Issuu

News from Maine’s Island and Coastal Communities

THE WORKING

volume 35, № 6

published by the island institute

STARRY NIGHT ON SWAN’S—

aug 2021 n free circulation: 50,000 n

workingwaterfront.com

Giant jellyfish finding a home in Maine waters

Reports of lion’s mane species in Casco Bay By Stephen Rappaport

ummer is here and it’s not only more human visitors crowding into the state. There are also reports that large numbers of lion’s mane jellyfish have been spotted in Maine waters, but no one knows for sure if they are more abundant than usual. “There seem to be more around this year than in previous years,” said Mike Doan, a research associate at Friends of Casco Bay in Portland. The organization’s volunteer “water reporters” are seeing the creatures both east and west of Casco Bay, he said. There also are reports that lion’s mane jellyfish have been spotted as far east as Patten Bay in Hancock County. But whether what Doan called anecdotal reports that lion’s mane jellyfish are abundant this year means their population is on the rise is less sure. “It’s hard to tell if it’s just one year or there are just more,” Doan said. Nick Record, a senior research scientist at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, agreed with that assessment.

“It’s an open question whether jellyfish are on the rise generally,” Record said in late June. According to the Bigelow researcher, there has been no funding for the systematic tracking of jellyfish abundance in coastal Maine waters though, several years ago, the laboratory set up the still-active email address jellyfish@ bigelow.org to collect data on jellyfish from the public. “We got a few hundred, maybe more than a thousand, sightings at the email, but it was not a systematic survey like we’d like to get funded,” Record said. The cold waters of the Gulf of Maine are a part of the lion’s mane jellyfish’s normal habitat and, along the coast of Maine, “even with warming, we’re still comfortably within the lion’s mane jellyfish’s comfort range,” he said, though their annual abundance may vary widely. Water temperature is just one factor affecting the lion’s mane’s population. Jellyfish are better able than most other marine species to tolerate water with the low oxygen levels often found in continued on page 7

Portland’s ‘ReCode’ reflects climate realities Photographer Tom Hindman, a former resident of Swan’s Island and photo journalist who worked in Maine and West Virginia, captured this image of Burnt Coat Harbor Light with the Milky Way visible a couple of summers ago.

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Land use codes updated after 50 years By Stephanie Bouchard

n October 1957, national newspaper headlines announced that Jimmy Hoffa had been elected president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Soviet Union had successfully launched its satellite, Sputnik 1, into Earth’s orbit. Local headlines noted the less remarkable news that the city of Portland had updated its land use code. It would be more than 50 years before that code got a refresh. That refresh, dubbed ReCode, got underway in the spring of 2020, said Christine Grimando, the city’s director of planning and urban development,

during a webinar in June. The webinar, about how Portland is incorporating sustainability goals into the updated land code, was part of the Maine Conservation Voters’ Lunch and Learn series. ReCode, Grimando told her virtual audience, is a two-phase initiative that seeks to refine and update the city’s land use code to dovetail with the goals and vision outlined in the city’s most recent comprehensive plan, adopted in 2017, and in One Climate Future, a joint climate action plan between Portland and South Portland approved by both cities in the fall of 2020. The first phase of ReCode, completed in November 2020 when the city continued on page 7

The Working Waterfront . August 2021

The lobstering legislator

Genevieve McDonald balances fishing, parenting, and lawmaking

Story by Tom Groening Photos by Michele Stapleton

ear the end of our conversation, Genevieve McDonald drops a bit of a bombshell by saying she is applying for law school and hopes to begin classes in the fall of 2022. This comes after she has described her work as a state legislator, her work as captain of a lobster boat, and her roles as wife, and mother of twin three-year-old girls. “Oh, I’m not done yet,” she says matter of factly. “I’m just getting started.” Betting against McDonald is probably not a smart move. Yet there’s no denying she swims against the current.

At 38, she is completing her second term as a member of the House of Representatives for the Cranberry Isles, Deer Isle, Frenchboro, Isle au Haut, North Haven, Southwest Harbor, Stonington, Swan’s Island, Tremont, Vinalhaven, and Marshall Island Township. And she is a Democrat. Yes, she admits, many of those who lobster out of her homeport of Stonington lean Republican. In fact, Trump flags are a common sight in many lobster ports. “I’m a Democrat,” she asserts, then adds, “I’m a proud Democrat,” supporting progressive values on the environment, and on economic and social issues. One of her successes in the last legislative session on the environment was a bill

that defines the release of more than 15 balloons as littering. A littering code adopted in 1991 was too specific, McDonald explained, so that only throwing a balloon on the ground was prohibited. Evidence of this plastic pollution is often seen on the water as she fishes, and so McDonald is committed to hauling trash back to shore and not pumping out a bilge with oil in it. “It was a lot easier to be an environmentalist when I started fishing,” she said, 16 years ago. “I found it easier to be a strong environmentalist and a commercial fisherman.” One change is that threats like new rules to protect right whales and floating wind turbine plans have pushed fishermen

away from environmental organizations who support those initiatives. “I was disappointed in the political polarization that has occurred in the lobster industry in the last three to four years,” McDonald says. “I’m certainly on the side of the fishing industry,” but tension has developed. After fishing with her husband for six years, she has now been running her boat, Hello Darlings II, for ten years as captain. The vessel’s name was Hello Darlin’, a reference to a Conway Twitty song that she amended to refer to her twin girls. When asked if she fishes with her husband Cory, her quick retort is, “No, I want to stay married.” She employs a woman as a helper on the stern;

