really solid relationship with my partners, but we are coming from three levels of panic, so we take turns. You have to laugh or you’ll cry.”

. April . June2020 www.workingwaterfront.com www.workingwaterfront.com 2020

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Wyatt, a student on the Cranberry Isles, uses the newspaper to highlight words with the “ch” and “th” sounds. PHOTO: CHRISTA THORPE

‘An abundance of awesome’ for students in local papers Educators turn to newspapers for lessons in writing, research By Christa Thorpe

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n the past few months, teachers all over the globe have seen their email inboxes flooded with educational resources for remote instruction. One teacher’s Twitter comment received nearly 2,000 sympathetic reactions: “Anyone else feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the resources shared—it is an abundance of awesome for sure but not quite sure how to navigate it.” Monhegan Island teacher Mandy Metrano echoed that sentiment in an April webinar about teaching remotely following the closure of Maine classrooms due to COVID-19. Free online resources were suddenly pouring in from educational companies and other teachers. “It was a lot to sift through. By no means could I explore them all,” Mentrano said. Yvonne Thomas, education specialist at the Island Institute (publisher of The Working Waterfront), echoed that view. “The overall feeling is one of both appreciation and overwhelm,” she noted. Teachers here are looking for Maine-based resources that students can use regardless of internet access. The Island Institute’s education team has been hearing for years about ways that coastal and island teachers utilize The Working Waterfront and other free local publications with their students. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to reach out and ask educators how and why they use the paper. Gerald Here“Punkin” is some Lemoine of what we learned:

Martin, Staples, and Elsiefor Gillespie around woodstove at the annual town meeting. Courtney John Naliboff, a Bud regular columnist The chat class. In thethe “Newspaper Detective” station, armed with Working Waterfront, teaches writing classes at North highlighters, students scan the paper for certain patterns. Haven Community School. “I use The Working At Rockland’s Midcoast School of Technology, Waterfront a lot,” Naliboff says. “Any time I’m teaching Sue Stewart teaches Technical Communications to research-based or non-fiction narrative writing—it’s prepare her students for the workforce, and the local really important to have access to good anchor texts.” Village Soup newspaper is a valuable tool. Students are For non-fiction narrative, Naliboff offers her own assigned to look up a real job ad and work their way columns as examples, appreciating both the free through the details to craft a cover letter and resumé as access and ease of searching the archives online. For if they were applying for the job. It’s local and relevant research-based writing examples, Naliboff likes that to students—like The Working Waterfront, which students see the types of sources they can access. Those Stewart says her students use often for research papers. interviewed in the stories are people the students “I’ve got a lot of kids that lobster. Whenever rules know or can recognize—town managers, fishermen, and regulations come up, kids use the paper as a source road workers, DMR officials, ferry attendants. for persuasive essays,” Stewart said. “The perspectives Locally relevant anchor texts are more likely to in the articles help reinforce students’ arguments or engage students. force them to re-evaluate their opinions.” “Like my column about bridges on North Haven,” Hannah Noyes of Vinalhaven sums up the value of said Nabiloff. “Students have a lot of opinions on that local papers well. A recent graduate of Connecticut issue, sometimes critiquing who I did and didn’t talk College, Noyes was active on the editorial team of the to, leading to discussion of how sources really change college paper. She found local storytelling a helpful way the tone, and that can help them think critically about to channel the often daunting and overwhelming effect what they read.” of exposure to so many global perspectives and issues. Naliboff has also used examples from the paper “Local publications are so important because they for how to write a good “hook.” Christina Marsden bring global issues closer to home. When students Gillis’s essay about finding a shoe in the wall of an realize the topics they’re studying are relevant to old house provided this one: “Its sole gouged with their own communities, they feel better able to holes, the leather top cracked and ripped, the shoe, engage with the issues themselves,” she said. “It gives Moulden aLevi woman’s, had been hidden in the west wall of an them a voice.” upstairs bedroom in our Gotts Island house.” On the Cranberry Isles, Haley Estabrook uses print Christa Thorpe works on education and broadband as a Bud Staples copies of The Working Waterfront in her K-4 literacy community development officer with the Island Institute.

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The Working Waterfront . June 2020

Wyeth country

Port Clyde, St. George Peninsula, where fishing and art collide

Photo essay by Kelli Park Port Clyde’s history includes granite quarries, lumber mills, shipbuilding, and fish canning. Later, it was a draw for painters and writers, such as N.C. Wyeth, his son Andrew, and grandson Jamie; Sarah Orne Jewett wrote The Country of the Pointed Firs in St. George.

www.workingwaterfront.com . June 2020

Marshall Point Lighthouse was featured in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, as star Tom Hanks was seen running up its distinctive walkway. Today, tourism, including one of the boats that runs to Monhegan Island, dominate. One notable summer resident on nearby Hupper Island is Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

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The Working Waterfront . June 2020

Our Island Communities Guest Column—

Our island communities value our seasonal residents, but we worry

Islands Downeast and in Casco Bay prepare for summer with concerns

A summer scene on Cliff Island in Casco Bay (top). A view of the harbor on Swan’s Island (left). PHOTOS: JACK SULLIVAN

By Roger Berle and Donna Wiegle

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s co-chairs of the Maine Islands Coalition (MIC), we feel the need to collaboratively present our perspective on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting our island communities. And that is this: the pandemic has already landed on our islands, and we now wonder what we will we do if and when our 2020 summer visitors also descend upon us. Since 2003, the MIC, a collaboration of the 15 unbridged Maine island communities, has convened quarterly meetings to address issues either in common or unique to one island. Staff from the Rockland-based nonprofit Island Institute provide support for the group. Since the onset of the virus, the MIC has met more frequently, but now via Zoom. We invite municipal leaders, state legislators, and staff from our congressional delegation. Special guests have included the director of the Maine Office of Tourism, who spoke about visitor and lodging issues, as well as members of the media to discuss our concerns with the prospective seasonal arrival of residents and guests. Each island, no matter how small, depends in large part on tourism and tax dollars from summer residents and guests to keep its economy going. Normally, the influx of summer residents, renters, and day-trippers can be challenging enough to manage, but facing a summer season without this segment of our normal population during the pandemic brings many unknowns. Islanders feel they live in one of the safest places to weather a pandemic. But how safe will it be when summer residents begin to return en masse when they want to escape their own COVID-active communities? Swan’s Island lies Down East, far from “city” access.

