The Working Waterfront, October 2020

News of Maine’s Coast and Islands

THE WORKING

volume 34, № 8

published by the island institute

n

n

october 2020 n free circulation: 50,000

workingwaterfront.com

Largest private park system opens in Lubec

Cobscook Shores is work of benefactor Gilbert Butler

By Sarah Craighead Dedmon

L

ubec is accustomed to superlatives. As the easternmost town in the nation, home to some of North America’s highest tides, the iconic West Quoddy lighthouse and—for many weeks at least—the nation’s first sunrise, Lubec locals count themselves as lucky as its summer visitors.

For this year, at least, more locals than visitors are enjoying a new Lubec superlative—Maine’s largest privately-owned park system. Last month Cobscook Shores quietly threw open the gates on 14 parks encompassing more than 500 acres, 10 miles of trails, five campsites, and 13.5 miles of Lubec coastline.

“That’s what’s unique about it, is that it’s not one big park, it’s a system of parks,” said Carl Carlson.

“Our hope is we will attract people who go to Acadia but want a slightly different experience—something more remote, more rural, a place where you’re not in the crowds but you still have the beauty of nature.”

Carlson is chief operating officer for the Butler Conservation Fund Inc. (BCF), a nonprofit created

Amenities like wide gravel paths, screened picnic pavilions, and abundant boat launches set the Cobscook Shores park system apart, says BCF Chief Operating Officer Carl Carlson. PHOTO: SARAH CRAIGHEAD DEDMON

by New York philanthropist Gilbert Butler who, at the end of his career in the private equity business, dedicated 80 percent of his company’s assets to the creation of an environmental conservation fund.

So far, BCF has invested more than $11 million in Cobscook Shores, not including $600,000 to be spent building a bike lane around Cobscook Bay. This is BCF’s second project in Maine and one of seven “landscape-scale” projects worldwide.

Penobscot River Trails, based in Grindstone, opened last September and offers 15 miles of Acadia-style carriage roads, hiking trails, groomed cross-country skiing trails, and warming huts on 4,300 acres along the east branch of the Penobscot River.

“They’re all totally different, but the unifying factor among all of them is that they are ridiculously beautiful,” said Carlson. continued on page 2

Warm currents feeding Gulf of Maine outpacing cold MCCF explains temperature anomaly for online presentation

By Laurie Schreiber

A

much-used statistic says the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 98 percent of the world’s oceans.

While one might imagine the warming is due to a “Bunsen burner-like” effect in the gulf itself, it actually results from two sources of water that feed the gulf.

The effect is like those old sinks that have separate hot-water and cold-water

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dials, said Carla Guenther, chief scien- become less consistent over the past tist with the Maine Center for Coastal decade, she said.

In 2011, for example, two major Fisheries in Stonington.

“We have conditions drawing from the hurricanes drove the Gulf Stream’s hot-water tap more than the cold-water warmer waters off southern New tap,” she said. On Aug. 26, Guenther England north into the Gulf of Maine.

That resulted in an overall gave a virtual presentatemperature increase that tion, hosted by Deer year of about 8 degrees Isle’s Chase Emerson centigrade.

Although “We have Memorial Library, on climate change in the gulf. conditions drawing the Gulf Stream has retreated somewhat since Guenther explained that the Labrador from the hot-water then, scientists are now Current, driven by a tap more than the seeing an increase in the number of warm “core large atmospheric prescold-water tap.” rings” spinning off from sure system over Canada, it, and the duration of the brings cold water to the —CARLA GUENTHER warm rings of water is gulf. Through patterns longer. of circulation that span “That’s contributed to the Atlantic Ocean, the the Gulf of Maine being warmer waters of the Gulf Stream also get mixed into the gulf. warmer overall,” she said.

A feedback loop is also causing the But patterns of warming air and water are causing the Gulf Stream to continued on page 3

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The Working Waterfront . October 2020

PARK

continued from page 1 Jim and Gail Roberts have made a habit of visiting the parks this summer, frequently driving the short distance from their home in East Machias. Their young son enjoys biking on Red Point Park’s gravel carriage trail, and stops only long enough to balance his bicycle in a nearby rack before sprinting down a flight of stairs to the beach.

“It’s beautiful,” said Jim. “It’s not like something you’d expect to see down here.”

Amenities like wide gravel paths, bathrooms, picnic pavilions, and water bottle filling stations are part of what set BCF’s properties apart from most conservation land, says Carlson. The parks support Butler’s mission to promote environmental education and outdoor recreation, especially for young people.

Red Point Park, the centerpiece of the Cobscook Shores park system, features a wide gravel trail suitable for strollers and flanked by mature apple trees and sloping meadows. Much of the park is groomed to be comfortable for families. “We’ve got a crew here that mows pretty regularly, especially at the isthmus where the screen pavilion is,” said Carlson. “We wanted a nice comfortable lawn where kids could run around without shoes on.” PHOTO: SARAH CRAIGHEAD DEDMON

“Our passion is outdoor aerobic recreation,” said Carlson. “We don’t promote things that are motor-based—we want human-powered recreation. It promotes good health, it’s good for the environment, and that’s where our interest falls.”

To that end, BCF has partnered with the Lubec schools, paying for the restoration of its basketball court, and when coronavirus restrictions are lifted, will also provide instructors and equipment like kayaks and bikes to be used during visits to the parks.

. April 2020 www.workingwaterfront.com. October www.workingwaterfront.com 2020

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An information kiosk, explaining the park system. PHOTO: SARAH CRAIGHEAD DEDMON

SCENIC COBSCOOK

“I can tell you I’ve lost almost all of my favorite [open] spaces in Perry and BCF also aims to preserve the natural beauty of Cobscook Bay, says Carlson, Pembroke since 2001,” said Southern. “Without sounding doom and gloom, I building on the work of local land trusts like Maine Coast Heritage Trust and the foresee a time in our lifetime when these conservation lands are going to be the Downeast Coastal Conservancy (DCC). Both organizations have invested heavily only places the average person can enjoy traditional outdoor pursuits.”

Admission to all of the Cobscook Shores parks is free, and Carlson says they in the region.

“We’re offering 13-odd miles of shorefront, but Cobscook has more than 100 hope eventually to hold a grand opening ceremony, but nothing is certain. miles of protected waterfront,” said park project manager Charlie Howe. “So Marketing plans, too, are on hold until next year at the earliest, but for now BCF is pleased to see the locals enjoying them. along some of our trails you get to appreciate how scenic the bay is.”

John24-foot Martin, Bud Staples, and Elsie Gillespie chat around theher woodstove at the annual meeting.

With park project manager Howe as guide, Lubec Board town of Selectmen Among other things, Cobscook Bay is known for its unusually high tides, its fertile waters, and the highest concentration of nesting bald eagles in the Chairwoman Carol Dennison is exploring all 14 parks. The project encountered northeastern U.S. DCC Director Jon Southern, who consulted with BCF during some local criticism when it was learned the parks would be tax-exempt properthe project, says conservation land is not only an environmental necessity, it is a ties, taking roughly $50,000 off the tax rolls in one of Maine’s poorest counties. But Dennison says she is optimistic they will prove their economic worth to Lubec. draw for new taxpayers.

“I think in the long run, if it brings summer residents here to purchase property, “If you talk to the top 5 percent of taxpayers, you’ll find most of them are recent transplants to the area, and if you ask what incented them to come here to build and our tax base will increase and it will offset itself,” said Dennison, who this year pay these huge tax bills, one of the top reasons is conservation lands like ours and has seen more people venturing Downeast to get out of the cities and away from what Butler is adding,” said Southern. “Without any of that open space or conserved COVID-19. “We have something beautiful to offer, tranquility, and hardly anyone lands, this area would have very little appeal not only for residents but for tourists.” walking on trails. That will bring people here as well.”

Lubec’s vision for itself, says Dennison, is centered around fishing and outdoor Southern moved to Washington County almost 20 years ago. This summer in particular, he has watched real estate fly off the market as new people flock to the recreation.

“We want to be known for that,” said Dennison. “So in that respect, Mr. Butler’s area from away. But long before the pandemic, Southern says Downeast land was project went right with the vision of the town.” being posted “no trespassing” at an alarming rate.

GULF OF MAINE

continued from page 1 Gulf Stream to slow, which further impacts temperature distribution, she said.

The result? The latest ecosystem report from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, Mass., says the gulf is seeing proportionately more hot water than cold water over the last five years, she said.

“It’s not that we have a burner on in the gulf. It’s that the sources of water are changing,” she said.

Warming waters are having different effects on different species. One of Maine’s Moulden iconic resources, lobster, enjoys warm water and the Levi results can be seen in increased landings over time. Lobster stocks grew three-fold in 20 years while landings grew five-fold.

Gerald “Punkin” Lemoine But another iconic species, shrimp, has essentially collapsed with warming

waters and has been closed since 2012.

Why has the story been so different for the two?

The answer behind lobster is partly due to the disappearance, due to overfishing, of Atlantic cod, a primary predator, she said. At the same time, lobster larvae enjoy a certain amount of warmth. Maine is at the northern end of the Atlantic lobster’s range. But the warming gulf has expanded the amount of sea bottom where larvae, which have a specific thermal threshold, can settle down and grow unhampered by predation.

Conversely, Maine is at the southern range of Northern pink shrimp, which enjoys cold water and typically arrived off Maine in the winter.

Recent surveys show there are far fewer shrimp in the gulf today than a decade ago.

“The shrimp fishery doesn’t seem to be coming back anytime soon,” she said.

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The Working Waterfront . October 2020

Thomaston yacht builder applies skills to land projects Lyman-Morse tackles church steeple, high-rise staircase, and other jobs

By Wanda Curtis

A

fter more than 30 years producing and servicing custom sailing and motor yachts, Lyman-Morse in Thomaston tacked in a different direction during the 2008 recession.

While the core of their business is still building and servicing boats, company president Drew Lyman said expanded services now include “a wide range of projects, product development, and prototyping projects for a diverse set of customers around the world.”

And some of that work has nothing to do with floating on the water.

Employees enjoy the non-marine work, Lyman said, because “it gives them a chance to think outside the box and apply their marine expertise in a new way.

The fact that no project is ever the same keeps everyone energized,” he said.

Much of the new work is done under the company’s Lyman-Morse Technologies (LMT) and Lyman-Morse Fabrication divisions.

Jonathan Egan, who manages Lyman-Morse Fabrications, said that about 90 percent of the metal work now is non-marine. In recent years, those projects have included: · a spiral staircase for the 24th floor of a Manhattan building · an architectural façade for the Henry Hudson bridge, also in New York · stainless steel thresholds for energy efficient modular homes in Maine · the design and installation of an industrial dust collection system · handrails for local landscaping companies · structural renovations for Robert Indiana’s Star of Hope building on Vinalhaven · a stainless-steel tunnel liner for Portsmouth Naval Shipyard · and various Department of Defense and Bath Iron Works projects.

“Given the many advanced skills and trades needed to build a world class custom yacht, technology, defense and aerospace firms recognize the value in what we do,” Lyman said.

Several years ago, the company decided to tackle a project for Chestnut Street Baptist Church in Camden. The church’s 30-year old wooden steeple, weighing about 10,000 pounds, needed to be replaced. The fabrications crew constructed a replacement steeple of 3/8-inch fiberglass reinforced plastic laminate, weighing 6,800 pounds. The steeple is projected to last 60-plus years and will require little or no maintenance.

Currently, the company is assisting with the renovation of the historic American Boathouse in Camden. That project is led by Cold Mountain Builders of Belfast.

The boathouse, which once housed the yacht of wealthy summer resident Chauncey Borland, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

To remain on the list, renovations must follow strict specifications, including no exterior aesthetic changes. The new doors installed by Lyman-Morse Technologies were skinned with mahogany and painted green to preserve the historical look of the boathouse.