Rep. Genevieve McDonald chats with Grant Provost of Ironworkers Local 7. Inset: McDonald in the House chamber.

www.workingwaterfront.com . August 2021

this year, they are running 400 traps. Years ago, working as a woman lobster captain might have been unusual, and even difficult, but not now. “I’ve seen a tremendous increase in women on the water,” she says. And even if it were difficult, McDonald seems up for a challenge. Growing up on Mount Desert Island, then on the Blue Hill Peninsula, she was placed in foster care at age 12, and became emancipated from adult care at just 16. “It wasn’t easy,” she says. “I grew up very adrift,” attending a different school just about every year. “I never had a chance to develop friends.” She recently disclosed on social media that a teacher to whom she’d written a

letter while in seventh grade—during those difficult years—found the letter and sent it to her. Neither remembers whether the teacher responded all those years ago, but McDonald counts that teacher as a friend. “We have kept in touch,” and they occasionally run into each other at the grocery store. “I had three incredible teachers,” she remembers, who each helped her through that time. Now, as a mother of small children, she is grateful that their lives are different. “I have a fantastic spouse, who is a fantastic dad and a very good husband.” He has a large extended family in Stonington, so the girls have community support from “so many cousins,

and aunts, and uncles. I’m very happy they have these people in their lives.” McDonald began her public life when she was appointed to her region’s Lobster Advisory Council. Then, when Rep. Walter Kumiega faced term limits, he asked her to seek that seat. He gives her high praise for her efforts. “Genevieve MacDonald dove into the job of being a legislator headfirst and hasn’t slowed down yet,” Kumiega said. “As a constituent, I couldn’t ask for better representation.” Running for the seat was not in her plans. “I had not considered it,” she confesses, but now she’s all in, and plans to run for reelection in 2022. She serves on the marine resources and McDonald and her two daughters with Kelli Whitlock Burton, who was in Stonington to attend a pride event.

government oversight committees and is House chair of the latter panel. The oversight committee produced two bills to help prosecute child sexual abuse—allowing victims under the age of 14 to testify remotely and allowing law enforcement officers to pose as minors online. Law school at the University of Southern Maine will be possible, she believes, because while serving in Augusta, the school is just an hour drive south, and if she has to stay, she has a sister living in Wells. But her deepening roots in Stonington now include a house, in the village area, the family is renting to own. “I feel very fortunate to live on the hillside,” she says.

The Working Waterfront . August 2021

Left: Piton, by Marcie Jan Bronstein. Right: The Gift of Summer by Marcie Jan Bronstein.

Cruising the world with and for art Belfast couple make art inspired by sea By Tom Groening

he sea has inspired countless artists, but few have seen as much of it as Alan Fishman and Marcie Jan Bronstein, a Belfast couple who have cruised the world. Though they have owned boats as a couple for 30 years, most of their sea-art adventures came aboard Celebrity Cruise ships. It began when the couple took their son, Noah, on a cruise, and Fishman attended one of the shipboard art lectures. After, he had a simple but life-changing thought: “I can do better.” Fishman’s creative resumé includes a stint at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, which led to a role helping establish a similar institution in Italy, a disclosure that prompts him to wryly observe, “It’s hard to believe the Italians needed help with a design school.” He was there from 1985 to 1991, and in that final year, Bronstein joined him. “We had a boat on the coast of Italy,” which she confirms is as idyllic as it sounds. “The orbit we stay in has to do with our boats,” she adds. So after that less-than-impressive art lecture, Bronstein wrote to Celebrity Cruise lines for work, and, much to her surprise, landed jobs for both of them. He lectures on the art of the region or port at which the ship will call—what he calls “itinerary-based art history”—and she teaches photography and watercolor painting. Bronstein also developed an “art lab for all ages” class that was a hit. The first cruise was to Iceland in 2014, then voyages to places like India, Thailand, Singapore, Spain, Australia, Tahiti, Turkey, and Dubai followed. It got to the point that they could pick up the phone and request to join a particular cruise, and the company would fly them anywhere in the world to get on board.

“The cruise ship was a magic carpet ride,” Bronstein says. They would enjoy a comfortable stateroom in the crew part of the ship but be able to enjoy the amenities available to other passengers. In port, he says, “Marcie and I would get off the ship with our Marcie Jan Bronstein and Alan Fishman. art supplies and go find a place to PHOTO: NOAH FISHMAN paint.” “We spent up to six months of each year” on board, Bronstein adds. The pandemic put an end to their run, with the last cruise ending in November 2020. Both say they would return to cruising if given the chance. Bronstein’s photographic work emphasizes negative space, and she plays with digital manipulation to create striking color contrasts. The sea plays a prominent role in almost all the work. Her paintings are abstract, relying on shapes that draw on symbols and archetypes, many featuring, again, a prominent negative space, what she calls a portal. “Flow” is also a goal, she says, and indeed, many of her works seem to have frozen a complex movement. Fishman is prolific, working in acrylics these days, rendering seascapes and landscapes. “For the five years I was on the ship, I painted the sea every day,” he explains. “The sea has always occupied my mind.”

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John Martin, Bud Staples, and Elsie Gillespie chat around the woodstove at the annual town meeting.

Arabian Sea by Alan Fishman.