Cliff Island, in Casco Bay, has easy ferry access to Portland. But in this moment, mainland access presents as many challenges as benefits for each of these semi-remote communities. Both islands have already seen a reduction in ferry runs due to low ridership. Both are trying to follow Gov. Mills’ “Stay Safer at Home” mandate. Both islands’ residents avoid mainland trips as much as possible to minimize exposure to or importing of the virus. On Swan’s Island, the small store is staying supplied, but as the population expands, it will be harder to keep up with demand. Swan’s Island increases from about 375 year-round residents to over 1,000 during the summer. Along with the store, EMS service, the health center, and the ferry, which all have limited capabilities, are stretched to near capacity. Safely providing for a significant increase in population during the pandemic seems daunting. Cliff Island currently has about 40 residents and would normally swell seasonally to over 200. The store operates in summer only. There is a wellness center and a handful of EMS personnel, but they are not allowed to assist on an emergency call until the city of Portland’s fireboat arrives with its own EMTs. Everyone is on edge, even while being both conscious of and conscientious about risking others’ health.

We both certainly understand summer residents wanting to come to the islands they love—and to homes they own— to escape the stay-at-home mandates where they live, in states to the south. While we are sure that no one wants to be the person who brings the virus to an island, it has already happened; cases have already appeared on both Peaks Island and Vinalhaven. New arrivals will be expected both to make caretaker pre-arrangements and to arrive with a minimum of 14 days of supplies so they can selfquarantine. After that, they will be expected to follow whatever guidelines are in place—with masks and distancing. The summer and winter segments of our communities indisputably value and depend upon each other. But, while each of our islands looks forward to our becoming one winter-summer community again, the best thing one can do as a summer resident of, or visitor to, our islands is to stay away—and we ardently hope that that’s only for now—until it is safe for all of us to be together and actively, resiliently supporting each other once again. We will heartfully thank you for that. Donna Wiegle lives on Swan’s Island and Roger Berle lives seasonally on Cliff Island, and both serve as cochairs of the Maine Islands Coalition. For a sample of guidance to visitors from communities along the coast, please visit: www.islandinstitute.org/ coronavirus

www.workingwaterfront.com . June 2020

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McLean’s ‘Finding Our Voices’ reaches out Social isolation can exacerbate abuse

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slanders in abusive relationships, many more isolated than ever with the COVID-19 pandemic, are getting help through a new non-profit run by someone with strong ties to the Penobscot Bay islands. In April, Patrisha McLean, founder and president of Finding Our Voices, sent “SOS” mailers to every household on Islesboro, and hung banners in strategic windows on Islesboro and Vinalhaven, broadcasting to women trapped with angry and controlling boyfriends and husbands (as well as men in abusive relationships): “You are not alone” and “Help is available.” McLean’s 2015 book My Island celebrates the children of Islesboro, North Haven, and Vinalhaven. Her exhibit “Finding Our Voices: Breaking the Silence of Intimate Partner Abuse,” featuring faces and voices of 20 Maine survivors including Olivia Chilles of Vinalhaven, spent a month at both the North Haven and Islesboro community centers last summer. The mailers were fully funded by the Camden National Bank, with Islesboro included in a six-town, 6,000-household initiative of Camden, Rockport,

Lincolnville, Hope, and Appleton. The banner project encompasses 54 downtown businesses across the Midcoast, displaying 4-foot by 2-foot banners, each featuring a Maine survivor and the New Hope for Women hotline phone number in their streetfacing windows. McLean, whose ex-husband of 29 years pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges in 2016, said: “I can only imagine being in the situation I used to be in, but even more isolated, with the COVID-19 pandemic, and less chance to get even a break from being with my abuser due to the reduced ferry schedule, work furloughs, and no friends’ doors to be able to knock on.” On Islesboro, nurse Dorie Weir Henning arranged for the display of the banners at the ferry terminal and community center. On Vinalhaven, Phil Crossman with the support of Island CARES, posted the banners at Main Street businesses including the Marsden House boutique, Nightingale restaurant, Work Dock coffee shop, Island Spirits fine wine and food store, Island Creamery, Phineus Fogg clothing boutique, and Island’s Closet clothing and gift store.

One of the banners offering help from abusive relationships, posted on Vinalhaven.

For more information visit: www.FindingOurVoices.net

‘Plague! Plague! Cholera! Go back!’

Former Monhegan resident dramatically warned away tourists By Tom Walsh

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ike moths drawn to flame, artists of all stripes—painters, writers, sculptors—have been swarming coastal Maine for more than 100 years. Among painters, think Winslow Homer at Prout’s Neck, John Marin at Small Point, Andrew Wyeth at Cushing, and son Jamie on Monhegan Island. Among Jamie Wyeth’s fellow islanders was another, lesser-known painter, who summered on Monhegan from Central Park West in New York City. Between 1942 and 1979 he had been a Broadway stage headliner—17 productions—and between 1943 and 1979 a Hollywood film star, logging 25 films. Best known for his commanding stage presence as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof (think: “If I Were a Rich Man”), Zero Mostel also played a leading role in The Producers, a 1968 film that film critic Roger Ebert once described as “one of the funniest movies ever made.” Mostel found the western coastline of Monhegan to be a sanctuary that met his needs: isolated, inexpensive, and hard to get to. “He is ebullient,

Falstaffian, Chaucerian,” Martin Dibner wrote in Seacoast Maine: People and Places, a 1972 book illustrated with stunning black-and-white photographs by George A. Tice, including a studio portrait of Mostel at work in Maine. “His booming laughter can shatter plate glass,” Dibner wrote. “He was a damned good painter long before he became a damned good actor.” Among locals, some of whom like Mostel found from-away summer rusticators tedious at best, Mostel was known as capable of almost anything in public. He once persuaded the captain of the boat bringing him to Monhegan to lash him to the mast. “With his eyes rolled back and his tangled beard waving in the wind, he could not have failed (except for his reassuring bulk) to remind the astonished crowd of a crazed though oddly rabbinical Ancient Mariner. “He admits to occasional lapses of propriety that sometimes startle the unwary observer but never failed to relieve the monotony,” Dibner wrote. “And in his more profound and theatrical moments, he has been known to stand on the crowded boat landing as the Laura B. comes alongside with yet another

boatload of tourists, waving it off, shouting ‘Plague! Plague! Cholera! Go back!’” Tom Walsh is a more-than-less retired author, journalist, academic and historian. His seaside home overlooks Gouldsboro’s West Bay.