The original boathouse featured a marine railway system powered by oxen to haul the yacht in the off season. In collaboration with Prock Marine of Rockland, LMT is developing a new marine railway system which will allow a yacht to be stored on a custom boat cradle mounted on a rail car. The company created a rail car made of steel with the custom boat cradle made of aluminum and an electric winch to raise and lower the car.

Lyman-Morse has worked on several projects with the University of Notre Dame through the Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development supporting efforts in Uganda and the Congo to provide micro-grid electrification. LymanMorse designed micro-grid systems and trained the Notre Dame team on in country deployment.

A view from the new Chestnut Street Baptist Church steeple in Camden, fabricated

by Lyman-Morse Technologies. PHOTO: COURTESY LYMAN-MORSE

The molds made for the church steeple. PHOTO: COURTESY LYMAN-MORSE

The replacement steeple being moved to the church in Camden. PHOTO: COURTESY LYMAN-MORSE

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www.workingwaterfront.com . October 2020

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cRanBeRRy RepoRt Cruise ship departs Eastport

Portpainting authority maylines, offer safe eating berth in future ting, s, and throwing rocks

By Tom Walsh

ends, and it helped to put a human face on it. When the ship left for Italy last Saturday morning, we were sad to see them go, and they were sad to leave.” piece of purple the end of the Gardner and rope port toauthority staff buoy line3ortotoggle, all attachments met Aug. crunchbut numbers and to must beopportunities made with a splice oranother a tuck. evaluate to offer I know it’s a stretch to compare folcruise ship temporary refuge from lowing Maine whale rope requireFlorida’s “hurricane alley.” ments a plein but “We’rewith rolling up air ourworkshop, sleeves and a person could return home from eitaking a hard look at what we have ther here, and”say that they’d beenchoice paintdone Gardner said. “The in their spare was time.not If any Bruce were toing leave for Europe reflecwriting essay been on how he spent his tion on us.anThere’s an outpouring vacation, painting wouldship be a ofwinter support and thanks from cruise part of it.

Another part would be the company executives. They now underdescription I heard him tell his brother stand that if they need us, we’re here Mark walking to gettodoughnuts, and thatabout Eastport is willing help out.” in February, with our son evaluating Robin, and The port authority is also ourfinancial grandchildren Cora. I the impactHenry of theand extended was including away with docking friends inrevenues Portland,that and stay, Stephanie was will away with to friends Gardner expects amount at leastin Florida.Whatever Father andthe sonbottom were inline, charge. $75,000. all “Yeah, we got doughnuts at The funds generated by Eastport’s unusual Cookie Jarparking” and thenagreement walked to the “long-term with beach for a picnic and to throw rocks.”

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings are Eating being appliedhomemade to the debt donuts incurred and to throwing rocks at the beach—if that design and build a new $18 million isn’t a mirror image of downtown breakwater to many replacechildan hoodwharf summers on Islesford, I don’t aging that collapsed in 2017 due what is. q toknow structural issues.

“Really, ever since the ship arrived in Barbara livesitonleft, Islesford (Little June, and Fernald even since I’ve heard Cranberry Island) with her husband Bruce.

down, islanders mix prep work and gatherings oping to avoid the June 1

H

arrival of hurricane season in bright southern red with aFlorida, black stripe) and, like the Oceania every other lobster fisherman in Maine Riviera, a 785-foot, 15-deck Norwegian this winter, he read about, talked about, Cruise Lines vessel with no passengers, and experimented with purple paint. only crew onboard, sailed nearly 2,000 The latest whale regulations require miles to tie up at Eastport’s deep-water all Maine on lobster to use new breakwater Junefishermen 14. markings on the ropes they attach With computer models showing thatto lobster traps. Depending on how close Isaias—sometimes hurricane, someto shore they storm—would fish, they will have add times tropical tracktoup 2-4Atlantic purple shoreline marks on all each the thebuoy way line. to On warps that areRiviera left 100-feet orEastport less there Maine, the Oceania must be one 12-inch purple mark on Aug. 1 for Italy, via Gibraltar. within fathoms the trapItaly and will a 36Thea few cruise line ofexpects inch purple mark within 2 fathoms allow the 131 crew members strandedof buoy. If that 100 inthe Eastport forthe 56warp days is tolonger come ashore feet, requirementtoistheir for ahomes, 12-inch and flythe commercially purple markannear the in trap, second 12which wasn’t option theaU.S. given inch purpleconcerns. mark halfway to the buoy, COVID-19 Public health and a 36-inch mark near thethose buoy. concerns in Maine precluded Bruce figures he will be putting 1,500 onboard from leaving the ship while to 1,800 markings on his rope in all; two berthed in Eastport and prohibited to three weeks of extra work if he does those on shore from boarding it. it“The without hiring number fishwhole thinghelp. wentAvery well,”ofsaid ermen are applying paint to their ropes Chris Gardner, who oversees Eastport’s

by Authority. resting them in 3-foot went long off gutters Port “Everything as made from PVC pipe. promised andlengthwise-halved planned. Through social Bruce’sthe firstcrew attempt spray paint media, andwas thewith community h paint, had but opportunities he soon movedtoon make to the more effifriends. s “time The cient brush and latex paint. outreach was wonderful on both ite and Some fishermen will add a 3-foot

esford. pizzas, busier are the season. pportufriends trip to ng was were so You did e quesmber at ge sube meetfloor!) uce and ith our Maine. goal of considen, but virusn time ot to it. n I can

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zero feedback,” Eastport City Manager Tom Hoskins said. “I think the community got comfortable with the situation, as strict quarantine guidelines that were required by the state CDC and the governor’s office were followed. Never did anyone on board get off that ship.”

Among the original opponents to the berthing arrangement was Dr. Jenie Smith, an Eastport physician who is now among health care officials recruited statewide by the Maine CDC as a COVID-19 case investigator.

“I fought hard NOT to have the ship come because of public health concerns,” Smith said in an e-mail sent to The Working Waterfront soon after the Oceania Riviera departed. “But once it arrived, and everyone behaved, it was fine. But I’m glad to have the (breakwater) view restored today.”

Asked if the stranded crew were able to enjoy Maine lobster during their twomonth lockdown in Eastport, Gardner said this: “That’s something that I can neither confirm nor deny.”

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The Working Waterfront . October 2020

Behind the scenes on this first day of school Information bottlenecks, multiple scenarios, and creative solutions

By Kate Tagai

Many teachers wished they had been given support to build solid remote learning strategies so when school transitions back to remote learning (and for ost years, the Labor Day weekend marks the start of the school year. many teachers it is a question of when, not if), they could make the transition Teachers begin weeks earlier, preparing their classrooms, refreshing smoothly and minimize disruption for students.

One school board chairman admitted that the planning process for reopening lesson plans, and creating an organized, welcoming space for their has been messy, with the board often receiving information at the same time as students. the parents, making it hard to provide concrete answers. But, he said, planning This year is different.

Administrators and teachers started preparing months before the planned start for what school would look like has brought conversations about equity to the surface, forcing communities to confront inequalities and start seeking solutions. of school. The work included: For some teachers, the pandemic is providing a real-time lesson in flexibility · Rural Aspirations Project’s collaborative Community Learning for ME website · the Department of Education’s MOOSE platform of asynchronous learning and resilience. For others, the ability to get outside and do project based learning is a real benefit, and they hope that as teachers and administration less familiar modules · a dapting individual teachers’ curriculum for a hybrid remote and in-person with these pedagogies see the educational opportunities in them, they will become an integral part of education, even after the pandemic is over. model that could change to fully one or the other at a moment’s notice Other teachers note they are getting new opportunities to collaborate with · implementing new safety equipment colleagues from other schools and with other organizations, expanding the · calling each other up to talk through creative solutions. resources they can provide to students. For others, though, having decisions In short, teachers were in full crisis preparedness mode all summer.

Their only certainty was that the start of this school year needed to look a lot made at the local level often meant the release of information was slow or chaotic; different than last year. As one teacher said, “This school year feels impossible, but it also allowed each school to create a plan for how best to open that met the needs of their families. here we go anyway.”

The transition to remote learning in the spring was heartbreaking for teachers Schools have changed their schedules, set up outdoor learning spaces, created one-way flow or limited access areas, and adapted to make sure teachers, students, and who knew student needs couldn’t be met with a sudden and unplanned shift online. Now, teachers have spent time thinking of what worked and staff were as safe as they could be while resuming in person learning. applying it. Professor Cat Biddle and her team at the University of Many teachers are relieved to be back in the classroom with their Maine gathered many of the innovative responses of Maine schools students, at least for some time, even if that relief also comes with Parents and into a report, “Beyond Crisis Schooling,” so teachers could learn risk. For some immune-compromised teachers, in person instrucstudents were from each other and build on strategies that worked. tion is impossible.

As schools set an example for safely reopening, they are the center One teacher adapted her entire curriculum to be able to deliver often the last to of intense scrutiny, worry, and hope as never before. Maine has so instruction and interact with students virtually while she waited know anything far managed the crisis so teachers can start out in their classrooms for approval to teach remotely, which didn’t come until Sept. 2, just with their students in a safe version of nearly normal. As one prindays before school was scheduled to start. For her, the plans felt last as school plans cipal said, “Our schools are in a much better position to deal with minute; but the delay came as school boards waited for more guidwere adapted… the educational challenges of COVID than most of the schools in ance from the Department of Education and the Center for Disease the country.”

Control, superintendents waited for guidance from school boards, The first few weeks in the classroom are devoted to learning how and teachers waited for guidance from the administration.

Parents and students were often the last to know anything as school plans were to navigate new ways for students and teachers to be together safely. Beyond the adapted and then revised as state guidelines shifted and COVID numbers changed. classroom, there is a greater sense that parents, families, teachers, school board members, and whole communities are in this together.

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Kate Tagai is a senior community development officer with the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. She works on education and leadership.

Maine’s cold water blocks most sharks…for now

Hammerheads, whale sharks seen more often off Massachusetts

By Craig Idlebrook

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SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL, fishing has gone hand-in-hand with stories of spotting unusual creatures in the ocean. However, now with smartphones, those stories can be verified and generate headlines.

In late August, a Cape Cod Times report shared how a fisherman saw a hammerhead shark near the coast of Chatham, Mass. That same week, boaters spotted the gigantic whale shark further off the Cape shore, according to a Boston Herald report.

Neither shark were in their historical habitat; the hammerheads are usually farther offshore and both are more at home in the southern hemisphere and the southern coast of the U.S. These sightings, coupled with the recent news of a fatal attack by a great white shark off Bailey Island in Maine, may give Mainers pause about what is swimming in the Gulf of Maine.

Eight species of shark regularly swim off Maine’s coast, from the diminutive dogfish to the large-but-harmless basking fish. In addition, there have always been vagrant warm-water fish who have wandered north during the warmer months of the year, according to James Sulikowski, a professor and associate director in the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at Arizona State University.

“We’ve caught all sorts of tropical fish in the Saco River, like butterfly fish,” Sulikowski said. “They should be on the coast of Florida.”

Warm water species are pushing somewhat north, however, and there are two factors that may be changing what species of shark can be found where in the Gulf of Maine. continued on next page

Guest Column

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

Offshore wind is back in motion Regulators, explain fishermen Solar ondeveloper Islesford isprocess onlytooption

scenic character, air and water quality, or other Failing cable, massive diesel consumption, point to sun natural resources in the area of the turbine.

By Tom Groening

T

he perception that Maine’s forays into off-

A project also must conform to the federal Natural

quite accurate, said Jake Ward of the University of Maine.