Tropical Sunset by Alan Fishman

Showing a winter night landscape, he says he aims for “a sense of what the thing is about, not the thing… the mood.” Fishman is represented by Harbor Square Gallery in Rockland. Though he had grown up 70th Street in Manhattan, Fishman had a connection to Maine. “I had gone to summer camp in Maine and had a nostalgia for Maine that never went away,” he says, and remembers boarding a train at Grand Central Station for the overnight journey to Casco. It was at the camp in Maine that his love of boats was kindled. “We had two Levi Moulden Cape dory type sailboats,” he remembers. Bronstein grew up in Maryland and had lived in New York and San Francisco.

When prices escalated in New York, the couple learned of a barn that had been converted into a three-story house in Belfast. “We drove to Belfast for this barn,” he says, gesturing to the expansive space that includes her studio on the ground level and his in the soaring third-floor loft. They sailed their boat to Belfast, too. They now own a 34-foot Nordic tug, Wonderline, and enjoy multi-night voyages from their adopted hometown. The family made a mark on Belfast in the spring as one of Bronstein’s designs was chosen for a downtown crosswalk, and Fishman and their son Noah helped with the painting. A time-lapse video may be viewed at: InThisPlayground.com. Bud Staples

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Thewww.workingwaterfront.com Working Waterfront . August. 2021 April 2020

cRanBeRRy RepoRt

Traveling journalists find ‘ingenious’ local initiatives identity and self-invention ting,Community painting lines, eating are transformative , and throwing rocks

The Fallowses project started in 2011, when they created a blogpost for The Atlantic asking readers to share espite today’s fraught political stories about their towns. Within a week, sford. bright red over 1,000 responses. discourse at stripe) and, the national with a black like they piecereceived of purple rope to the end of For the izzas, every other the next five years, they traveled the level,lobster local fisherman communities are in Maine buoy line or toggle, but all attachments busier finding citiesor and towns ways to connect andabout, find U.S., musthopping be madebetween with a splice a tuck. this winter, he read about, talked re the common of small airplane.to compare folsolutions with and work know it’s a stretch and experimented purpletoward paint. byIway eason. renewed On theMaine ground, they rope saw a requirepattern innovation, compromise, whale The latest whale regulations require lowing portu- and optimism. plein ingenious air workshop,local but all Maine lobster fishermen to use new ments with a of riends markings in thefrom face eiof That wasthe ropes the they attach to a person couldinitiatives on return home rip to message politfromDepending James on how close ther and say economic lobster traps. that they’dshocks, been paintg was and ical time. crises,If Bruce and other Deborah Fallows, ing in their spare were to shore they fish, they will haveThe to addfederal ere so journalists hardships. and authors 2-4 purple marks on each buoy line. writing an essay on how he spent his government is not ou did of every placebewea 2018 book Our vacation,“Almost painting would Onthe warps that are 100-feet or less there winter ques- Towns: went part people said,be‘The 100,000-Mile part ofinit. Another would the must beAone 12-inch purple mark withgoing to come ber at Journey U.S. ishim really in horrible the Heart tell his brother in a fewInto fathoms of the trap and a 36- description I heard saveofyour town. e sub- ofinch shape. to But things America, a 2and Mark about walking gethere, doughnuts, purplewhich markwas within fathoms meet- national are really moving ahead, ’” and the buoy.bestseller If the warp is longer It that 100 in February, with our son Robin, and comes from floor!) isfeet, Jim Fallows the the basis of an HBOis for a 12-inch our grandchildren Henryrecounted. and Cora. I requirement the people of e and documentary. In their conversapurple mark near the trap, a second 12- was away with friends in Portland, and the town.” h our inch tions, the couple discovOnepurple of those towns mark halfway to the buoy, Stephanie was away with friends in Maine. was themes andEastport. a 36-inch mark near the buoy. Florida. Fatherered and son were in around charge. oal of such asatinclu“We kepthegoing “Yeah, we concepts got doughnuts The Brucejust figures will be putting 1,500 onsid- back sionthenand exclusion, again and again, ” rope in —DEB Cookie Jar and walked to the to 1,800 markings on his all; twoFALLOWS n, but said rapid growth androcks.” rapid Deb weeks Fallows. and to throw to three of extra work if he does beach for a picnic virus- itThe decline, shifting couple spoke Eating homemade donutsdemoand without hiring help. A number of fishtime during graphics inequality. eighth ermen arethe applying paint to their ropes throwing rocks at the and beach—if that t to it. annual They also identified that Build Conference in isn’t a mirror image of“elements many childby resting themMaine in 3-foot long gutters I can June. success inona Islesford, small town, said event, held virtually PVC this year, madeThe from lengthwise-halved pipe. scream hood summers I ”don’t offers workshops and presentations on Deb knowFallows. what is. q Bruce’s first attempt was with spray paint paint, transportation Elements included community idenplanning, real estate but he soon moved on to the more effi“time development, tity and self-invention. and public cient brush and latex paint.service. Barbara Fernald lives on Islesford (Little e and Some fishermen will add a 3-foot Cranberry Island) with her husband Bruce.

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Public libraries also play an important role in community life, said Deb Fallows. “People are starting to acknowledge and understand the value of public libraries,” she said. Libraries are no longer just about books. “They’re social and civic centers, educational centers, tech centers.” That became apparent during the pandemic, when libraries helped distribute food to children, lent broadband “hotspots” to students with inadequate home internet, opened hotlines to lonely seniors, and assisted with contact tracing. “They’re speaking at a granular level to the local community,” she said. Another distinguishing feature of successful communities, the couple said, was intentionally making themselves open to new demographics. What did it all come down to? “People were managing to set aside poisonous national issues and work on local issues,” said Jim Fallows. The couple said they intend to keep the conversation going through their new organization, Our Town Civic Foundation (ourtownsfoundation.org), which is intended to help communities share ideas. “The mission is to connect people like you with your counterparts across the country,” said Jim Fallows.