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The Working Waterfront . June 2020

Essay

The last sardine run— a childhood foretelling A former EPA lawyer contemplates threats to the ocean

Excerpted from Fighting Pollution and Climate Change: An EPA Veteran’s Guide, How to Join in Saving our Life on Planet Earth, by Richard W. Emory, Jr.; www.fightingpollutionbook.com; BookLocker Publishing, December 2019

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t the sounding of the horn, some women— permanent residents of our little town— grabbed their sharpest knives and rushed out their front doors. In the street they were joined by hungry cats, and excited children like me, eight years old and attracted to commotion. We all rushed down the road to the harbor to see coming in from the sea the sardine transport boat arriving at what we called “the fish factory.” Being halfway Downeast on the coast of Maine, the town women anticipated a rare payday. The year was 1949. After being lifted out of the hold of the transport boat, the little fish would travel down a long, watery sluice roofed over to keep out the gulls. Their cries were loudly calling their companions, arriving now in numbers enough to have eaten the entire catch, but only the boldest came in under the roof. Standing along the sluice, the aproned women sliced, sorted, packed, and threw enough scraps about so the town cats never left hungry. The smells, sights, and sounds—squawking, meowing, heavy motors running, the women talking and their knives flashing as they worked, water rushing down the sluice—were irresistible to me and the other town children there, too. Then the sardine carrier’s hold was emptied, all was packed, and “the fish factory” became empty and silent. The women returned to their homes. They put some cash in their dresser drawers and resumed preserving summer fruits and vegetables to keep in their cellars against the long, lean winter to come. All too soon it would be September, and I would be taken 600 miles south to my parents’ home in Baltimore. There, during another long school year in a big city, I would be wanting and waiting to return to my small town by the cold sea. Finally, June would come again, and I would return to live in my grandmother’s home at the harbor.

This image from the National Fisherman photo collection at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport shows men harvesting herring, or sardines, in the Midcoast.

Another summer had come to the coast of Maine, coming—these too may become just shimmering and then would come another, but the big sardine memories of a colorful way of life gone by. The mystery and beauty of the coast certainly boat never returned. Sometime in the 1950s, the fish factory was sold to become a boatyard for building affected me, and 40 years later I found myself serving and repairing the yachts and small pleasure boats of as our nation’s top lawyer for all EPA investigations of pollution crime. I concluded summer that were replacing yearmy career in 2011 with 17 years of round working boats. federal service worldwide, advising A way of life was shifting because other nations on U.S. strategies for of new realities. Fish-factory jobs implementing clean air and water were surely tough, low-paying, Another summer laws. Along the way I saw too and intermittent, and in 2010 the had come to the many man-made insults to nature, last Maine sardine factory closed. including oncoming climate chaos. Whether the year-round people of coast of Maine, Now our planet is in danger of the town considered this change to and then would losing its life. Paleontologists and be for the better or worse, I cannot geologists confirm that, since life on say. To me the arrival of the sardine come another, but Earth began a half-billion years ago, boat is a shimmering memory of the big sardine there have been five mass extinctions. big excitement during carefree and In at least four of the past extinctions, glorious summer days. But a way boat never carbon dioxide in the air exceeding the of life was ending, and in 1959 my returned. level of 1,000 parts per million caused childhood would end, too. the oceans to become poisoned with Long since I was so lucky to have deadly hydrogen sulfide. been a summer child living on the This chemical, being emitted Maine coast, I have wondered—why from the sea as gas, turned the air did the sardines disappear? Today, I contemplate the fish factory as a mystery of nature permanently green and killed most life on land. Yet we in relation to the impact of man. Now we know that continue with business as usual burning fossil fuels, around the world many fisheries have been exploited leaking methane and refrigerants. In these and other to the point of commercial extinction. Man-made ways, we are thoughtlessly damaging the air, the sea, plastics are being eaten by and killing marine animals, and the climate in the same ways as nature caused birds, and fish, and scientists say that in a few decades previous extinctions. Being the Earth’s most invasive species, today there will be a greater weight of plastics than fish in we are driving other creatures to extinction at an the sea. As the climate changes in Maine, it is possible unnatural rate. Without a sudden and complete in future decades that the lobsters and clams may switch to climate-friendly energy, in about 200 to 250 disappear like the sardines. In 50 years, for today’s years it is likely we will have poisoned the sky. On our children now on the Maine coast, digging at low present course, humanity will join in the man-made tide for clams, like seeing lobster boats going and sixth extinction now underway.

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Fishing isn’t for the faint of heart, or the weak of will By Tom Valleau