Under the New England n the 1970s, residents of name Isle au Haut had Aqua Ventus university is pursuing finally hadI, itthe with their World War IIsiting diesela floating wind and turbine off Monhegan as a generator so banded togetherIsland to invest test for possible further development. in a seven-mile electric cable to Stonington. The “Someone thisonly morning this isiscoming fast,” cable, expected to lastsaid 20 years, now nearly Ward saidold. of the university’s bid, speaking at a ses40 years sion the au Maine Forum in Rockport ButofIsle HautFishermen’s residents are determined not on March fact, generation, he has beenand involved the to go back5.toIndiesel so arein furipursuit of offshore wind 2007. ously constructing solarpower powersince arrays to become “This is not coming fast,” knowing he deadpanned. had completely self-sustaining, they are“Iin a kids when this started.

Now I have grandkids.” race against time.

Several UMaine hadispursued—as Islesford years (Littleago, Cranberry Island) also served Maine Aqua Ventus—siting two flthe oating wind by an underwater cable barely 1/10th length of turbines Monhegan about the the Isle auoff Haut cable, butto it’slearn muchmore older and in far flworse oating technology and the potential to severed, produce shape.

With two-thirds of the cable electricity.

To thaton end, a one-eighth sized floating Islesford subsists only single-phase electricity. turbine wasstrong deployed offaway Castine inits 2013, We are one storm from loss.and has since been retrieved.

According to our sources, there is a plan Ward said the projectset is now operating as New to replace the cable, in place

by Bangor England Aqua Ventus, and is seeking to site a sinHydroelectric, but implementation has been gle, 6-megawatt floating Late lastplan, year, we the punted down the road. turbine.

The unofficial federal Department of Energy awarded thecatasprojhear, is that the punting will continue until ect $1.4 at million design, and thegenerators Maine Public trophe, whichfor point emergency will Utilities Commission votedittowill approve a 20-year be brought in. Once there, be hard to get agreement rid of them. for Central Maine Power to purchase electricity Recently,generated inspired by the the turbine. activity of the group Off shore wind is the largest untapped Climate to Thrive and the installation of a solarenergy array resource “by far,” Ward said.

He explained how on the Cranberry Isles Fisherman’s Co-op—which the floating 100 turbine structure will useneeds pre-cast is supplying percent of its electrical for concrete freezers assegments. well as the usual lights and computers, “We’rejoined very confi dent it will survive” called in the maetc.—I a fledgling organization the rine environment, he said. “Anything happening Cranberry Isles Community Solar Association. in the Gulf ofthat Maine goingcommunities to be floating.”

Considering ourisisland will be remains secured.

Fishing theStill, firstpermitting to bear the effectstoofbeclimate change— interests will be included in weighing proposals, warming seas and rising water levels—we need to regulators said, fishingthe advocates those do all we can to but eliminate need for urged fossil fuels. present vigilant.

The timetoisbe right for turning to a solar solution.

Nick Livesay of the state Department of engiEnviWe elected Alden Hathaway, an electrical ronmental Protection saidcareer the project off Monheneer who has spent his promoting and gan will fall solar underinstallations, state jurisdiction.

Thpresident. e site locadeveloping as our tion law would hold sway, he said, which ensures He estimates that were our town to use generators there will the be no adverse effect on existing to power island, we would require two uses, 500 kW generators, with one operating continuously (the other as backup). Easily, diesel fuel consumption could be over 300,000 gallons per year (35 tanker trucks per year—barged over—and/or the

“unreasonably interfere” with recreation naviators) and require the utility Versant to seekora rate gation, or estuarine or marine fisheries. A increase forharm the island. developer alsoemissions, must provide navigation plan, Besides the cost, amaintenance, and a fi sh and wildlife plan, and a removal plan. eyesore of the tanks and generators, there is, of BriantheHooker the Bureau of Ocean Energy course noise. Itofseems anathema to the island Management (BOEM) outlined the federal role in we know. off shoreare wind. jurisdiction lies inresidents the waters What we BOEM’s missing that Isle au Haut thatsoare three to miles offQuite state land.

Thewemultiare focused on200 avoiding? simply, do phased, multi-year process not have anyone aliveapproval on the island who includes might planning of waters and recall whatand lifeanalysis, was like assessments before the power cable, wind potential, and construction and operation. the way Isle au Haut residents remember the old BOEM is reviewing theup Vineyard diesel generators they had into theWind 1970s.project inHathaway Massachusetts, and Hooker said a fi nal decision estimates it will take fewer than 1,300 is expected thewatts end each) of the to year.

The National solar panels by (450 provide all the MarineweFisheries is This part we of the review proenergy need forService Islesford. could accomcess and is represented on a task force includes plish in three medium-sized arrays on that utility land representatives frompart, Maine, Newcleared Hampshire, and that is, for the most already of trees; Massachusetts. two are owned by the town, which would not Annie of Responsible charge theHawkins community for its use. Offshore Development Alliance, a Washington D.C.-based adBy adding vegetation around the arrays we vocacy group formed to protect fi shery interests could actually beautify the sites. Solar panels in offshore wind development, said her group inmake no sound, take little maintenance, have cludes 170 members. been known to last more than 40 years, will not Regulators must consider shing interests, she require barge deliveries (afterfithe initial installasaid, and “We donesolar veryhas well tion), or risk oildon’t spills.feel Onthat’s top ofbeen all that, to date.”

Developers usetoasave “divide and conquer” now become a good way money. approach, separatingIsles states and projects toSolar weakThe Cranberry Community en opposition.

Association would seek a cost per household, “We’re we trying to atake the tax dialogue assuming engage wealthy investorback,” or Hawkins said. two, that would be about $7,000 per family with Fred Mattera, whoten hasyears fishedon forthe 40 years from Port a payback of about energy value Judith, urged fishermen to document where ($60 perR.I., month credit on average on the electric theyincreasing work nowtoto$75 make mitigation bill, by the the case tenthfor year; Versant if they arerates displaced wind turbines. electric go up 2bypercent per year).

“You must stay engaged,” heasaid.

But because we have formed community solar Beth Casoni, director of the association, we can qualify for a lowMassachusetts interest loan Lobstermen’s Association, echoed that view, sayto provide credit to members who would rather ing “comments matter” during public review, citpay a small deposit of $400-$500 and pay back the ing aover project area offperiod the Bay thatper wasmonth. reduced loan a 20-year at State $40-$50 byIf 65 articulated concerns. wepercent succeedbecause in this,ofwe will confirm Thomas This spring, UMaine’s Ward said, Edison’s words of nearly 100 years ago:the“I’dproject put willmoney hire a fion sheries liaison. energy. What a my the sun and solar source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

Resources Protection Act, Livesay said, not wind power have been on hold aren’t construction

By Jerishore Spurling of a large diesel tank near the and gener-

I

Fishermen’s group wants to raise mental health awareness

Jeri Spurling is an architect who lives on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island).

Changing climate, resources, danger produce stress

By Wanda Curtis SHARKS

T

continued from previous page he Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association won grant to promote First,has there is a $5,000 larger population of sealsmental near health awareness in past, the commercial fishthe coastline than in the thanks in part ing industry. to conservation efforts, Sulikowski said. Great Monique Coombs, directorbeen of marine white sharks have always in theprograms Gulf of for the nonprofi t, saidthey the would funds will be usedintothe deMaine, but usually be found velop informational materials to assist commercial southern range of the gulf and farther offshore. fiAs shermen in managing stress,toanxiety, seals have moved closer shore and depresgrown sion, well as materials showing howhave to stay menmoreasnumerous, great white sharks moved tally t. A website with phone numbers for fisherwith fithem. men to reach for is help be in the works.

“What we out have a may large,also mobile predator The grant awarded the Fisher feeding on was a prey itemby that’s closeCharitable to shore,Trust. that Coombs we saidgetfishermen mayfor, be” he experiencing sometimes misidentified said. stress due to changes in the industrydoover Hammerhead sharks typically notwhich eat they control.fish Theand ever-present danger in seals;have theynoprefer crustaceans and the work also adds other sharks.

Also,stress. whale sharks, though large, not feeders. fishing that produces for fisherare“It’s filter Both speciesstress are following men,” she said. of them love being out on their food, and “Many that food is moving northward the water.the It’s Gulf dealing a lot uncertainty because of with Maine is of warming due due to to thingschange. like climate and regulation changes, and climate how those things are going to impact their business and income.”

AccordingCape to theCod National Institute Bank for OccupaTypically, and Georges have tionalas Safety andofHealth, commercial fishing is one of acted a kind temperature barrier that blocks the most occupations in the Its data some fish dangerous from moving northward, butU.S. warming shows are thatcausing commercial experienced a fawaters somefishermen aquatic species to move tality rate ofand 114 deaths pertheir 100,000 full-timeWhere equivanorthward expand territory. lentfood workers 2000 and at compares the goes,between the predators go,2017. said Th Dave Grant, to an average deathsResearch per 100,000 full-time deputy directorofoffour the Shark Institute. equivalents among all U.S. “If you want to find theworkers. predator, look for the Common hazards include vesselare disasters, overprey.

It’s more the prey fish that movingfalls north board, and a variety onboard gear said. and equipment. and expanding theirofranges, ” Grant Coombs said fishing a very isolating industry, However, while suchis unusual fish sightings withgenerate some fishermen out they on thewill water andbeaway from may headlines, likely a story families days at a time,newspapers which adds to stress. more forfor Massachusetts than Maine “Depression, and hammerheads thoughts of suicide newspapers.

It’s anxiety, unlikely that will are not uncommon in any fishing community, regularly make their presence known off the coastno matter which areason,” saidisCoombs. of Maine for acoast longyou time, there still a big“It is an isolating, dangerous occupation, full of undifference in water temperature off Massachusetts certainty and expense.” than off Maine, said Sulikowski.

The grant just beginning, said, “Most but it’s “Our watersisare soamuch colder,”she he said. a step toward bringing issues into the openis,toit’sbe sharks, if you look at what their tolerance addressed.

The hope is to shing (water temperature in the lowhumanize 70s). Ourthe bestfidays industry and make the public aware of stressors are the high 60s. ” fishermen face every day.

Alex Todd, a 10th generation fisherman from

7 7

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The Working Waterfront . October 2020

Rock Bound

My homesick suburban blues

What should we make of these housing arrangements?

By Tom Groening

The planned neighborhoods of single-family houses—and only singleIF POLITICAL PUNDITS are correct, family houses—filled the need for men the presidential campaign is going to returning from World War II, eager to be fought through the streets and cul start families. I am of the second wave de sacs of subdivisions and housing of the baby boom, not among those who would soon “shake the windows developments.

The outcome, observers assert, will and rattle the walls” in the late 1960s.

In theory, grassy yards, spacious hinge on what happens in the suburbs.

It won’t be the first time this mid-20th homes, and safe streets for the kids to bicycle and play catch were century term will be waved idyllic compared to the as a signifier for a certain crowded, noisy tenements demographic with certain I learned that of cities. But it wasn’t quite personal values.

Joe Biden wants to my childhood that simple.

Several years ago, I destroy the suburbs, Donald Trump says, with had been part read a book called Picture Windows: How the Suburbs his housing and economic of a grand Happened, by Rosalyn policies. Trump’s crude experiment.

Baxandall and Elizabeth language and belligerent Ewen (2001). It’s not a attacks on enemies will great read—it’s like two offend the “soccer moms” of those same neighborhoods, counter doctoral theses were merged into one—but I learned that my childhood Biden’s advocates.

Setting aside the merits of each argu- had been part of a grand experiment. ment, let’s consider what’s meant by the Never before had people organized term, and what place the idea behind it themselves in this way, living in such homogenous society, with shared has on the Maine coast.

I grew up on the south shore of values, similar economic status, and of Long Island, N.Y., in the heart of what the same age.

In many ways, the suburbs were could only be described as the suburbs.