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“The federal government is not going to come in and save your town,” she said. “It comes from the people of the town.” Identity is manifested in any number of ways. Many communities, for example, are embracing the public arts to leverage tourism. She cited public sculptures in Rapid City, S.D., and Northern California’s plein air arts festivals as examples. Eastport is a good example of a community that sponsors artists “from away” as a way to invite fresh perspectives, she said. “Artists come in and see things and are able to express that with a different attitude,” she said. Jim Fallows cited the importance of institutional innovation and “re-creation” for maintaining resilient communities. “I was personally impressed by the way the community colleges in general were filling a historic role of educational opportunity” by providing second chances in new economic activity and attracting new participants, he said. A related development, he said, is the growth of technical training opportunities. “Technical training used to be seen as a penalty, something those not on a successful track were consigned to,” he said. But today’s trainees are emerging to solid, well-paying jobs.

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www.workingwaterfront.com . August 2021 GIANT JELLYFISH

continued from page 1

areas with significant coastal runoff, such as along some parts of the Maine coast, Record said. “They come and go year to year in pretty big swings,” he said. “There’s nothing to ring alarm bells this year.” If the number of lion’s mane sightings is within the normal range, the sheer size of the jellyfish can still astonish. The lion’s mane jellyfish, Cyanea capillata, is one of the largest jellyfish species in the world. The gelatinous bell can be as much as 6 to 7 feet in diameter and each of the lion’s mane’s 1,200 stinging tentacles may stretch more than 100 feet in length, though most jellyfish spotted in Maine are much smaller.

Large or small, the lion’s mane’s tentacles have nematocysts that contain potent neurotoxins— used for defense and to paralyze prey—that can be harmful to humans. “Don’t touch the lion’s mane,” Record warned. The first report of a “really large” lion’s mane jellyfish in Downeast Maine came in 2019. Last year there were six or seven reports of big jellyfish along the coast, primarily in Southern Maine and Massachusetts. This year, he said, at least one six-footer had been reported in Maine by late June. “There’s a good chance that what we see is part of natural fluctuation,” Record said of the lion’s mane sightings. “They can come in large numbers, then disappear.”

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PORTLAND'S RECODE

like, for example, requiring EV charging provisions for projects of a certain size. Being a coastal city, the issue of water is council voted to adopt the refreshed land use code, front-and-center, Grimando noted, in both was a thorough restructuring of the city’s existing the land use code, but outside it, too. The city land code that made it more comprehensible and less has already been looking at ways to improve rambling. The new land code has about 600 fewer or add new green infrastructure that will aid in improved water management, pages than its predecessor, Grimando treatment and quality, she said. said. It is a “more sensible,” readable For example, the city is document, she added. currently in the midst of a The second phase currently The plan seeks subsurface water infrastructure underway evaluates the revised land to reduce project in Back Cove that will code to make sure it aligns with and stop overflows from going into advances the vision and goals of greenhouse Back Cove and Casco Bay. Portland’s comprehensive plan and emissions “This is stuff you’ll never see that of One Climate Future. community-wide when it’s all put back together,” The One Climate Future plan seeks to she said, but will yield big envireduce greenhouse emissions commuby 80 percent ronmental benefits. nity-wide by 80 percent by 2050, transiby 2050… Other, smaller tools the city tion each city’s municipal operations to is looking at to meet its sustain100 percent clean energy by 2040, and ability goals around the issue of invest in green spaces. water include exploring ways Portland’s comprehensive plan sets sustainability goals that include creating develop- sidewalk esplanades can better retain water and ment policy that supports and encourages sustainable improving green roof standards where such energy production and consumption; transporta- infrastructure is allowed. While Portland is doing a variety of things tion policy that reduces vehicle miles traveled and enhances connectivity, including walkable neighbor- to address the “volatile” effects of climate hoods and multiple modes of transportation offer- change, she said, “we all know there’s a lot ings; and policy that makes housing more energy more to be talking about as far as keeping up efficient and more resilient to climate change effects, with this danger.” such as rising sea levels and severe weather events Learn more about Portland’s sustainability goals: and storm surges. While ReCode’s second phase will do the heavy RECODE PROJECT: lifting of examining land use policies to see how, https://www.recodeportland.me and if, they fit with the city’s sustainability goals COMPREHENSIVE PLAN: and vision, phase one did offer some opportunities www.portlandmaine.gov/1861/PortlandsPlan2030 to address some important “low-hanging fruit” in terms of development policies, Grimando said, such ONE CLIMATE FUTURE: as updated parking standards that encourage develwww.oneclimatefuture.org opers to look at alternatives to parking such as shuttle Watch a video of Grimando’s Lunch and Learn: services or bike infrastructure, and putting in infrawww.maineconservation.org/lunchnlearn structure requirements for projects of certain scales continued from page 1

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The Working Waterfront . August 2021