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o one can doubt that our commercial or you’re not. Some people have a knack for fishing industry is now suffering from focusing and getting the work done. For example, a fish processing building was a variety of problems, some long in the making and others quite recent. With each new under construction on the Portland waterfront development, Maine’s fishing prospects have recently. Some sheetrock needed to be moved but grown smaller, going back to the establishment the construction crew wasn’t around, so the owner in 1984 of the Hague Line, an imaginary line in of the business simply fired up the forklift and the Gulf of Maine that separates the United States moved it herself, and the workday went ahead. Lobster harvesters are now facing setbacks and its fishing rights from those of Canada. Maine’s groundfish landings have dropped caused by new tariffs, right whale rulings, by 90 percent since the heyday of the 1980s changing ocean temperatures, and now the and now the lobster fishery is beginning to see coronavirus. But they fish nevertheless. A little perseverance is what can make the difference problems, too. It’s enough to make you ask why someone between keeping a business alive or not. Dedication counts. There is a Maine fish house would even be in this business or stay in it, and yet we soldier onward, harvesting finfish, shellfish, that handles ten million pounds of product yearly baitfish, and even seaweed because, as the saying using a 12-person crew, and the general manager likes to come in every Sunday morning when the goes, that’s what we Maine people do. The world of commercial fishing that once was place is empty and quiet. That is when he mops the floors. made up of schooners, dories, People who make their living on handliners, and ice is now, in the water know in a deep sense that our time, populated by scientists, this is what they want to do with regulators, diplomats, landlords, It takes a certain their lives. They aren’t waiting for agencies, academics, ecosystem measure of courage the weather to get better or for prices managers, attorneys, researchers, observers, inspectors, marine to stay in this game, to rise. They go to work, believing they will find a way to succeed archeologists, big refrigerated because the odds through perseverance, resiliency, trucks, cargo jets and, of course, don’t look too good. determination, and optimism. the catchall: stakeholders. Lately a new interest has But there is an old saying in this appeared in America around the business: It all comes out of the cod concept of grit: who has it, what is end. This means that fishermen catching fish is the economic engine that drives it, where does it come from, why is it important, how is it connected to success. Sociologists now everything else. It takes a certain measure of courage to stay in study grit, behavioral psychologists try to explain this game, because the odds don’t look too good. it, and students in Ivy League business schools Where are the fish? Will you be allowed to catch read books about it. But Maine’s seafood people—resiliency and them? Who will buy them? How much will they pay? Still, the fishermen fuel up, ice up, check the grittiness personified—they are the ones who weather and head out. To them, this isn’t work; it’s write those books. life. They name their boats after their daughters. Tenacity is not taught in schools. Either you are Tom Valleau is president of the Portland Fish a tenacious person, one who can meet challenges, Exchange.

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The Working Waterfront . June 2020

Saltwater Cure

Now, everyone’s an islander

Skills needed for isolation have long been used on islands By Courtney Naliboff WELL, IT’S MAY as I’m writing this, and we’re still staying at home. I’ve got deer fences up around the vegetable gardens for the first time and a greenhouse on the way, and classes are ending a little early for students. Nebo and Calderwood are doing takeout occasionally. So it’s not all bad. As the quaran-times roll on, I’ve been interested to see how people in various communities adapt. And I’m realizing that the skills islanders develop through our relative isolation are completely relevant to these times. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that everyone’s an honorary islander right now! One skill that islanders have honed over time is the bulk grocery experience. Not that our island grocery stores don’t keep us fed, but sometimes you just need to load up on that specific brand of cereal, or enough Tofurkey slices to keep a kindergartener in lunches for a trimester. We’re very good at going in with a list, loading up on a month’s worth of necessaries, and getting the heck out in

time to catch the boat. Now, so are you! and islanders now share. Broadband Pull up the mask, follow the arrows, get access has gone from something that’s what you need (and lots of it), and get out. nice if you have it, to a necessity for Hannaford to go? Even better. work, school, and connecting with Islanders have appreciated curbside other human beings. If you lack pickup before it was cool. That reliable internet, it’s no longer just about the convenience underlying anxiety of of streaming Netflix not knowing when you (not that it ever really might get to the store was!); it’s now become again is always there One skill that an accessibility issue for for islanders, and now islanders have work and education. mainlanders can share Islanders have known the feeling. honed over time this for a long time, as Another aspect of island life that is the bulk grocery access to online classes and in some cases mainlanders now experience. remote work can be appreciate is the crucial for a sustainable canceled plan. We’re at island existence. But the mercy of the boat, now it’s the way the or the plane if we’re very brave and willing to spend the money. world connects. The pandemic has led to an increase My band missed two shows recently due to weather, and I heard a little in online content, something islanders skepticism from some music friends especially appreciate. I was able to that a “canceled boat” was even a “attend” a Deerhoof listening party thing. But now, everything is canceled! and the Space Gallery book launch for Phuc Tran’s memoir Sigh, Gone, in Welcome to island living! A reliance on really good internet April, neither of which I would have is another thing that mainlanders been able to go to in person.

There’s no replacement for live, inperson events, but I really enjoyed and appreciated being able to be a part of both of those. I’ve also watched a lot of livefrom-home local music, which again, is not a replacement for going to a venue, but it’s certainly better than nothing and is keeping creative communication alive when it feels the most challenging and the most important. Maybe the remote access element of events will continue when distancing is eased, which would make it possible for islanders and others to participate when it’s not feasible to really be there. Welcome to island living, everyone! Maybe when things are back to “normal,” if that is where we wind up, ensuring access to food, remote work, and learning, broadband will nudge a little higher on the nation’s priority list. Islanders certainly wouldn’t complain. Courtney Naliboff teaches, plays music, and parents on North Haven.

Journal of an Island Kitchen

Finding yeast on sourdough island

Sourdough and soured dough are different, but both useful By Sandy Oliver IN KITCHENS ACROSS the country, and certainly here on Islesboro, little containers of flour, water, and yeasts bubble away, giving rise to loaves of homemade bread and lots of conversations between experienced sourdough users and newcomers to the craft. A yeast shortage caused this. The world, of course, has lots of yeast, no shortage in nature which makes tons of wild yeast, in all kinds of fruits and grains. We, however, like to bake with the captured kind, grown deliberately then sold trapped in, and raring to get out of, little packets, or jars, now nearly as rare as toilet paper. But the coronavirus caught yeast manufacturers flatfooted. Online news magazine Slate reported that one reason for a yeast shortage is, according to John Heilman, a Fleischman’s spokesman, “From a molasses (fed to yeast) standpoint and growing the yeast itself, there’s plenty of capacity. Where we wound up maxed out is our ability to package.” The facility in India where the company gets its jars was closed in response to the virus, Heilman said, and material for paper packets has also run low. Thanks to just-in-time economic models, and the surprise

that so many people decided to bake bread because they couldn’t buy it, an efficient but fragile supply chain broke. A Memphis newspaper quoted Heilman saying, “It’s not like in some, places (where) you can turn the equipment up and kind of stress it. We really can’t rush the yeast. Otherwise, the yeast is not going to be a good product —the yeast are going to be very stressed.” Well, not as stressed as someone with a houseful of sandwich eaters and no bread. This is a modern problem, not shared, as you may recall, by Barb Fernald on Little Cranberry Island, who has fed her Wild Miss Islesford for years. She said: “All I did was to mix equal amounts of tepid water and flour (I’m guessing it was about 1/4 cup of each) covered with plastic wrap and poked holes in it, and left it on the counter. Then I stirred it every 12 hours, and fed it with equal amounts of flour and water every 24 hours. Within about 5 days it was getting bubbly. I have noticed more people baking with sourdough. Who knew yeast would be hard to come by!” She gave some to me and Courtney Naliboff on North Haven. Courtney has been so busy teaching online that she hasn’t “hopped on the sourdough bandwagon.”