Though my town was a mere 40 miles isolating, particularly for the women, from Times Square, remarkably, most the stay-at-home mothers. Sources in of its acreage had been farmland until the book attest to the loneliness, the difficulty in finding fulfilling and meaningful the early-1950s.

volunteer opportunities beyond what served the men and children.

The tenements may have been noisy and cramped, but there were benefits to having multiple generations of a family nearby, if not in the same building or even apartment.

And the suburbs were racist in design. After I moved to Maine, I learned of an African-American editor hired at Newsday—which I used to deliver in the neighborhood on my bike—who noticed that real estate agents wouldn’t show him and his wife houses in certain towns. One of those towns “red-lined,” as it became known, was my hometown.

The editor ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize for the stories he and reporters pursued on this shameful practice.

While residential neighborhoods have always been part of our New England villages, suburbs—which I define as towns without a discernable, walkable commercial center—have begun to take root in Southern Maine.

A couple of years ago, I wrote about our inserting The Working Waterfront into the Press Herald for subscribers in certain “bedroom communities” around Portland, and a reader wrote to criticize my use of the term. She saw it, understandably, as denigrating and dismissive.

While I was with the Bangor Daily News, I wrote about two Camden-area men—brothers in law—who argued the region needed a new village. Not a housing development, but a village, with a central green space, and a small commercial district with apartments over stores and restaurants.

They even measured how far the fronts of houses were from the street on Camden’s Pearl Street, as lovely an example of 19th century residential as you could find. That distance would be the rule in their village.

Even though they had the land for their project, they never found funding.

When our son was in middle school, he spent much of his free time in town with his buddies, rather than at our home in the woods. I got it. They could rent a video, eat pizza, visit the movie theater, hit the skate park, and generally bounce around downtown Belfast, easily and safely.

I think this is worth preserving, and to do so, may mean to be wary of suburban creep.

Tom Groening is editor of The Working Waterfront.

Reflections

Leaving town, unfolding its many facets ‘Inland’ Fellow learned to see Millinocket as more than image 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 Diana Furukawa AS A KID, I WAS obsessed with origami, spending what felt like a whole summer learning to make frogs, boxes, cups, pinwheels, and most of all, cranes. The engineer in me almost enjoyed unfolding as much as folding, fascinated by the simple geometries of the paper, the way many of the designs shared the same basic shapes, and the way one thing could easily transform into another, all from a square.

As I prepare to leave Millinocket, my home as the “inland” Island Fellow for the past two years, I’ve been thinking about how places, people, and even the self, have ways of unfolding as well.

When I first came to Millinocket, I probably saw what most people see as

they drive through the town on the way to Baxter State Park: a former mill town forgotten by time. It’s the dominant image projected onto this place, one of the only shapes the narrative seems allowed to take. I probably presented a façade of my own, armed with the fresh-out-of-college blueprint of who I was supposed to become and the false confidence of rather blackand-white thinking.

At that point, my choices felt limited to an unoriginal, if earnest, version of what it meant to be a “good” person and do meaningful work: being a teacher, working at a nonprofit, or being some kind of activist. When it came to change making, my imagination went as far as my exposure.

My work at the Millinocket library challenged those notions a lot. Modern libraries can be amazingly flexible institutions, constantly adapting to become what is needed, listening to the moment and responding. During my time here, “a day at the library” has included anything from making

Ethernet cables, to recording a radio ad, to pricing rare books, to teaching robotics, to cataloging skis, to being a witness at a wedding, to designing an organizational structure.

The possibilities of my work expanded as relationships and my understanding of the community grew.

There were certainly moments when the town started to feel small, the politics bleak, moments when I wondered if “my people” were really here, or if my work was really valuable. And yet, every time, new people would come out of the woodwork, new pockets of perspective would emerge from their creases, and I would show up again and again, willing the narrative to evolve until it did.

Ultimately, this has had the effect that as I leave, Millinocket actually feels bigger to me than when I arrived. While I still can’t see the edges of its paper, this place has unfolded to me, and the result is both a map of where it’s been and a blueprint of what it can become, drawn in dazzling shades of grey.

As for me, my own origami-paper heart feels more open than ever. Its surface is littered with new and wild creases, and it won’t quite lay flat, but I trust that there’s some kind of chaotic logic to it.

I’m less afraid to just try. I have no five-year plan. To be honest, I don’t even have a one-year plan because I know that meaningful change making, that a meaningful life, can take many forms and happen anywhere.

Diana Furukawa worked with the Millinocket Memorial Library to develop a community resource and volunteer coordination center for the Katahdin region. Before moving to Maine, she lived in Seattle. She graduated from Bowdoin College with a degree in sociology and visual arts.

The Working Waterfront wishes her success in her next endeavor.

www.workingwaterfront.com . October 2020

9

HANDLE WITH CARE— This image, courtesy of the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, shows men—probably longshoremen—unloading 500-pound bombs from a railroad car, to be transferred to the hold of a ship, which probably was bound for the World War II European theater.

Op-Ed

Island life protects us from realities of racism Community must challenge status quo, become anti-racist

By Emeline Avignon I AM WHITE. I am a female. I am from Long Island, in Casco Bay. I am privileged.

When I moved to Long Island full time as a child, I felt welcomed and safe in the community. I loved the island school. I loved the freedom and safe feeling of exploring the island. I then continued learning at Portland public schools.

As a student from the island, I stepped into Portland unaware of the complexities of identity. I was exposed to a diverse community with different languages, races, ethnicities, practices, religions, classes, and genders.

As I enter adulthood, I appreciate what I learned from elders on the island, through hearing their stories, and later, learning from my peers about their different cultures. The diverse communities at the schools I attended have so much inspired me that I want to pursue anthropology and linguistics in college.

When one is from a predominantly white community, the most precious privilege is that we are not forced to consider what our existence in this community means to others around us. While at the Long Island School, every Friday afternoon, the Portland YMCA became an extension of our classroom for swim lessons. Every field trip, we were sure to make a stop at the Portland Public Library. I saw a diverse population around me in those settings, but when I went back to the island, I never questioned why there was not that same representation.

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, Philanthropy Chair Bryan Lewis, Governance Chair Michael P. Boyd, Clerk Sebastian Belle Shey Conover David Cousens Megan McGinnis Dayton Michael Felton Nathan Johnson Michael Sant Barbara Kinney Sweet Katherine Vogt Carol White John Bird (honorary) Louis W. Cabot (honorary)

When I was young, and to this day, I leave my the Confederate flag, and other expressions that make house freely and without worry of my safety, going me lose my pride in where I live. It is a humming to out on my bike to explore. Anywhere I go, I have the which we have adjusted.

Long Island can feel safe, where any xenophobic privilege of not being feared. My neighbors do not fear me. My skin keeps me safe from people fearing and racist remarks seem excusable as “freedom” and unseen by the communities they me. My parents do not fear for me affect. I think back to those years or have to speak to me about what when I first moved here and felt so not to do to incite danger or bias welcomed, and now question if I based on my movements or the way Our responsibility is still would be welcomed if I voiced I look. what I believe in today.

I have the privilege of speaking not to confront the I write because I want people on out, acting out, being loud, going rest of the world, but other islands to not feel removed where I want, without being from racism. I still hear the perceived as violent, angry, or to confront ourselves. humming in our community. I invasive. cannot be silent on what I think is We are privileged to live in a right. Silence is violence, too, as I community that is so safe, where would be condoning and allowing we are free from crime. There is one sheriff ’s deputy on the island, and only in summer. I racist behavior to continue to hum.

As a white community, we must be anti-racist. I am never thought of him policing my actions, or needing to be wary when in his presence. This safe idea of questioning my everyday actions which contribute to the status quo of whiteness. police is a privilege in itself.

I do not want us to feel immune because we are on I think at the crux of safety is belonging and understanding. If we were able to create a strong cama- an island. Our responsibility is not to confront the raderie in all neighborhoods, like we have on the rest of the world, but to confront ourselves. I want island, there wouldn’t be so much fear and need for us to think about what kind of community we want large police departments; this is one reason for the to be. nationwide call to defund the police.

I feel empowered by the strength of an island Emeline Avignon is a freshman at Trinity College, and community. I believe most of our community believes a ski instructor in her time off. She hopes to become a in rights for all. But I have heard the “N” word, seen journalist and study anthropology and language.

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

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10

The Working Waterfront . October 2020

The sublime joy of sailing

Rockland nonprofit’s communty sailing provides access

Story and photos by Jack Sullivan

W

hen power boats supplanted sailboats, the argument could be made that mariners were free of the reliance on the vagaries of the wind.

But does that freedom to travel wherever and whenever outweigh the freedom one feels when gliding across the water in a sailboat? Those at the Apprenticeshop in Rockland might have something to say on that question.

The Apprenticeshop, an educational nonprofit founded in 1972, aims to keep the art of wooden boatbuilding alive by providing workshops and extended apprenticeships to students of a wide age range.

To help ensure that sailing remains accessible to the public, the Apprenticeshop began a free community sailing program. Although the summer of the pandemic has limited the number of trips and participants, the experience was still shared with a handful of people who might not have otherwise had the opportunity to sail.

I was among them, and—in line with the program’s intention—this was my first time on the water in a sailboat.

According to Nate Hathaway, the Apprenticeshop’s community sailing director, the program serves as a bridge between the past and the present. Fisheries will rise and fall, new marine transportation technology will be developed, but the joy of floating with the wind will never become obsolete.

Participants in the community sailing program are instructed in preparing the boat.

Nate Hathaway, community sailing director at the Apprenticeshop.

www.workingwaterfront.com . October 2020

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ATIN

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CEL E

Rockland Harbor is a popular spot for sailing; our boat was one of many on the water that evening.

RS!

YEA

Catherine Worthington: Full Moon Reflections

Paul Sampson, Janice Jones, and Maggie’s Farm

386 MAIN STREET

•

ROCKLAND, MAINE

•

(207) 596-0701

TheArchipelago.net

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The Working Waterfront . October 2020

www.workingwaterfront.com . October 2020

—YORK—

HISTORIC TOWN, HARBOR, AND BEAUTIFUL BEACH Southern Maine, in late summer splendor PHOTO ESSAY BY KELLI PARK

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The Working Waterfront . September 2020

Our Island Communities World War II-era tower is island family heirloom Browns of Long Island proud of former radar installation

By Tom Groening

building was expanded and is now Towanda’s home.

Years after purchasing the property, ou may be forgiven for thinking a 65-foot-tall tower on a Casco the family discovered a small concrete Bay island has something to structure behind the houses, which do with warning mariners away from became their father’s workshop. Walking danger. But the tower in Brad Brown’s back to the house from this building, side yard on Long Island actually was Towanda stumbles on a small concrete built to harm mariners. Well, invading pier, one of many such remnants of the military’s presence that have surprised mariners, anyway. the Browns over the decades.

At any rate, it’s not a lighthouse.

Brad, a retired carpenter who lived Brown and his sister, Towanda Brown (more on her first name later), have and worked in Portland for 30-plus inherited the property their father years, settled on the family’s island purchased in 1971, which was part of the property permanently in 1989. broad and heavy military presence on Towanda, who does ceramic art, lived Long Island—and the other Casco Bay for a time in Tuscon, Ariz., but moved islands—during the World War II years. to the island in 1995.

The block buildings are barely recogThe concrete tower, Brad has learned from extensive research, was used nizable as former military structures, for radar equipment, and though it but there’s no disguising the radar tower.

“My dad always told me it was a Naval is 65-feet tall now, in the early 1940s it included another 25-foot wooden observation tower,” Brad says, “but I found out it was Army.” section at the top, so it Their father used it for reached 90 feet above the storage, a practice the family ground, which, not coincicontinued until recent years. dentally, was on the highest “We finally got it cleaned “It was point on Long Island.

That wooden super- designed to be out,” Brad says.