Rock Bound

We’re asking the public the wrong questions Expertise and opinion play different roles in policy By Tom Groening JOURNALISTS SPEND a good deal of time in public gatherings at which officials solicit—or at least accept— comment on issues of the day. We also inwardly groan and surreptitiously roll our eyes when those public commenters are woefully misinformed. Because we often are deeply immersed in that sewer extension or big-box store proposal, we are intolerant of questions that have been asked and answered for weeks prior to the meeting (“Didn’t they read my stories?!”). Yet we journalists also are the first to insist on including regular folks in community decision-making. These two forces collided for me when I stumbled onto a provocative article by the smart-growth advocacy group Strong Towns, titled: “Stop Asking the Public What They Want.” The point the writer makes is that when soliciting public input, officials should begin by recognizing that expertise on public policy is limited to, well, experts. So if transportation improvements are being considered for a part of town, better questions would be: Is it scary to walk across that street? Is this a part of town you’d be proud or ashamed to show a visitor? Is it too dark there at night? Instead, the writer says, the public is asked about the wisdom of adding

travel lanes, diagonal parking, and traffic lights in the neighborhood, questions that are better handled by professional planners. In Belfast, where I live, the city council recently transformed an intersection with two stop signs to four. There was some grumbling in town, not so much about the lack of input, but because the idea sprang not from a traffic engineer’s study but from the citizen councilors. About 25 years ago, I started encountering a new way to manage public input, called a charrette. The idea is to engage stakeholders with officials in finding acceptable solutions to problems, rather than have officials merely listen and consider. A noble goal, sure, but not always practical. A local school board hosted a charrette with a professional facilitator, and I remember as the meeting wore on, the facilitator began writing down bullet points on the white board that didn’t quite reflect comments from the public. They were, however, getting us to where the school board wanted to land on the issue. I witnessed a similar process about 15 years ago as the state oversaw meetings to reach consensus on the use of Sears Island. Someone deeply involved in the process told me a predetermined goal had been

set, which meant the meetings were more about winning buy-in than in finding consensus. Even those journalists who become experts—for the moment, anyway— on an issue can get it very wrong. One of my greatest regrets about my time as editor of the (Belfast) Republican Journal is editorializing in support of renovating the Belfast Free Library at its current location. A counter proposal had a new library being built on a recently cleared property which sloped toward the water—perfect for outdoor gatherings, music and theater, and with ample parking, all of which are lacking at the current site. City councilors at the time told me they took my editorials to heart and stuck with the existing location. Every time I struggle to find a parking spot there, I know who to blame. So if policy makers “stop asking the public what it wants,” as the Strong Towns writer urges, what else can improve the nexus of opinion and policy? I think Bill Clinton and John Baldacci both offered examples. Clinton was the first president to propose bold initiatives and then campaign to get the public to support them. He literally climbed aboard an election campaign bus and toured several key states—represented by those in Congress whose votes were

needed—speaking to crowds on why it was important to support his plans. Seeking public buy-in is no easy task. The proposal must be explained accurately and clearly while avoiding oversimplifying the issue. Appealing to the public’s self-interest is critical. And anticipating and addressing opposition is also important. Baldacci served as governor during two economic downturns, one the most severe in 75 years. As tax revenue slowed to a trickle, he wisely proposed consolidating school districts to save administrative costs. But he failed to win widespread public support, and many of the consolidated districts reverted to their earlier alignments. A better strategy would have had the governor hosting scores of townhall style meetings and speaking to Rotary clubs, chambers of commerce, and other civic and business groups. A plain-spoken explanation, delivered with personal conviction, can win minds and hearts, and the converted then spread the message. Tom Groening is editor of The Working Waterfront. He can be reached at tgroening@islandinstitute.org

Reflections

‘Steeped in grief ’ as time in Maine ends Leaving the state for West Coast conjurs memories Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.

By Ellie Mason These are my last two months in Maine for a long time. I am nearing the end of my two years as an Island Fellow in Tenants Harbor and will be moving to the West Coast come September to pursue a master’s degree. I have never been more certain that this next step is the right one for me, but I’m losing a lot in the process of this transition. I am steeped in summer grief. I think about being six or seven years old, growing up on the coast of Maine, my mom taking us down to the landing to catch crabs and collect periwinkle shells and sea glass. That loop up Flying Mountain my dad would take us on almost every weekend. The twilight

swims in summer to cool off before bed and running through lawnmowermade mazes in the tall grass of the field beside our house. I remember birthdays celebrated up at camp in June (brownies baked in a wood cookstove have character, if not great flavor or texture), and making our once-a-summer trip to the lobster pound for dinner when my grandfather would come and visit. I got older and some of those things changed. My parents no longer live together, and it’s going on five years since my grandfather passed away. The ticks have taken over the tall grass in the field and summer tourists have crept into all my used-to-besecret swim spots. I moved away from the island I grew up on to a different part of the coast. I met someone and fell in love and just this week, I lost that relationship, too. Now, I paddle in the harbor at sunset, see the fish jumping and the sky turn pink over all the fishing boats. I am sunburned and sad, like every sunset

will be my last one here, like every time I say goodbye I mean forever. To those who have never spent a summer in Maine, there is a time in the evening where I simultaneously feel invincible and so, so fragile. Every moment is new and nostalgic, a contradiction in the making. It has been a hard year for me. I have cried a lot. I have been confused and uncertain, at a loss for words and have wanted to scream with frustration. I have loved and been loved and lost days, pets, and sometimes even myself. I marked time with the return of migrating birds. First the vultures, then the ospreys. I heard the burry calls of the terns when they returned, too. Now, my feet are months deep into their Chaco’s tan and my swimsuit is always wet and drying from a peg beside the door My skin is salty from ocean dips after work and if it’s not salty, it’s muddy or dirty from tide-pooling or working in the garden. I have endless mosquito bites around my ankles.