Long before manufactured yeast, housewives kept yeast going in their homes for everyday baking. Part and parcel of beer brewing, at least pre-Temperance, the two processes supported one another since they both needed yeast. The beer-making generated more each time it was made. During the 1800s Temperance movement, worry that one’s yeast might have had—gasp—alcoholic origins, gave rise to potato yeast recipes calling for grated potatoes cooked in boiling hot tea water, I suspect, to give it the right flavor, to which one added yeast from your previous batch; we cannot look too closely at the origins of that yeast, lest we find ourselves in a which-camefirst-chicken-or-egg discussion. Some communities had at least one woman famous for her yeast making prowess from whom one could buy a pitcher-full to take home for bread baking. Historic cookbooks recount dozens of ways to make and perpetuate yeast, sometimes called soured dough, not to be confused with sourdough, the tangy wild yeast caught and made famous by Western camp cooks. And Barb Fernald. My friend Derreth Roberts gave me my current batch; I fed and coddled it, then raised a couple of creditable loaves made merely with flour, water,

soured dough, and salt. To make a standard favorite oatmeal bread recipe from All Maine Cooking, I amped up a cupful of soured dough a little bit with a teaspoon of dry yeast. Varoooom. Three toothsome loaves of sandwich bread later, I was off the bake nearly everyday system. Trouble is sourdough bread is so tasty it disappears quickly. My scientist neighbor, Barbara Talamo, has been tinkering carefully with her sourdough and various kinds of flour, and made an excellent multigrain loaf. Soured dough takes a bit of getting used to it: it is sort of like training a feral cat to do tricks. On Islesboro, Rachael, at the Island Market, generated a huge jar of an Alaskan sourdough she’s been cultivating. She spooned some into containers that island cooks could buy. Brilliant. Are we going to remember the fun we had with sourdough when we can roar back to supermarkets? I hope not. Long live our yeast friends. Sandy Oliver is a food historian who lives, gardens, and cooks on Islesboro.

www.workingwaterfront.com . June 2020

Letters to the Editor It’s a mess

Slow down Portland

To the editor: I read your column “Will Portland choke on its success?” and I would say it already has. I have lived in Portland for most of my 64 years. My grandfather had Maine Radio and Television on Munjoy Hill from the 1940s through the 1960s. My father owned United Television on Congress Street for 50 years. The business, now with the fourth generation, has been driven out of Portland due to high rents. Real estate developers have made a mess of Portland, building ugly metal sided buildings throughout the peninsula, and then charging a fortune to sell or rent them. The city council did not have good foresight. The hotels in the waterfront area are hideous looking. One of them looks like its adorned in tinfoil. Portland became a foodie town, instead of diversifying. Restaurant after restaurant, craft beer makers, and other booze hawkers opened. Can we get into them? No. Portland is now mostly for the tourists. Parking rates are as high as the price of your meal. I can’t enjoy much of anything in downtown Portland because it’s too crowded. And forget about doing anything downtown when the cruise ships come in. Portland was over advertised and the locals paid the price. Our property taxes are now three times our original mortgage, and we can’t enjoy the city we pay for. Yes, I sound jaded, but some of the people who have moved here are so ostentatious. They do not have Maine spirit. All my life I have been connected to the waterfront. My brothers and I used to fish for mackerel off the piers. We swam at the Eastern Promenade. I hate to see commercial development push the fishermen out. It sickened me that the law firm Pierce Atwood felt they needed to be on the waterfront. The school population is plummeting. I find it sad that families can’t afford to live here. We’ll end up being a town of wealthy retirees. It isn’t progress, it’s a form of regression.

To the editor: I enjoyed reading the column “Will Portland choke on its success?” (Rock Bound, April issue). We remember Portland when we moved to Maine in 1965 and it was not the best place to visit. There have been some exciting changes to the city since then, but I’m thinking that some of the latest developments are not necessarily beneficial. I see hotels going up at a pace that seems excessive. I don’t venture into the city very often because of lack of adequate and convenient parking. It would seem to me that the city would be paying more attention to how to get people in and out without building more roads and parking lots. Years ago, I remember trains rumbling down Commercial Street. Wouldn’t that be a great way for people to get in and out of Portland, using the old St. Lawrence and Atlantic railway system? But I hear/see no discussion about this possibility. I think your idea to hit the pause button is worth considering. Keep the thought alive.

—Liz Manduca Portland

Enough development To the editor: We live in a condo in Cumberland, having moved from Hershey, Penn. over four years ago. Portland is six miles and ten minutes away. As retirees do, we go to the restaurants and galleries as well as sports arenas. Hershey is also a tourist town which we mostly avoided in the summer months. Portland is much more accessible due to its larger size and transportation network. I think Portland has enough waterside development. The same is true of restaurants, which come and go. Your thoughtful piece was published prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic which is wreaking havoc here. Time will tell how many restaurants, bars, craft breweries and other similar venues go belly up. —Robert Knupp Cumberland