He learned the Army structure was designed to bomb proof.” abandoned the property in look like the wooden water 1946, but it wasn’t sold to towers that proliferated in —BRAD BROWN a private owner until 1966. small communities in the Graffiti dates back to 1963, early 20th century, an effort he notes. to have it passed over as a “We spray-painted out target by German artillery.

The location also was chosen because the more colorful ones,” he says.

The concrete walls are 13-inches it allowed the Army to triangulate with installations on Luckse Sound and thick, and reinforced with steel. The concrete floors are 5-6-inches thick.

Hussey Sound.

There is flaking here and there, but the Their father was a career Navy man.

“He was all over the place,” Brad says. structure is in remarkably good shape.

“It was designed to be bomb proof,” “He went in in 1946,” and served in Guam and China, among other Asian Brad explained. “My dad’s cousin settings. At one point, there were five carried 90-pound bags of cement” U.S. ships on China’s Yangtze River, during its construction.

The tower includes seven “floors,” and the Browns’ father was on one, and four of his cousins were on the others, with circular stairs linking the first four.

The next three are accessed by wooden though none knew it at the time.

Their mother was from Pennsylvania. ladders. There’s a large diameter pipe Towanda was named for a Native that Brad deduced accommodated a American friend of her mother’s there. coal stove, there are metal pins in some Brad and Towanda, who grew up places which must have been used to in Portland, remember the property mount tripods for binoculars, and being overrun with vegetation in their electrical conduit remains throughout.

The top floors have wide, narrow early years there. They camped out in a cement block building they later learned openings, which would allow the men had housed a generator during the war to peer through without letting much interior light escape. years, powering the radar equipment.

“When we first moved down here, A porch and a second floor were added to another block building, my mother used to go up there,” Brad which had been an officers mess hall, says, gesturing to the open, top level, and it became their father’s home in “every morning with her coffee.” The retirement in 1987. Brad now calls family gathers there to watch Fourth of that building home. Yet another block July fireworks.

Y

Brother and sister Brad and Towanda Brown pose at the base of the tower on their family property on Long Island. PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Brad Brown in one of the tower’s upper floors. PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Among the cast-off gear he has found were 5-foot-long carbon rods, which he learned were part of arc lights that could illuminate a target 15-miles out to sea.

Brad believes he once observed a drug deal from the tower, as two boats rafted up and passed something from one to the other.

“They weren’t lobster traps,” he says.

Another time, he saw a nuclear submarine surface.

These days, Portland’s EMS radio equipment relies on the tower, not radar.

There have been lighter moments, too. Towanda remembers Casco Bay Lines loaning the island school thick braided rope which was used to replicate Rapunzel’s hair from the top of the tower, when the children were reading the story.

“Next year is the 50th anniversary of us owning the property,” Towanda said, and the family wants to mark it by inviting island and other local historical societies to visit. “We want to celebrate what my Dad did.”

www.workingwaterfront.com . October 2020

SWIMMING FOR SWIMMERS— PHOTOS BY DALE JOYCE Sage Dentremont, a rising senior at Mount Desert Island High School, swam from her home on Swan’s Island to the Bass Harbor Ferry Terminal on Sept. 1. The six-mile swim was part of her senior exhibition project, and she’s raising money via a GoFundMe page to pay for swim lessons for Swan’s Island children at the Downeast Family YMCA.

Transcript of Jason Joyce’s remarks at GOP convention Swan’s Island lobsterman speaks in support of Trump

GOOD EVENING. My name is Jason Joyce and I am an eighth-generation lobster fisherman from Maine. I make my living from lobster fishing, oyster farming, and providing tours in the waters near Acadia National Park, where I have over 200 years of family history.

I have to confess, I did not support Trump in 2016, skeptical that he shared my conservative views. I expected him to flip-flop on his campaign promises, but he has followed through in his promises, including last week, when he brokered a deal to end European Union tariffs on my lobsters and 20 percent on lobster products, which is great news for me.

I live on an island with 370 residents and lobstering is how we provide for our families. We are too environmentalists. We practice conservation every day. If we did not, we would be putting ourselves out of business.

Four years ago, the Obama-Biden administration used the Antiquities Act to order thousands of square miles of ocean off-limits. They did it to cater to environmental activists. Obama’s executive order offended us greatly. It circumvented the fisheries council’s input.

President Trump reversed that decision, reinstating the rules that allow stakeholder input. He supports a process that seeks and respects fishermen’s use. As long as Trump’s president, fishing families like mine have a voice.

Swan’s Island’s Jason Joyce.

If Biden wins, he will impose radical changes that hurt our coastal communities.

I strongly support President Trump’s reelection. When he sees something is not right, he is fearless in fixing it. He listens to working people. He nominates judges to respect the constitution and the right to life. He keeps his word like eliminating the European tariffs and moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

I hope you will join me this time in voting for President Trump. Stand up for your country. Thank you.

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16

The Working Waterfront . October 2020

Jane Crosen’s new, old Hancock County atlas

Coastwise edition of 1881 infuses with history, culture

By Tom Groening

A

s far as I’m concerned, every map is a treasure map. In our first years in Maine, there were many Saturday mornings in which I’d pore over the Maine Atlas and Gazetteer, scoping out a minor road that might offer views of a bay or ocean.

Later, I collected hand-drawn maps of favorite places like Deer Isle, coastal Washington County, and the Casco Bay islands. And that’s not to mention nautical charts, through which I could imagine long paddles in my kayak.

The treasure that lies in a good map, it seems to me, is the discovery of Maine’s coastal beauty.

Jane Crosen’s maps back me up in this assertion.

I’ve been a fan of her work for years, and have some of her maps hanging on the walls of my home.

But her latest work takes the two-dimensional nature of a traditional map and infuses it with history, economics, and culture.

Crosen, 66, who lives in Penobscot with her husband, has resurrected a Hancock County atlas from 1881, and with that solid foundation, created a book that anyone who loves this stretch of coastal Maine could be lost in for hours.

“It ended up becoming, for me, a rediscovery of Hancock County history,” she says, a place in which she has lived, explored, studied, and documented in map and text for decades.

It warrants the 68 pages she devotes to her Coastwise Geographic Edition of Colby’s 1881 Atlas of Hancock County Maine.

There’s a wealth of material in the original—the maps show small black squares, indicating houses, with each owner’s name beside it from 1881; a brief history of its settlement; and a list of historically significant points, such as military batteries and forts.

In Gouldsborough (note the old spelling), what today is Corea Harbor is listed as Indian Harbor, and there are nine Youngs shown living along the shore; the family name persists there today.

But Crosen has added so much more. For example, on the pages devoted to Sedgwick and Brooklin, we read quotes from Samuel Wasson’s Survey of Hancock County, 1878, noting the “porgie factories, and two herring packing-houses” in Brooklin.

There are vintage photos, too, which Crosen painstakingly tracked down to match the towns and the era, with help from the Penobscot Marine Museum.

And, from the original atlas, Crosen’s version includes what she calls the county’s “yellow pages” from 1881, listing businesses. Sedgwick, we learn, had one harness dealer, a C.F. Herrick. Eden, now known as Bar Harbor, had one hotel, operated by T.S. Linscomb.

(It’s likely there were more; the list is of “patrons,” suggesting only those who paid were included.)

Crosen’s professional background has prepared her well for the undertaking. Born in Bangor, but raised in Cumberland, her mother was an English teacher who pushed young Jane to write well.

“I remember her saying, ‘Oh Jane, that’s too flowery,’” about some passage. Her publisher’s note attests to what she learned about writing, as

it colorfully provides context to both S.F. Colby’s original work, and how she has enhanced it. Among the improvements, she says, are a better layout of the maps and replacing antiquated place names with contemporary ones.

Crosen attended Brown University for a couple of years, then was drawn to Findhorn, a spiritual community in Scotland, where she lived for three years.

“I missed Maine,” she remembers. “I missed the landscape as much as anything,” and so returned, landing a job at DeLorme in Yarmouth, working as an assistant to founder David DeLorme. It was there, she recalls, “I figured out who I was, spreading my wings.”

From 1979 to 1981, she worked on an update to the iconic Maine Atlas and Gazetteer. One of her tasks was to list recreational areas, but she remembers DeLorme’s admonishment: “I could only put it in the gazetteer if I could figure out where to put the symbol” for boat ramp, park, or hiking trail.

Crosen then moved north, and began working part-time at WoodenBoat in Brooklin, the boatbuilding school and publisher of the magazine of the same name, along with a book imprint. Eventually, she took on full time work there as book copyeditor.

Hand-drawn maps and illustrations were added to her repertoire while working on the company’s Canoe magazine, and then creating end papers for cruising guides. Crosen further spread her wings in producing two-color poster maps of coastal Maine, and one-colored “stipple” maps.

“I kind of riffed off nautical charts,” she says of her approach then, and always, drew on several existing maps to be comprehensive.

“I’ve done, by now, most of the maps I want to do,” she says.

In recent years, she’s been speaking to schools and adult groups about maps, explaining, particularly for children, how to read them. A popular activity in schools is “map sleuthing Downeast,” she says, a scavenger hunt-like exercise.

In a slideshow presentation at area libraries, she began using close-up details from the 1881 atlas. While visiting Charlie Ferden at Downeast Graphics & Printing in Ellsworth one day, he shared with Crosen a facsimile edition of the 1881 atlas he had printed 20 years earlier.

That triggered her to tackle the reproduction.

“What inspires me,” Crosen writes in the publisher’s note, “is our well-preserved Downeast landscape, where you can discover hidden remnants of Hancock County’s history, if you know where to look.” With this book in hand, you’ll know where to look.

Coastwise Geographic Edition of Colby’s 1881 Atlas of Hancock County Maine is available for purchase at mainemapmaker.com for $42.

Jane Crosen in her home in Penobscot. PHOTO: TOM GROENING

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column, to grow blue mussels. The company was founded in 1999 and can grow 400,000 pounds eaweed, mussels, and scallops—these are of mussels per year at a three-acre site in Blue some of the farmed seafood products that Hill Bay. Most of the product goes to out-of-state are enjoying great success among small wholesalers, with the rest purchased by local aquaculture operations off the Hancock County restaurants and individuals. The mechanized harvest includes a conveyor belt, debearding coast.

And business owners continue to innovate as they machine, inspection belts, and sizing machine.

For five years now, the company has been look to expand markets, share their technologies and know-how with newcomers, promote aquacul- working with the Downeast Institute in Beals ture as a sustainable industry, work with state and to develop “blonde” mussels through a selective municipal governments to preserve and develop breeding program. The goal is to differentiate working waterfront infrastructure, and expand the product in the marketplace and command Maine’s imprint as a producer of premier products. premium prices.

Mussels are also the focus at Hollander & de That was the word from seafood farmers who told their stories during an online presentation Koning Mussel Farm in Bar Harbor. But rather hosted by Stonington’s Maine Center for Coastal than rope culture, the operation harvests wild seed and raises them on the seabed, said co-owner Fisheries on Aug. 28.

“Downeast Maine is a very different coastal Fiona de Koning.

The technique, developed in the Netherlands, area than Southern or Midcoast Maine,” said Sarah Redmond, founder of Springtide Seaweed is designed to collect only part of the wild seed resource, leaving the rest on its own. According in Gouldsboro.

Springtide, founded in 2017, is an organic to de Koning, the method increases the total seaweed aquaculture company, growing varieties biomass 12 percent to 15 percent.

De Koning said Maine’s processing and distrilike sugar kelp and alaria. The company provides consulting services and organic seed to other bution infrastructure isn’t keeping up with the farmers, dries and processes seaweed into various industry’s potential.

“It’s not efficient to have processing and distribution as separate to each separate farm,” she said. “If we want aquaculture to be an even more valuable economic driver to coastal communities, we have to look at that, and start producing enough volume to be taken seriously in the marketplace.

There’s potential and huge opportunity to do that.”