I know the tide will come in one day and wash away this grief, but I know some of it will stay with me for a long while, too. It is precious: this time I have gotten to spend on the Maine coast, the people I have come to know and love, this landscape that I fall right into. Beyond this harbor there is another, and beyond that a chain of islands, more stepping stones that will carry me down a path of my own creation. There can be both hope and sorrow all at once. There can be grief at the window of a new beginning. For the past two years, Ellie Mason has been working with the St. George School and Blueberry Cove to develop and implement afterschool programs. A graduate of Smith College, she majored in Arts in Environmental Science and Policy.

www.workingwaterfront.com . August 2021

WHARF SCENE— This image was made by Paul Carter in March of 1936. Carter was a photographer who worked for the U.S. Resettlement Administration during the Depression. The scene is identified by the Library of Congress as being in Portland.

Op-Ed

Leaving gas vehicles in the rear-view mirror Electric vehicles will dominate market soon By Sarah Miller UNTIL LAST WINTER, the transition from goodold gasoline cars to cutting-edge electric vehicles (EVs) felt like a distant, probably leisurely affair. To many in Maine, it still does. And why not? You don’t see many EVs around and nobody seems to be trying very hard to sell them to Mainers. EVs still accounted for barely over 2 percent of all U.S. light-vehicle sales in 2020. But the calm is deceptive. Change is coming and it’s coming fast, for some very good reasons. First, carmakers everywhere see no other way to meet tightening mileage and carbon-emission standards. Tesla earned over $1.5 billion last year selling emission credits to other automakers who exceeded these standards. Paying such huge sums to competitors is not just galling, it’s untenable. Reinforcing this are outright bans on diesel and gasoline passenger vehicle sales being adopted by countries and cities worldwide. Last September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an order “requiring sales of all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035.” California and other states that follow its emission rules—frequently including Maine, although not yet for the gasoline vehicle ban—account for roughly 40 percent of U.S. auto sales. In June, Canada announced plans for a similar 2035 nationwide ban.

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

Most importantly, auto companies are starting to make EVs people want to buy, emphasizing performance, price, and prestige. Indeed, there’s every likelihood that the transition to EVs will be faster than even the EV optimists imagined a year ago. GM’s aim to go all-electric in light vehicle sales by 2035, announced in January to gasps of amazement, now looks tame. Since then, Ford has said it expects EVs to make up 40 percent of its global sales by 2030 and it has upped planned EV development spending twice, first to $22 billion and then to $30 billion by 2025. Volkswagen has doubled its 2030 EV sales targets to 70 percent for Europe and 50 percent for the U.S. and China. This acceleration didn’t come out of nowhere. For EVs, 2020 was a game-changer. In Europe (UK included), EV sales surged by 137 percent from 2019, leaving EVs with over 10 percent of all car sales. So far this year, the EV market share is 16 percent. In the U.S., 2021 could well be a similar EV breakthrough year. Through May, EV sales were up by more than 100 percent year-on-year, and in May alone, the yearly gain was an astounding 329 percent, according to energy research firm Zpryme. For Mainers, the big gainer in EV sales has been Ford’s Mustang Mach-E crossover, mostly with the all-wheel drive feature that has helped make Subarus so ubiquitous in this state. Still, even if automakers are in a rush, will consumer tastes change that quickly? A look at the transition from horses to automobiles suggests radical

transport change can come in the span of a single decade. In 1907, only 140,300 cars were registered in the U.S., according to Scientific American. By 1917, the number of registered cars had multiplied 33 times to almost 5 million. Fast-forward to 2020. U.S. sales of EVs totaled just 345,300, out of passenger vehicle sales of 14.5 million. Multiplying that 345,300 by 33, to match the 1907-17 surge, would push EV sales to nearly 11.4 million by 2030. This is not a scientific forecast. It just demonstrates what’s possible. But it’s easy to imagine how momentum behind EVs may build, and gasoline and diesel vehicle sales collapse. What factors will people consider in 2030 as they think about which new car to buy if over half of new-car sales are electric? Will they worry about being able to get a decent price for a used gasoline car? How about replacement parts? Certainly, automakers won’t be designing sexy new models of the gasoline vehicles they are phasing out. If you think about it, who’ll want to be the last person on their block to buy a gasoline car? Sarah Miller is a semi-retired international energy and business journalist and editor. She writes the Tales from the Transition blog for the Penobscot Bay Pilot, where this first appeared. She lives in Camden where she serves on the town’s energy and sustainability committee and the statewide climate activist group Climate Matters Maine.

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The Working Waterfront . August 2021 Ethan DeBery, owner of Fish ‘n Trips, in Phippsburg aboard his AJ-28-foot lobster boat.