—Al Ahlers North Yarmouth

Don’t blame cruise ships To the editor: I always enjoy reading The Working Waterfront and the different views people have of things happening on the waterfront. Tom Walsh’s article in the May issue, “Cruise ship tourism appears grounded,” seems to assert that Bar Harbor’s problem with crowding stems from cruise ships bringing in 200,000 people from July through October. While I certainly agree there can be point loading down on the pier, depending on how many ships are in town, the larger problem of crowding for Bar Harbor (and all of Mount Desert Island) is the two million-plus people who arrive over the causeway during that same period. It is easy to point at the big white ship in the harbor and blame it for our crowds, but the Suburban that parked on Main Street and disgorged eight people and two dogs is a less obvious source. Until 1837, when the bridge was built, the only way to get to Mount Desert Island was by boat. For full disclose, I’m one of the state-licensed ship pilots required to be aboard cruise ships that call on Bar Harbor (along with other vessels that call on the ports in Penobscot Bay). —Capt. Skip Strong Southwest Harbor

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National Park Service plans improvements to Islesford museum

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he Islesford Historical Museum is currently undergoing a major rehabilitation which began in November. The rehabilitation will allow for the protection and longevity of a historic building and for the safe exhibition of historical objects. As the upgrades continue, the museum will be closed to the public for the 2020 season. The museum is expected to reopen next season showcasing both the upgrades and community-curated exhibit helping to tell the stories of the Cranberry Isles. “This work is very important to ensure this beautiful historic building remains a treasure for the Islesford community and those that visit the museum,” said Park Superintendent Kevin Schneider. “We are extremely lucky to have some of the best historic carpenters, architects, and masons to help guide the contractors in the completion of this work.” The rehabilitation includes work to both the exterior and interior. The original 93-year-old slate roof will be replaced with new slate. The existing masonry, mortar joints, chimneys, shutters, window sashes, and lighting will receive upgrades as well. A heating unit will be added to stabilize temperature and humidity on the interior, contributing to the long-term preservation of the building. In addition, all ironwork including handrails will be repaired and rehabilitated. The Islesford Historical Museum, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was founded by William Otis Sawtelle (1874-1939), a physics professor and summer resident of the Island. The museum first opened to the public in the summer of 1928 and was donated to the National Park Service at Acadia National Park. With assistance from Friends of Acadia, the Friends of the Islesford Historical Museum formed in 2014 to work with Acadia National Park to rehabilitate and maintain the museum. Funding for the rehabilitation of the museum comes directly from entrance passes purchased at Acadia National Park. The NPS retains 80 percent of the fees collected from entrance pass sales to invest in critical improvements that directly benefit visitors at Acadia National Park, including maintaining and enhancing visitor facilities. The entrance pass revenues are also essential for funding the operation of the Island Explorer bus system, which serves Acadia and its surrounding communities. The NPS uses the remaining 20 percent of fees collected from entrance passes to benefit other sites in the National Park System.

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Must read To the editor: The Working Waterfront is always a “must read, cover to cover” when it arrives in my mailbox. The May issue is the best ever for me in over 16 years. Your articles and coverage were superb. Getting a bit broader view from your four regular columnists was a treat. It is easy to visit in the summer and come away with thoughts of “perfect” for one’s environment. Maine is a real place and cherished for that. Nothing is perfect but it can be “best.” —Jo McCartan Brunswick

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The Working Waterfront . June 2020

Field Notes

Maine can vote to close the digital divide Bond to expand broadband access is on July 14 ballot By Kendra Jo Grindle SEVENTEEN HOUSES. I don’t feel our list of “needs” was unusual for firsttime homebuyers. Yet, in March and April of last year, my husband and I trudged through the snow and mud in 17 dooryards to finally find the home that would become ours. It ticked the top priority boxes—right price, three bedrooms, rural acreage, broadband access. And yet… Little did we know that the home had never been connected to the internet. New install is one thing in the world of broadband; new construction is another. It would take over seven months before an installation crew would dig through the post-Christmas snow to bring our little Cape into the 21st century. Some will read my plight and murmur, “Wow, seven months without internet. I can’t imagine.” Others will laugh and say, “I’ve been waiting years.” The main point is that both commenters could live in the same town or even on the same road. From Lubec to York, Bethel to Jackman—this is internet access in Maine. It’s a uniquely personal, statewide problem because in our state broadband is an individual, house by house challenge. Yet, it is critical civic infrastructure that allows towns to function in the 21st century and is foundational to the resilient economy our state needs.

I’d arrive at the Hannaford parking When I speak with frustrated residents who have been trying for lot, queue up my computer to “Fresh-Fi” years to have their home connected, and try to wrap up my workload and pay the struggles they recount resonate. bills. Sunday was our reprieve, squeezing But it’s often what they aren’t saying in every ounce of quality time we could while knowing Monday would start it all that speaks loudest. The hardest thing about not having again. Another week of daily schedules internet in today’s world wasn’t the planned according to internet access. I never wanted my lack of connectivity shows I couldn’t watch or the Cyber Monday sales I missed; it was the time to impact my professional life. I rebuffed I couldn’t get back and the stress and the guilt I carried with me and the guilt caused by not being accessible to feeling of always being behind. Some make the choice to be disconnected, those that relied on me. In September, I returned from but I didn’t. As with many, the choice maternity leave and thought a lack was made for me and the weight of its impact was immense. of internet was just I’d try to remind myself a disadvantage that that I didn’t have I would laugh off. internet growing up in Quickly, I realized it I’d try to remind rural Appalachia and it would consume vast myself that I didn’t was fine, but that was amounts of my time. My 12-week-old have internet growing before our education spent ten hours a day at up in rural Appalachia systems, healthcare, and economic prosperity daycare so I could get to and it was fine, but were tethered to an work an hour early and stay an hour late. My that was before our Ethernet cord. Over 83,000 Maine husband did the same. education systems, homes lack access Saturday mornings he to broadband. These would work on lesson healthcare, and include students who plans at the library from 9 a.m. to noon while economic prosperity cannot meet deadlines I balanced household were tethered to an for coursework, local artists and makers chores and playtime. Ethernet cord. struggling to maintain When he arrived home, an online presence to we’d swap, and I’d spend prosper in a digital an hour trying to get ahead on any work I could do offline commerce, and healthcare providers unable to reach those in need from the before my weekend grocery run.

safety of their living space. Households of burdened families are losing time because they live in an area or at a distance from a neighbor that isn’t deemed profitable to private companies. In July, Mainers can have their say and make a change. Emergency legislation has put a $15 million bond on July’s ballot to support the state’s broadband action plan. This bond begins to put the power in the hands of Maine voters. It’s the power to say that every Mainer, regardless of where they live, has the right to internet access. It’s the power to end the growing divide and give our neighbors the benefits many of us feel are commonplace. My days of working from the Hannaford parking lot are over, but my concern for the growing digital divide in Maine is not. On July 14, I will use my vote to ensure state funding is leveraged so every Mainer has access to reliable internet and do my part to end the divide. Kendra Jo Grindle is a community development officer at the Island Institute. She leads community-driven broadband initiatives and supports the Island Fellows and climate-energy work.