In Stonington, Marsden Brewer, a commercial fisherman, founded PenBay Farmed Scallops. Four years ago, Brewer and his son Bob were part of a delegation to Springtide Seaweed’s founder, Sarah Redmond, displays the Japan, a leader in farmed scalcompany’s products during an online session about aquaculture lops, to study methods and techoperations in Hancock County. nology.

Now they’re using “lantern SCREENSHOT/MAINE CENTER FOR COASTAL FISHERIES nets”—tiered mesh cylinders that hang in the water from a longline. products, advises investors interested in seaweed Last year, he sold about 40,000 scallops. Now he’s aquaculture, and offers educational programs. looking to expand.

“This is about putting another tool in the It touts Downeast Maine as ideal for growing toolbox,” he said. seaweed due to its cold, clean waters.

Brewer helped found the Maine Aquaculture “How do you take this mysterious, wild, ancient plant and domesticate it?” Redmond said. “That’s Co-op in Tenants Harbor, which seeks to develop the scallop-farming sector. The co-op recently what we’re trying to figure out.”

For kelp—a large brown seaweed that grows in received a grant from the Maine Aquaculture Hub coastal waters—the process starts by collecting to buy a lantern net washer, adding to specialized spores, settling them onto long lengths of string, equipment already on-hand, including a sorter/ then unspooling the string onto lines suspended grader and scallop washer.

“The equipment is necessary to scale up,” he said. between moorings in the ocean.

Speakers noted that shellfish and seaweed The tiny organisms grow through the winter and become a huge abundance by springtime. The farming help restore the environment—removing kelp is harvested, hung to dry in greenhouses, then nitrogen and phosphates, sequestering carbon, processed into products such as seasoning blends. and creating protein all at once.

But Brewer was also wary of scaling up too much.

Redmond noted the industry’s success into the “As we look forward on this, currently in Maine future depends on improved working waterfront you can have up to 100 acres and you can have infrastructure.

“We need infrastructure up and down our 10 of those,” he said. A thousand-acre operation coast, especially Downeast,” she said. “We have would be too big for Maine, he said. “I like the idea of scaling up production on shore, but on the hundreds of years of dilapidated infrastructure.”

Evan Young at Blue Hill Bay Mussels also uses water it needs to be done at a scale that fits the ropes, but suspended vertically in the water community.”

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The Working Waterfront . October 2020

Saltwater Cure

A very long swim, a new view of my island August’s 5K fundraiser was a team affair

By Courtney Naliboff I WAS ONE of those kids who always managed to find her way into the water. At Sea World, I leaned so far into a dogfish petting tank that I got soaked head to toe, resulting in the purchase of a very expensive souvenir sweatshirt.

Wading in the shallows of a lake, it was guaranteed that I would go in far enough to get my shorts wet, and at that point, why not just go swimming?

Hiking in the Julian Alps, I plunged myself into an alpine pool, basically a deep puddle of melted snow, and powered through the brain freeze to paddle around on my back, even as other hikers chuckled.

And I endured an hour in the Jubilee Pool, a famous tidal lido in Penzance, in June. I was completely numb when I got out and tottered around the corner for hot tea. Why? Because it was there, and a body of water shouldn’t go to waste.

Moving to North Haven in 2005 opened up new swimming opportunities, although it took a little trial and error to find the best spots. The cold water of the open beaches is the perfect antidote to the dry heat of late July, and the warmer tidal flats of the Creek, the Mill Stream, and Smelt Brook are wonderful for more sustained swimming. Don’t let anyone tell you

differently—the waters around North Haven are magnificent.

Once I started doing longer swims, up to a mile or two, I caught the notion of participating in an Islesboro crossing, an annual 5K swim between the Lincolnville ferry terminal and Islesboro.

The event raises funds and awareness for LifeFlight, the medivac helicopter service that covers the entire state.

A 5K open water swim seemed like an excellent way to celebrate my 40th birthday, in 2021, but when the event shifted to individual swims and paddles due to the pandemic, I signed up right away.

Because swimming with friends is more fun—and safer—I put together a team, including several other EMTs. And then I started swimming. I did laps across the cove at Big Beach in June, conceding to wear a wetsuit when the back of my neck cramped painfully with the cold water. I swam to and from the big rock in Smelt Brook while my daughter splashed in the shallows. I took a nice long swim from Calderwood Island to a large rock, and did a practice mile in the Mill Stream with Penrose in her kayak for support.

We settled on Aug. 10 as the date of the big swim. Our original route had to be revised due to the entirely predictable 18th (approximate) plague of Passover

2020, sharks. We’d be departing from the Pulpit Harbor float, swimming with the tide down the Mill Stream, hopping the causeway into the oyster pond, doing a full circumference and half a diameter and back, and then getting back into the Mill Stream and going back to the float.

The day was warm, windless, and clear. We had raised almost $10,000 for LifeFlight. Four of us—three swimming, one paddling—met at the float at 3 for a few photos, and to strap a Bluetooth speaker to the kayak and plan a motivational playlist (95 percent Beyoncé, naturally). We jumped in and headed through the mellow water of the harbor towards First Bridge.

We were greeted by the cheers and waves of most of the rest of North Haven EMS, waving a banner. We kept an easy pace, chatting about our kids, the coming school year, and admiring the glory of the day. More friends came to the bank to clap and shout encouragement, and Bill and Penrose were waiting with still others at the causeway.

Our mile in the oyster pond was hot, and a little weird—the muck at the bottom caused a lot of consternation—but one of our team members had worked as an oyster diver and gave us a guided tour as we went around, alerting us to rocks and explaining the oyster breeding process.

A great blue heron crossed low in front of us—a sign of an independent spirit, one of the team informed us— and a kingfisher dove from a branch.

After an hour, we got back in the Mill Stream. The water was cooler and a light breeze had picked up, but our energy was high. Other than getting hungry— a long conversation about ice cream flavors kept us going for a while—we all felt good, if a little stir crazy.

Two swimmers started singing Disney songs as the bridge came back in sight.

A family hanging out on their family’s lobster boat cheered us as we made our final approach. Climbing up the ladder on the float, I realized that I didn’t actually want to stop swimming. (I did want to eat some ice cream, though).

We dragged the kayak up and got a few more photos, then headed home to eat.

Seeing the island from within the water creates a connection, an intimacy, that nothing else can replicate. This is the fish’s view, the seal’s view, the cormorant’s view.

The land looms up on either side and the water cradles and supports the swimmer, saying rest now, you’re home.

Courtney Naliboff lives on North Haven where she teaches music, writing, and theater.

Journal of an Island Kitchen

It’s been a blackberry year When one fruit fails, another flourishes

By Sandy Oliver NORMALLY, RIGHT ABOUT the first week of September, it’s that old chanteuse Peaches Galore around here.

My trees yield up enough for peach fans to pick, for me to sell at roadside, and plenty more fill the kitchen here for canned peaches, peach jam, peach chutney, peach pie, peaches chopped up and eaten with granola, turned into smoothies, peach shortcake or just plain peaches and cream. How luscious.

Alas, not this year. One of my three trees was defoliated by gypsy moth caterpillars even though we torched them as fast as we could. The tree set all new leaves but essentially said, “Forget the fruit, kiddo, I’m exhausted making new leaves.” I didn’t blame her for one minute.

The drought meant all fruit was small this year, and I think stressed the trees terribly. Then heat and great humidity, well, it was just too much for all of us.

Groan. I grieved my peaches. Not everyone had this problem, but I sure did.

But behold: blackberries. Huge quantities of them. My niece Sarah picked

for an hour or more after work for a couple weeks. She hasn’t calculated the total yield yet but it looks to be close to 30 pounds or more.

Unlike peaches, which virtually drop into your hands full, juicy, fragrant, and sweet, blackberries are hard fought for—gnarly, prickly, wretched thorny stems that catch at your clothing and shred your arms if you aren’t careful.

Picking blackberries means Carharts, boots, and bug repellent.

The berries were pretty juicy, but no matter how you look at it, they are seedy if tasty little buggers. So they get a trip through the Foley food mill which removes the largest part of the seeds.

If I am trying for jam, that once-through is sufficient. If for a puree for winter sorbet, an additional push through a sieve is called for. That same puree, sweetened and folded into stiffly whipped cream, makes a divine mousse-like dessert.

Some berries get soaked in vodka for cordial. Some are covered with hot vinegar to make shrub, sweetened by plenty of sugar to make a syrup, spectacularly delicious over ice cubes with

sparkling water or club soda added.

Certainly some berries find their way into the breakfast granola with yogurt.

The chickens ate all the extracted seeds. We spotted red squirrels who don’t miss a thing, perched atop a few blackberry canes, plucking ripe berries and eating them on the spot. Cute.

Bulging little cheeks.

Of course, the scene in the kitchen still involves clouds of fruit flies, and sticky drippy spots on anything horizontal, and as an added treat, purple spatters from the food mill on adjacent surfaces.

I like blackberries, I really do. Despite drought, ours were awfully good. Such intense flavor. Bless Sarah for her patience in picking which she says, and I believe her, she really enjoyed, wading into the patch spotting the next thick cluster of berries, and adding to the gallon milk carton she cut a big hole in so she could grasp the handle in one hand and pluck berries with the other.

Family tales from the Bunkers, previous owners of our house, relate that Capt. Emery Bunker went picking blackberries here with a pail on a string

around his neck; he was a serious two-fisted picker. He fell on his pail, the family story says, which caused a stomach cancer that took his life. Sarah, thank God, stayed upright, not easily done when all the blackberry canes thickly conceal rocky spots and ledges.

So what’s it all about? The longer I exist, the more I see that all of nature and the lives we live toss up before us metaphors that none of us are smart enough to invent.

“It’s true,” someone says. “You couldn’t make this stuff up.”

See, I didn’t know how good peachy peach-years were until I didn’t have one. So instead here we are, snagged by prickly blackberries, seeds stuck in our teeth, and exercising more patience than we thought we had to collect them. At least there were blackberries.

How like 2020.

Sandy Oliver is a food historian who writes, gardens, and cooks on Islesboro.

www.workingwaterfront.com . October 2020

19

The man is gone, but the story remains The late Stevie Robbins Jr. captured in Salt of the Earth film

By Benjamin Neal I NEVER MET Stephen H. Robbins Jr., a legendary offshore lobsterman of Stonington who passed away in July of this year. However, I do know Randy Olson, a marine-biologist-turnedfilmmaker, who made one of his first movies about Stevie and his family, nearly 30 years ago.

I watched this film again recently, titled Salt of the Earth: A Journey to the Heart of Maine Lobster Fishermen, and was struck by just how plain real both the humor and emotion were.

This simply made film, with hand-held footage taken in one evening at the Robbins’ waterfront fish house, catches and expresses the bright and unique spark of two generations of fishermen of the Robbins family.

Stevie, as Steve Jr. was known, was one of the first offshore lobstermen in Maine. He had a 55-foot steel lobster boat, named the Stacie Vea after his daughter, built at the Gamage yard in East Boothbay in the early 1980s. He and his brother Brian worked far out in the Gulf of Maine, at times to the Hague

Line, the boundary between the U.S. and Canadian fishing grounds.

He was a big man, 6-foot, 5-inches tall and 300 pounds, and a real fishing innovator who played a big part in developing the Maine lobster fishery into what we know today—the most valuable marine fishery in the country for the past five years, according to National Marine Fisheries Service.

This is big and worthy work, and worthy of note, but from the film it is apparent that he was much more than just an innovative fisherman. He was a storyteller and musician in the finest Maine narrative tradition, with no acting or artifice, just real stories that he felt so strongly that he himself could cry.

One such story in the film is how he remembers being described as a boy by a passing yachtsman as “the salt of the earth,” and this stuck with him for life.

His pride in this description, and the way it guided his personal principles, were seemingly themselves made of Stonington granite.