Lobster tour operators say demand is strong Carrying passengers means additional revenue source Story and photos by Kelli Park

and offer tours. As Eric started to fish farther offshore in a bigger boat, the couple saw an opportunity with their smaller vessel. Kate-Lyn left her corporate job to run the tours in 2019 and now manages bookow well is Ethan DeBery doing with lobster boat charters? So well, that ings. The Knights offer three or four 90-minute tours each day in the summer he has advice for his colleagues. “People have asked me, ‘Why don’t half of the lobstermen do this?’ I tell for up to 12 people with the help of ten employees, many of whom are family members. my buddies to get their captain licenses and I could send them Education is a common thread among these lobstermen. fishing charters all day long,” said DeBery, 39, who owns and “We always got so many questions about what the guys operates Fish ‘n Trips near Fort Popham State Historic Site in were doing on the boat because of where we’re docked,” said Phippsburg. DeBery is a third generation lobsterman and a master “We always got so many Kate-Lyn. “The more questions we got, the more we saw that there is a need to bring people out and show them and share our Maine guide with a USCG Masters Captain’s license. He began questions about what knowledge and passion.” running a ferry to Seguin Island, transporting the lighthouse the guys were doing on Farrin echoes this. caretakers back and forth once a week, after he returned home “Part of my motivation was to educate the public about what from college in 2004 to face a long wait for a lobster license. the boat…” Maine lobstermen have been doing to keep the fishery sustainAlong with a captain’s and lobster license, running lobster able for the last couple hundred years,” said Farrin. “It gives tours requires additional insurance and safety protocols. them a real look into what goes into getting the critter from the Fishing and offering tours can be hard to juggle, Clive Farrin ocean to the plate.” was told. Sometimes, that education is very hands-on. “Someone once told me that I’d never make “I’m going to put you on the back of the it,” said Clive Farrin, who owns and operates DeBery shows two-year-old Kieran Park boat and we’re going hauling,” DeBery tells Go Lobstering in Boothbay Harbor and can what running a lobster boat is all about. his passengers. “If you step near the rope, I’m trace his ancestors back to the sea captains of going to yell at you. You’re probably going to Castine. get a bunch of bait on you and you’re probably “Well, I’m 14 years down the road, and I going to have to burn your clothes when you would say I’m pretty successful.” Farrin has get home.” been a full-time lobsterman for the past two He will offer lobster bakes on Seguin Island decades after a career as a school teacher, and for some of his charter tours. now hauls 150 traps and runs three, 90-minute “This is our industry. We love it. We protect lobster tours a day in the summer for up to 6 it,” says Kate-Lyn. “The smartest move for people on a 36’ Jarvis Newman. At age 74, he anybody is to keep your ears open, your eyes no longer wants to haul 250 traps a day and, by peeled, and diversify if you can.” the time the tourists stop coming to Boothbay Rocky Bottom Fisheries plans to add boats Harbor, fall fishing picks up. to its fleet to accommodate the surging DeBery also finds the silver lining in his demand. The Knights also said that they’d circumstances. like to open a fish market and expand their “I came at it from another angle, where I offerings, which currently include bachelor kind of got stuck chartering to begin with. Now that I’m lobstering, I’ve already got that momentum,” said DeBery. Though parties, birthday parties, wedding celebrations, and a culinary collaboration with Fort Popham doesn’t offer a wharf or buying station, it does bring tourists, “so I Luke’s Lobster. “There are a lot of moving parts. It’s all about balance,” said Kate-Lyn. “We’ve work with what I got.” Eric and Kate-Lyn Knight, both 32, operate Rocky Bottom Fisheries in Portland definitely got some things up our sleeve.”

www.workingwaterfront.com . August 2021

Making sense of Maine ‘talking circles’ Natives, European descendants gathered in 1980s, ‘90s The Gatherings: Reimagining Indigenous-Settler Relations By Shirley N. Hager and Mawopiyane University of Toronto Press

Review by Dana Wilde

confess to being skeptical when I opened The Gatherings: Reimagining Indigenous-Settler Relations, a book of reflections on a series of “gatherings” of white and Native people in Maine and Maritime Canada in the 1980s and ’90s. It seemed all too possible that such events—and a book about them 30 years later—could be just another New Age version of white people “playing Indian,” as the scholar Philip J. Deloria phrased it. To my surprise, the participants had the same hesitation. The gatherings, co-organizer and co-editor Shirley N. Hager explains, were conceived in the mid-1980s when a small group of white people in Portland decided they wanted to address the long, painful history of settler-Native relations. If settlers’ descendants and indigenous peoples could understand each other better, they thought, then relations could get better and life could get better. They sought out members of Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Micmac/Mi’kmaq, and Maliseet communities—collectively referred to as Wabanakis, or First Nations—who might be open to trying to create grassroots relationships that might foster communication between deeply divided people. The first of the gatherings took place in 1987, and they continued once or twice a year through 1994. We learn from the recollections and philosophical reflections of 14 of the participants that no one was sure how, or even if, the proceedings would work. Wabanaki, or Dawn Land People were among the first to suffer the ravages of the European settlement of North America; they harbor generational distrust after five centuries of mistreatment ranging from bad faith legal dealings to efforts to exterminate them. The white participants suffered from a sense of generational guilt about this history, as well as the vague sense that they didn’t understand the Native point of view. The gatherings were not trying to build bridges; they were trying to leap an abyss.