Observer

A love scene that inspired poetry

A long-ago romantic dinner, as seen from another table By Phil Crossman I WAS REMINDED of this encounter the other night when, at dinner with the object of my own affection, I was enjoying a profoundly delicious shrimp scampi. This memory is never far away and when I’m enjoying scampi it’s as fresh and delicious as dinner. Returning from a solo “down and back” road trip to Connecticut, I stopped for the night in Portsmouth and for dinner at a restaurant I’d heard good things about. The place was very inviting, kind of full, there was scampi on the menu, and things were looking very promising. I was nursing my second beer and anticipating that favorite dinner I’d ordered a few minutes earlier. Two young people entered and settled in nearby, not directly across from my table, but close. And although, during the frequent, scrumptious, and leisurely interludes that followed, I was quite obviously and shamelessly

attentive to their delightfully evolving attachment, they paid no attention to me. Which is not surprising and just as well—it would have ruined everything. They were awkward to begin with but compelling—enchanting, lovely, and irresistible, and without even the slightest pretense. I watched their attraction morph perfectly into affection and then to devotion and can confidently say today, decades later, that they are surely together, although I know nothing about them. I can’t imagine otherwise. A Couple Kissed A couple kissed, twas just a peck, across the aisle from me. She was poised on the edge of her seat; perched for proximity. To be clearer to him, she sat in the chair opposite.

She was lovely and cool, dark and comfortable in her situation. She was slim and most of her black perfect hair was caught up in a sloppy bun. She wore a sleeveless top beneath which was revealed a taut little middle then jeans, three silver ankle bracelets, flip flops and brown feet. She handled her chop sticks well and ate heartily. Her eyes were dramatic and their make-up subtle, less so her thoughts. He was a slob, adorable but a slob and clearly smitten. His hair was all over the place as if he’d just showered,

toweled it dry and not a thing more, jeans and a black t shirt. She leaned over to show him the necklace that he’d admired. She had small breasts, perfect on her; His admiration wandered all around the pendant. Each had a little overbite. So that their top lips met first, then the bottoms. Phil Crossman lives on Vinalhaven and is happily married to Elaine. He remains a studious observer, even today.

www.workingwaterfront.com . June 2020

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Cranberry Report

Considering summer raises questions Islanders want to be hospitable, yet safe By Barbara Fernald AFTER TWO MONTHS of having all of our lives turned upside down from COVID-19, we are peering at summer just over the horizon. No one can quite imagine what it will look like. No matter where we live, we are experiencing the angst of trying to find some semblance of normal. No one can say definitively what is the next right thing to do. The new normal feels like anything but. People who own summer homes on the islands are trying to figure out what is the right thing to do in terms of coming here. Of the people I’ve been in touch with, those who are coming from out of state are not complaining about the governor’s guidelines of a 14-day quarantine. There have been a number of questions about having visitors come for a stay of less than two weeks, though. Are they still allowed to come? The answer is yes, but they will be expected to quarantine during their stay.

In a March 20 publication, the selectmen of our town “strongly suggest” that anyone “from away” quarantine for 14 days after they get here. This implies people coming from other counties in Maine are “from away.” Our own children told us a few weeks ago they would probably not make it up here this summer because of these quarantine guidelines. With the state of Maine relaxing some of their restrictions starting in May, I have to believe that the selectmen will update the town guidelines at their meeting next week. Another question: Do any of us have to restart our quarantines after we’ve had a visit from family/friends from out of state? I don’t know the answer. I’m not sure there is one. What I do know, and I hope it is reassuring, is that quarantining on the island is pretty simple. It basically means avoiding the public for two weeks. You already know there are plenty of places to go while still avoiding the public, and that includes fishing from your

own boat. It’s pretty much the same thing most of us have been doing for the last eight weeks no matter where we live, so it shouldn’t be a big change for anyone. Several of us on the island have offered help in terms of picking up groceries at the dock and retrieving trash for people while they quarantine. Bruce and I have not left Islesford since March 11. Luckily, there are many options for getting groceries delivered to the island. Online ordering options include Amazon, Thrive Market, and Misfit Market, to name a few. We’ve had great luck with Cranberry General and Pine Tree Market for groceries. At Pine Tree, Aaron and Erin have also encouraged people on the islands to order, by the case, items from one of their less expensive suppliers. It has been easy to find friends who want to split a case of flour, sugar, and oatmeal. Things are ramping up at the co-op store. There are weekly dairy deliveries, meat and produce, and there is always lobster for dinner. So far, getting

groceries has not been the problem I feared it would be a month ago. At the post office, because of the size of the lobby, only one person is allowed inside at a time. If you are mailing a big package, you have to put it on a bench in front of the window and then step back outside while Joy comes out of her office and picks it up. It’s a USPS do-si-do! No one is allowed in the town office yet, but Denise and Jim are usually there working, so you can reach them by phone. Like everywhere else we’ve all learned different ways to do business to try to stay safe from the virus. If you come to the island, do your best to stay healthy and keep others protected, just as you are probably now doing wherever you are. Barbara Fernald lives on Islesford (Little Cranerry Island).