Olson, the filmmaker, has in his work taken two seemingly disparate tracks, the combination of which has outfitted

him uniquely for creating movies about fishermen and the ocean. He was first a newly tenured professor at the University of New Hampshire, with a Ph. D in marine biology from Harvard, when he decided to leave the security of that position to move to Hollywood and begin film school at the University of Southern California.

He has made films building on his background in marine science, while weaving in a very personal and humanistic approach. It is not hard to think that his subtle humor, narrative style, and inherent human empathy and connection were influenced early in his career by the interview that forms the core of Salt of the Earth, with these elements all so clearly displayed by Stevie Robbins and his family in his workshop on that evening.

Olson’s later works include an awardwinning documentary about intelligent design theories and the Kansas School Board in 2005, a surprisingly laugh-outloud piece about global warming called Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy, and most recently a surf film documenting the massive storm swells experienced in the south Pacific in 2012.

Olson is an innovative communicator of complex scientific issues, a storyteller himself who learned this craft from his early subjects like Stevie and his family, who remained lifelong contacts and friends, and Salt of the Earth remains his favorite of all his films.

The messages in this movie are just as fresh now as they were when they were recorded in 1990, tales of honest work on the water, dripping with the character, endurance, pride, and humor of Maine fishermen.

Stevie Robbins was clearly a man who moved in big spaces, not only the windswept offshore realm where he worked, but also in the scope of his emotions and connections. I never knew him, but as I live in our shared waterfront culture, I look for the signs of those who have carved out this space, and I know from this movie that Stevie Robbins was one of those who made the Maine coast what it is.

Salt of the Earth: Journey to the Heart of Maine Lobster Fishermen can be accessed and downloaded for free at www.saltthemovie.org.

World Ocean Observatory

The ocean and its feast for our senses Populations return to coast, but what will they find?

By Peter Neill THE OCEAN IS A PLACE for the senses. Living in the city, amidst the frenzy and the noise, the operative function is contra-sensual, a mix of cacophony and nonsense. We are blinded by the lights, insensitized by the feel of the urban space, and deafened by the chaotic mix. We long for the ocean and move there and vacation there in pursuit of freedom.

There is a massive internal migration in the United States from the heartland to the coast. By mid-century, more than half the population will have moved to the edges, mostly into the density of large urban and suburban regions in search of work and social engagement.

We will be running out of shoreline—assumed by wealthy estates, water-dependent and marine-related industries, vestigial public spaces like parks and beaches, and remnants of coastal wetlands that have been protected from the constant pressure of development. There is a terrible irony in the statement that the ocean is the last great wilderness when in fact its access is becoming more and more limited by human settlement, its value compromised by intensity of use.

The wheel turns, as the American heartland, once wild, then civilized by the business of agriculture and fossil

fuels, is now slowly abandoning to the wild as inhabitants move elsewhere.

And then there is the ever-perplexing implication of climate change, extreme weather, and sea level rise that will impact coasts and coastal communities exponentially in ways already demonstrated by recent hurricanes, floods, resultant erosion, and eutrophication of inshore waters.

What, senselessly, will be lost? Here are some things at risk: VISION Sight and insight, clarity and purity in a changing palette of colors, all spectral possibilities, from light to dark, from deepest blue, to purest white, to furious black as the front rolls through. Depth and dimension: the two-dimensional frame of the ocean view; the threedimensional depth to beyond the horizon and into the sky and space where there is no limiting shore; the four-dimensional extension of time as history of human achievement connecting from the beginning across the open sea.

AUDITION Hearing the sound of resonance, the rolling mellifluous rhythm of waves, relentless, changing, rising and falling, reverberating, mixed with the incomparable overlay of wind.

Calls and cries of sea birds. Grating of

pebbles and shells on the beach. Fine choral harmonies of blowing sand and sea grasses. The poetry of the wind reciting expressive lyrics of solace, lament, fury, and joy.

GUSTATION The tastes of water and salt, bits of grit and seaweed, of beach fare—chips and vinegar and sandy sandwiches, hot dogs grilled, sharp mustard, clams and mussels steamed, lobster with so much drawn butter, sweet corn, of shared plates at a family picnic, of maybe a kiss—each a stimulus for association and times passed, the tastes of youth and age, of memories.

some strange marine creature crawling, swimming by.

CREATION Our voices. The shape of speech inherent in our thoughts as we ponder self, selfishness, selflessness, the confessions between us, the laughter of playing children, the shouts of exhilaration and defiance, the words of friendship and love, the words we don’t have the courage to speak.

OLFACTION The smell of wind, changing with direction, off-shore, in-shore, around the compass, riding in and away to places somewhere else beyond our knowledge, the smell of rain and fog, driftwood fire smoke, sweat and sunscreen, of the past mixed into the present and into intimations of the future.

All these things aggregate into movement—a dynamic as temporal as swimming away or dancing on the beach, as psychological as personal inquiry, awareness, and analysis—a search for equilibrium and location in time and space.

The ocean is the best therapy, the most powerful place for expression of the human spirit and connection, the source of who we are, thus what we do, thus meaning. We are grateful.

SENSATION The touch of your companion’s hands, your children’s embrace, the sun on your skin, the water when you first enter, the cold rising, the decision to slowly immerse or dive right in, the salt in your eyes, the swallowed sea unwelcome in your lungs, the feel of

Peter Neill is the director of the World Ocean Observatory, which produces weekly radio essays that can be heard on WERU-FM, 89.9, on podcast at apple.com/us/podcast/world-oceanradio/id425361249, and at http://www. worldoceanobservatory.org/worldocean-radio. He lives in Sedgwick.

20

The Working Waterfront . October 2020

Field Notes

New soundtrack for working waterfronts Inefficient equipment, fossil fuels are being replaced

By Sam Belknap IT WASN’T JUST the sound of seagulls and waves lapping against the shore those four years I spent running my family’s Midcoast lobster wharf.

There was the whir of impeller blades pumping seawater into the lobster tanks. The roar of the propane blast heater, struggling to heat 200 gallons of water to cook lobsters or crabs. The metallic avalanche of another pound of ice being made in the back room.

In fact, my life was a cocoon of sound. When I started working for my family, I had little experience with the challenges of running a small business. Even so, it did not take me long to realize that these sounds of industry, in their near infinite variety, meant one thing—money out the door.

The bulk of what we purchased was energy, in its various forms. Diesel fuel for the boats, propane for the lobster cooker and to heat buildings, and most, of all, electricity—the lifeblood of our operation—to run everything else.

I remember the day I sat down with my father to calculate the cost of producing one pound of picked lobster meat. I recall, even more vividly, my reaction to the ledger showing that only about 50 percent of our cost was tied to what we paid fishermen for their catch.

The remainder was energy and labor.

The impacts of climate change on This highlights a critical, but littleknown fact of our state’s seafood Maine are well documented and they economy—from lobstermen to have been impacting the lobster fishery.

The uncertainty in lobster landings, processors and dealers, much of the expenses are subject to variability. If weather, global markets, and the price there is one thing my humble, short- and availability of bait all are hitting lobster businesses hard. lived experience at the From individual fishwharf taught me, it’s that ermen like my father, to uncertainty is the bane of the women of “Two Ladies any small business.

Lobster” who now run my I struggled those four I struggled … family’s wharf, and further years to find ways to while watching up the lobster supply minimize this uncerchain, everyone is working tainty, while watching money flow to reduce this uncertainty money flow out of poorly out of poorly and make their businesses insulated lobster holding tanks, or through the insulated lobster more resilient.

Reducing and stabilizing cracks in my office walls holding tanks… energy costs through and floors; money in the energy efficiency upgrades form of wasted energy. and investments in renewI saw this wasted able energy offer two great energy as part of a larger problem. Inefficiency, and the often benefits to working waterfronts like less than environmentally friendly my family’s. Reducing energy costs way in which it is produced have means more money can be made by a been driving changes in our Earth’s business, and perhaps squirrelled away climate for generations. Nowhere was for an unforeseen expense (like the this clearer than on that small piece time my ice machine and bait cooler of working waterfront, where I held fan quit on the same day!). But these my son’s hand and told him how we strategies also help to reduce carbon used to sell Maine shrimp, and why pollution, the driving factor behind we couldn’t do that anymore, and what climate change.

While I struggled to reduce energy that meant for families that relied on that winter fishery to bridge the gap costs for my family business, others are taking action towards this goal, and we between lobster seasons.

don’t have to go far to find them. Just up the road from my family’s wharf is Community Shellfish in Bremen, where the owner has invested significantly in energy efficiency. A bit farther afield by car, but shorter by boat from my wharf, sits the Islesford Co-op and its roof covered by recently installed solar panels.

Theses trailblazers have made their moves, and here at the Island Institute, we are actively working with a key player in an exciting new partnership to decarbonizing the lobster supply chain (stay tuned for details).

For now, the sounds of the working waterfront still wrap me in a familiar blanket every time I set foot on a wharf. But two new sounds stand out these days. The whir of solar inverters and the thrum of high efficiency heat pumps now join the chorus, like voices from a future that waits just around the corner.

Sam Belknap is a senior community development officer working on aquaculture, climate, and energy for the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.

Observer

One veteran’s bewilderment

A struggle to understand support for someone who insults

By Phil Crossman AS A VETERAN, I have never gotten over the fact that, in spite of his having made such crass and appalling statements as calling John McCain a loser for having been captured and in spite of having implied many times before and during the 2016 campaign that those of us who served were a little less worthy than folks like him, a cheat who demonstrably and repeatedly swindled his own country and many of its citizens of what was rightfully ours or theirs, he won election with over 60 percent of the military or military veteran vote.

Now, as his palpable contempt for the tens of thousands of those in the military under his command becomes increasingly apparent and impossible for him to convincingly deny, his support among those necessarily obedient individuals is only barely ebbing away. I’m completely baffled.

On the other hand, I’ve been baffled for years—wait, wait, let me explain— ever since the day after Sen. Mitch McConnell said that, as Republicans,

Obama was a black man (or nearly we had nothing to do that was more important than denying Obama a so). Was that just coincidental to wanting to deny him a second term second term.

When he said that I knew perfectly above all else? As I said, I was baffled— well that by the following morning we I’d never experienced such increduwould learn he’d lost his position as lity. But then the campaign and one majority leader, perhaps even his seat. horrifying affront after another got When it was revealed to be completely underway and my bewilderment otherwise, that his subservient party became inescapably companionable.

The temptation to jump to conclumembers were precisely that, subsersions I felt were obvious, vient, above all else, I like the one about experienced my first bout McConnell’s demise, of real bewilderment. diminished until I find I wanted to scream, What am I and myself where I am “Wait a minute, how others missing? today—in a constant state about our interminable war, what about Clearly something. of sobering, dispiriting and, too often, consuming our failure to provide astonishment. adequate and affordWhy, when he able health care, what about the opioid crisis, the mounting mimicked a handicapped reporter, was evidence of similarly mounting efforts there any but the shallowest support to deny certain citizens the right to vote, left? How could it be that the next day what will we do about the staggering there was no measurable difference in economy, crumbling infrastructure enthusiasm among his supporters? I and the ever increasing and dangerous don’t understand and I didn’t then why wealth disparity? Does he really mean his campaign failed to derail.

As the campaign continued, he all we have to concern ourselves with is repeatedly suggested and increasingly making sure Obama isn’t re-elected?”

encouraged, that opposition demonstrators be dragged out of his rallies and that they be roughed up in the process.

Certainly, those of us who value above nearly all else, the freedom to express ourselves without fear would be sent round the bend by this behavior and direct their support to a reasonable and electable candidate. Apparently not.

A few months later, on a day I found myself relieved that my mother and father were no longer among the living, it was revealed that his appreciation for what women had to offer was not qualitative but quantitative—by the handful as it happens. And then, as if sustaining my confusion was more important than anything else, and in spite of such an affront, more white women voted for him than voted against him.

What am I and others missing?

Clearly something.

Phil Crossman lives on Vinalhaven.

www.workingwaterfront.com . October 2020

21

Cranberry Report

Melancholy season is different this year A silver lining is emerging in island life in 2020

By Barbara Fernald EVERY YEAR I experience a two-week stretch of melancholy that hits me in the middle of September. It doesn’t matter that it is one of the most beautiful times of the year in the Cranberry Isles. Even though it is part of the rhythm of the place in which I have chosen to live, it breaks my heart every year when the songbirds become quiet and move on. They are replaced by the sounds of crickets, telling of colder quieter days on the way.

In the weeks after Labor Day, I am usually adjusting to the sudden drop in population and the sudden shift away from a busy social season. While it feels good to get more rest, it is sad saying goodbye to friends.

As far as emotional adjustments go, I can usually count on making it through this September “odd spell” in exactly two weeks. I know that soon I will revel in the beauty of October and once again look forward to the warmth of the wood stove and the darker

days that I will brighten with lighted branches inside my house.

But, here we are in 2020, where nothing has been certain for over half a year. I’m wondering what “normal” for this pandemic fall will look like?

Having made it this far, I feel suddenly resilient and optimistic about getting through the rest of the year.

For the first time in years, I have no September melancholy. I hear the crickets and feel only a slight a tug toward the sadness of the season. The birds are leaving, but many seasonal residents are not. I’m glad.

It is pretty nice to still have friends who want to meet at the beach on a warm September afternoon, whether we swim of not. I like hearing their comments about the change in light and how different the island feels as summer wanes. I feel supported among the other grandparents who are wondering how daycare and in-school classes will affect their ability to safely see their grandchildren after idyllic island visits.

I can imagine a few people thinking this might be the year they try spending a winter on the island. I hope some will give it a try, even as they hear us wonder how many people can safely ride inside the cabin of the mail boat when the weather turns frigid. We all wonder what comes next and how we can keep going through the anxiety of so much uncertainty.

When I think of all the silver linings to the pandemic clouds, it helps me look forward with hope. My favorite positive outcome from the summer was our weekly Bar Road Market. It brought people together in a socially safe and distant way, it provided food to buy, and shopping opportunities for cookbooks, handmade masks, hand knit baby hats, and handmade aprons and bags. It was exactly the kind of event Mary and I had envisioned way back in April. My husband, Bruce, even made and sold doughnuts three weeks in a row!

The weekly baking gave me a focus when nothing else did. When the

weather shuts us down, as it inevitably will, I hope several of us will be willing to take orders to continue a supply of baked goods. Katelyn already does this with her amazing jelly doughnuts and Mary fills weekly orders for her incredible sourdough bread.

I’d be glad to start an English muffin list and will bake more bread when we finally get our new oven. Who knew COVID-related backorders in the appliance world would make us wait for six weeks?

Another silver lining: The wait for the oven hasn’t bothered me like I thought it would. I know I’m getting a new oven, eventually, and in the mean time, I’ve mastered the art of baking a pie on the gas grill, outside.

Barbara Fernald lives on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island).

Fathoming

Tracing seafood from boat to plate

Blockchain, created for cryptocurrency, could provide clear record

By Susie Arnold IMAGINE BEING ABLE to sit down and swipe your phone above your seafood meal and find out where it was harvested and who handled it along the way. This concept may not be too far off.

In a recent conversation about emerging technologies that may impact the marine economy in Maine, I learned about the potential use of Blockchain for tracking seafood.

Blockchain, a new method of record keeping, was created in 2009 for tracking transactions of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin without an intermediary bank.

It is a “distributed ledger technology,” where records are “distributed” across a network of decentralized computer nodes. No single entity keeps the books.

Each “block” refers to digital information related to a transaction.

These “blocks” are linked and stored in a public database, creating the “chain.” Once a block is added to the Blockchain, it becomes extremely difficult to edit and impossible to delete. It is spreading across the global economy because it keeps thousands of strangers honest, reducing the potential for mistakes or fraud.

Consumers are more interested in knowing where their food comes from, how it was grown and/or harvested, and ultimately how it made it to their plate.

Public health officials want to be able to efficiently track and, if needed, shut

down the supply of a tainted product.

And, importantly, we all want to know that our food is what it says it is.

According to a 2019 analysis of over 27,000 seafood samples, 8 percent was mislabeled, with some products showing evidence of much higher degrees of fraud.

As Maine continues its journey of digital transformation, a major impact may be on our seafood economy.

Blockchain technology could help.

“Its impact stems from the need for assurance in full disclosure by traceability and ultimately food safety,” explains Bhaskar Mukhopadhyay.

Mukhopadhyay is a mechanical engineer with an MBA and CPA who worked as financial auditor providing risk assurance to Fortune 500 companies.

More recently, he launched a company to explore how emerging technologies may help major supply chains.

“In addition to health experts and wholesale dealers, discerning consumers, especially millennials, want to know where their food is coming from,” he says.

Currently, when tracking food, the information is typically fragmented, and on paper and with some electronic data, but it would have to be pieced together, making assurance of its origin difficult. “With Blockchain,” says Mukhopadhyay, “if you have one node, you will be able to access all the information about that supply of food.”

Take, for example, a current method for tracking the origin of bivalve shellfish in the U.S. In Maine especially, this supply chain can be quite short, but this relatively simplistic example illustrates how Blockchain could be applied.

Tracking shellfish (oysters, clams, mussels and scallops) is mandatory with the National Shellfish Sanitation Program. It starts with a harvester tag (name, license number, date, location, and time of harvest). The harvester sells to a dealer, who is relied upon to review the harvester tag and ensure it has come from an approved area and has arrived within the allowed time and temperature.

Then a dealer tag is added before the shellfish makes it to the retailer.

If there is an illness, the product is traced by going to the restaurant and collecting all the tags from shellfish sold that day.

“Sometimes it can be specific and you can tell exactly what they ate,” says Kohl Kanwit, director of public health at the Maine Department of Marine Resources. “Other times it can be a handful of options and you go to the dealers from there.”

It all relies on a complete, legible, and accurate paper trail.

With Blockchain, this tracing could be significantly simplified and automated. The seafood would be tagged at its source with a physical ID (something inexpensive like a QR code or

radio frequency ID). The initial information would be recorded on the Blockchain along with the ID. As it is processed, packed, and moved through the supply chain, additional data like location and temperature could be immutably recorded on the Blockchain. This would create a digital thread of trusted data (from source to table) that is accessible to all the nodes on the distributed network, including the end user, without any extra investigation or other expenses.

We may still be years away from making the technology accessible to all seafood sectors or having QR codes on lobster tails that we can scan at dinner.

It may take time for users to recognize proof of return on investment and for our governance systems to catch up to both the technology and the social call for transparency, but we could see some application of Blockchain in Maine’s seafood industry sooner than you might think.

Susie Arnold is a marine scientist at the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, working on the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on marine resources and fisheries-dependent communities.

22

The Working Waterfront . October 2020

One man’s seaworthy seagull companion A reciprocal friendship between John Makowsky and Red Eye Story and Photos by Kelli Park As a lobsterman who’s spent six decades on the water, John Makowsky knows the meaning of lasting relationships—with the sea, with his boat, with his crew, and with his best friend of 16 years: a seagull named Red Eye. Makowsky hails from Long Island Sound in Connecticut, where he grew up in the shadow of his father hauling traps in the early 1960s. He attended college in Vermont and dabbled in a variety of professional endeavors before returning to his roots as a fourth-generation fisherman, taking over the family business in the early 1980s.

In 1984, he had his dream boat built, a 42-foot Cape Dory trawler, F/V Intrepid, which he still uses to haul traps today. After the lobster die-off in Long Island Sound following Hurricane Floyd in 1999, Makowsky found himself working in an office in Massachusetts. He began adding federal permits to his boat and eventually made the jump to the New Hampshire Seacoast.

During his time on the water, Makowsky became aware of the differences in the seagulls that followed his boat.

“Most of them have their own character and individuality, besides physical things. If you have some awareness of the animals, you’ll notice different mannerisms: the way they move, the way they hop around, the way they land on the boat, the way they go after another, the way they avoid conflict or make conflict, the way they make their calls,” he said.

Capt. John Makowsky aboard F/V Intrepid. Red Eye poses for her close-up.

“That’s the way I began to identify Red Eye.” Red Eye, so named for a distinct coloring, began her tenure aboard Intrepid from the stern, where she would rotate between her go-to positions a safe distance from Makowsky.

“There’s been an increase in trust over the years.

In the past, she was very camera shy. If I pulled my

PHOTO OF RED EYE COURTESY CENTER FOR WILDLIFE

phone out to take a picture, she’d fly off. That was it. No pictures. Now she lets me take pictures,” said Makowsky.

“For a long time, she didn’t like me making eye contact with her. She’d turn away. Now she’ll just stand there and look right at me and I can talk to her,” he said.

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www.workingwaterfront.com . October 2020

Capt. John Makowsky chats with Alex Ghersi, a friend, who gives Makowsky a book from a friend who was inspired by the story of Red Eye.

The two friends are now so at ease with each other that Red Eye will eat brown hake—her favorite—from Makowsky’s hand. And quickly.

“Like today when I went out, I didn’t see any seagulls at all for five miles. All of a sudden in the sky, there was one flying toward me, and I knew it would be her.

She always finds us,” Makowsky said.

He believes Red Eye lives on the Isle of Shoals.

“There have been times in the winter when I may drive offshore, 15-20 miles out, and I haven’t seen her. And all of a sudden, she’s there. When she wants to find me, she does.”

In June, Red Eye injured a foot, causing her to lose her balance on the offshore boat rides that she so loved.

“It was heartbreaking,” Makowsky said, and he began making calls, eventually finding the Center for Wildlife in Cape Neddick. After three weeks

of attempting to wrangle Red Eye into captivity aboard the boat, Makowsky was finally successful in maneuvering his wounded companion into a lobster crate with a net and several bite marks to show for it.

“When I heard that a fisherman had brought in a gull, I was intrigued, because sometimes the gulls are seen as nuisance animals,” said Sarah Kern, community engagement specialist at the Center for Wildlife. “I didn’t realize that was just the tip of the iceberg. Red Eye truly has chosen Captain John as a companion.”

Despite a grim outlook in the early stages of treatment, Red Eye proved that a little comfort food can go a long way. Makowsky delivered her favorite brown hake, which boosted her spirits on the road to recovery.

Center for Wildlife staff members treated the older muscle and nerve

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damage that was restricting Red Eye’s use of her foot using a bootie designed to retrain the nerve and muscle, along with tub time for preening, waterproofing, and keeping weight off the feet and legs. Staff even turned to homeopathic remedies and reiki.

Within a few weeks, staff decided Red Eye was strong enough to heal in her natural element, with her friend by her side, and made arrangements with Makowsky to celebrate her release together at sea aboard Intrepid.

“The day on the boat solidified that she was right where she belonged,” Kern said. “Often when an animal is being prepared to be released, it’s stressful—lots of moving around, unfamiliar noises—they know something is up. The minute the boat started, Red

23

Eye just sat down in the carrier next to John and waited. It was like she knew she was home.”

Makowsky saw the bird he knew return to form.

“She was so happy to be in the water, just like a playful child. She must have played in the water for ten minutes next to the boat,” he said. “Finally, she lifted up to fly off to Isle of Shoals.”

Since her release, Red Eye has come aboard every day.

“There’s a lot more intelligence than what we give them credit for,” Makowsky observed. “I can identify her as much as she can identify me from other people. There’s no doubt about that. She’s been on the boat longer than any person who’s ever worked with me.”

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The Working Waterfront . October 2020

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