Fathoming

Businesses bank on resiliency Beyond statistics, there’s more to know By Meghan Grabill RECENT REPORTS HAVE suggested that Maine’s economy is highly vulnerable to the impacts of the coronavirus. On the surface, data indicators can point to many different outcomes in an approachable and easy-to-understand way. But this simplicity leaves no room for nuances like resiliency. Many of Maine’s characteristics have been cited as reasons for the dire predictions. These include the high percent of population above 65 (19.4 percent), the reliance on retail and tourism (22 percent of state GDP), the high number of small businesses (about 40,000 with fewer than 100 employees), and the high number employed in high-contact occupations (23 percent in jobs requiring physical interaction with large numbers of people like a dental hygienist or physical therapist). All of these are statistically accurate observations about Maine. Taken together into a risk analysis, they point to high risk to economic fall-out from the pandemic shutdowns. However, what these statistics fail to reveal is how likely Maine is to succumb to the risk, and how well the state will be able to rebound on the other side. A community that is resilient is able to cope with, withstand, and quickly recover from a crisis or threat. The depth of what that means is impossible to capture in a report or data analysis.

In a recent interview, Shannon Byers, the director for the Maine Small Business Development Center, said a booming economy breeds complacency. When markets are strong, there is no incentive to think outside the box. An economic downturn breeds innovation. Business owners are forced to stop and think about what they’re doing, what’s working and what isn’t. And what, given our new reality, is possible for their business. Byers believes many businesses are ready to iterate, pivot, and survive this downturn. Liz Lovell of North Haven Brewing Company was hoping to be planning for future investments; instead, she is working to pivot for this new economic reality. “Going into our fourth year, we were just starting to feel like we could plan well for the summer, had a good sense of how many pints the second week in August we could plan to sell, but now it feels like we’re rebuilding our whole business model,” she said. The business relies on in-person traffic in a tasting room, which is small, intimate, and pre-pandemic, was a key gathering place on the island. Luckily enough, the business started a small canning operation last year. It’s fairly labor intensive, and not as profitable as selling a pint, but it’s the only safetyconscious, reasonable option for sales. About a month ago, the business closed the doors to the tasting room

and launched a new section on the website to take online sales and offer a door-to-door delivery system. “We calculated exactly how many cans per week in July and August we need to sell to break-even this summer, and just holdfast,” Lovell said. “So that’s what we’re planning to do.” Other small business owners also are looking for opportunity. Alec Shaw owns Swift Cleaning, a house cleaning service on Peaks Island. Since the success of an island cleaning business depends on vacation rentals, and vacation rentals depend on tourism, his business is facing a summer of uncertainty. So, Shaw is investing in himself, gaining new skills, and thinking about how to apply those to becoming a resilient entrepreneur. Shaw is using a grant award for an online course to help him start a new business, Shawsome Sports, dedicated to increasing the island’s access to health and fitness opportunities. “Promoting and supporting community health and fitness is very important now,” he says, “and will only

continue to grow in importance as we move forward through this time.” This has allowed him to learn to build his online presence and a local, virtual fitness community. This move will help diversify his income. Maine may appear at high risk for economic impacts from the coronavirus. And whenever the national economy takes a downturn, hardships and difficulties will come to many of our communities. But statistical analysis cannot predict the response of individuals, communities, business owners, and leaders along the coast. Resiliency is difficult to capture with numbers. Meghan Grabill is a community development officer working on data analytics and translation for the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.

FOR INFORMATION ON THE GRANT: Tom Glenn Community Impact Fund administered by the Small Business Team at the Island Institute www.islandinstitute.org/tom-glenn-community-impact-fund FOR MORE STATISTICS ON THE COAST OF MAINE:

www.islandinstitute.org/waypoints

FOR MORE STORIES ABOUT BUSINESSES ALONG THE COAST OF MAINE:

www.islandinstitute.org/blog

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The Working Waterfront . June 2020

Maine has an official merchant mariner flag John Worth enjoys seeing it fly on vessels across Maine and beyond By Tom Groening

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s the state celebrates its 200th anniversary this year, Mainers are reflecting on their history. And John Worth of Belfast, who has spent his life on the water, is investigating and highlighting the maritime part of that history. Some years ago, Worth learned that Maine is one of two states—Massachusetts is the other—that has an official merchant marine flag. In 1939, the legislature created the Maine Merchant Marine Flag and Ensign, just two years before the state established Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, in anticipation of the nation’s needs as it prepared to enter World War II. Worth has been an instructor at MMA, and from 2003 to 2009, served as captain of the academy’s historic schooner Bowdoin, and it was there that he learned about the flag. “I got sort of excited about it when I was at Maine Maritime Academy,” he remembers. “I started to fly it then on the Bowdoin.” Worth learned that Donald MacMillan, who captained the Bowdoin on its first trip to the Arctic in 1920-21, had been given the merchant marine flag to fly on his 1940 expedition. “He flew it all the way up to the Arctic Circle,” Worth learned, and the flag appears to then have been “stuffed into a sail locker on the Bowdoin,” which is where Andy Chase, a long-time MMA professor, found it. Chase helped bring the schooner back to MMA, Worth also notes. “I’m a merchant mariner enthusiast and booster,” Worth said, and so he was able to purchase several of the

The official Maine Merchant Marine flag.

PHOTO: COURTESY JOHN WORTH

flags from Hamilton Marine, and now flies it on his own recreational boat, on Maine State Ferry Service vessels when he fills in as captain on some runs, and he’s learned that some of his former students have purchased the flag

and flown it on the ships on which they now work. In addition to Hamilton Marine (which has several locations in the state, and an online store), Worth said Maine Flag in Westbrook also stocks the flag.

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Social but safe — This photo, shared with us by Capt. Winston Shaw of Acadia Marine Photography, show the Miss Lizzie headed to the Cranberry Isles from Northeast Harbor with passengers practicing social distancing. “Both women in the cockpit even thought to bring along their knitting and were busy knitting away as Miss Lizzie pulled away from the dock,” Shaw write. “I couldn’t tell if they were making a sweater, mittens, or socks, but given the conditions that day I’m betting it was something warm!”

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Become a member of the ISLAND INSTITUTE and help expand RELIABLE INTERNET ACCESS to Maine’s students, fishermen, healthcare providers and small business owners. Access to reliable, high-speed internet is key to the success of Maine’s small businesses. For Boe Marsh of Community Shellfish in Bremen, broadband has helped his business become competitive through a strong e-commerce and online presence.

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