The first recollection begins with these skeptical, yet hopeful sentences by Miigam’agan, a Mi’kmaq woman of the Fish Clan in northeastern New Brunswick: “I used to get upset with my partner gkisedtanamoogk when he would go to these Gatherings. ‘Why do you invest time out there when there is so much work to be done at home?’ He would talk about the importance of building alliances and he would say, ‘Not everyone is arrogant, not everybody’s a racist. There are friends out there and they need our support too.’” From there we dive into each participant’s views of a microcosmic struggle to navigate the bewildering tangle of personal, cultural, social, environmental, and legal differences, misunderstandings, prejudices, suspicions, and resentments between peoples. The section of recollections is followed by a brief middle part that answers the looming question of why the Gatherings ended. Then a section of essays talks about the frictions, perils, and hopes that arise when Natives and settlers come together. The result is the feeling that as the Gatherings took shape—changing, for example, from a Euro-American-style meeting with start-times and agendas that emphasize talking, to a traditional indigenous talking circle that emphasizes listening—an authentic effort to find common human ground developed. There was a measure of success. Miigam’agan is asked by Shirley in the latter part of the book “about the pressure indigenous people can feel from non-Natives wanting to learn how to be more connected to the Earth.” Miigam’agan replies: “I’ve been … learning about European history and the comparisons with our [Native] culture. And I see that our spiritual knowledge, our original instructions or Earth-based ways, were all the same.” A recurrent theme in the perennial philosophies is that once you clear away the many superficial differences among people, a common moral and spiritual reality shines through. The Gatherings themselves had solved little, at least tangibly, by 1994, when Native people not taking part suspected the white participants were “playing Indian” and their heavy-handed objections overwhelmed the endeavor. But as the latter chapters of the book demonstrate, common sensibilities about justice, relationship, and unity grew among the participants. This set up a powerful momentum of feeling that some of them, in the 2010s, decided to preserve. Calling themselves collectively “Mawopiyane,” a Passamaquoddy word meaning “let us sit together,” they spent several years piecing together this simply framed, but profoundly encouraging book. Dana Wilde is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

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The Working Waterfront . August 2021

Coastal cleanup returns Program will run in September

he Maine Coastal Program, a division of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, has opened registration for the annual Coastal Cleanup. The Coastal Cleanup is a volunteer-driven initiative designed to clean debris from Maine’s coastal shores and waterfront communities. Part of the International Coastal Cleanup, Maine’s Coastal Cleanup will run during the month of September. Anyone who wishes to coordinate a local cleanup can register online by completing a form and selecting one of nearly 150 sites along the coast. Once a registration has been received, DMR will remove the chosen location from the available sites on the online registration form. If a coordinator indicates on the registration form that volunteers are being sought, DMR will list that site along with contact information so interested volunteers can reach out to the coordinator. Prior to the date of each cleanup, coordinators will be sent a package containing resources to collect and record trash. “We are encouraging coordinators to have their volunteers bring gloves, hats, sunscreen, and water to stay hydrated,” said Theresa Torrent, outreach and stewardship specialist for the Maine Coastal Program. The International Coastal Cleanup was established over 35 years ago to address the problem of trash in the ocean and on coasts. The non-profit Ocean Conservancy, which coordinates the global initiative, maintains a database of all the items that volunteers around the world record when collecting trash, and publishes a report of each year’s cleanup. According to the most recent report from 2019, 1,566 Maine volunteers cleared 3,626 pounds of trash from 157 miles of the states coastline. “Every year this effort provides an opportunity for people to support Maine’s coastal communities and to join a global initiative aimed at improving the health of our oceans,” she said. “The Maine Coastal Program has been the state coordinator for the International Coastal Cleanup for over 30 years and remains committed to supporting and facilitating efforts like this to keep our coastal beaches and waterways clean,” said Torrent. Anyone interested in coordinating a Coastal Cleanup can register online at www.maine.gov/dmr/mcp/planning/coastweek/cleanup2021.html For more information regarding Maine's Coastal Cleanup program, please contact theresa.torrent@maine.gov

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OYSTER FARMER— Lauren Gray, seen here on a recent day on the water, raises oysters in a 5-acre farm off Great Cranberry Island in the shallow area known as the Pool. Her business, Cranberry Oysters, received a business resilience grant from the Tom Glenn Community Impact Fund through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

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www.workingwaterfront.com . August 2021

MDI lab gaining ground in tissue regeneration Salamander, mouse are playing role in research

any salamanders can readily regenerate a lost limb, but adult mammals, including humans, cannot. Why this is the case is a scientific mystery that has fascinated observers of the natural world for thousands of years. Now, a team of scientists led by James Godwin, Ph.D., of the MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor has come a step closer to unraveling that mystery with the discovery of differences in molecular signaling that promote regeneration in the axolotl, a highly regenerative salamander, while blocking it in the adult mouse, which is a mammal with limited regenerative ability. “Scientists at the laboratory have been relying on comparative biology to gain insights into human health since its founding in 1898,” said Hermann Haller, M.D., the institution’s president. “The discoveries enabled by James Godwin’s comparative studies in the axolotl and mouse are proof that the idea of learning from nature is as valid today as it was more than 120 years ago.” Instead of regenerating lost or injured body parts, mammals typically form a scar at the site of an injury. Because the scar creates a physical barrier to regeneration, research in regenerative medicine at the laboratory has focused on understanding why the axolotl doesn’t form a scar—or, why it doesn’t respond to injury in the same way that the mouse and other mammals do. “Our research shows that humans have untapped potential for regeneration,” Godwin said. “If we can solve the problem of scar formation, we may be able to unlock our latent regenerative potential. Axolotls don’t scar, which is what allows regeneration to take place. But once a scar has formed, it’s game over in terms of regeneration. If we could prevent scarring in humans, we could enhance quality of life for so many people.” The axolotl, a Mexican salamander that is now all but extinct in the wild, is a favorite model in regenerative medicine research because of its one-of-akind status as nature’s champion of regeneration. While most salamanders have some regenerative capacity, the axolotl can regenerate almost any body part, including brain, heart, jaws, limbs, lungs, ovaries, spinal cord, skin, and tail. Since mammalian embryos and juveniles have the ability to regenerate—for instance, human infants can regenerate heart tissue and children can regenerate fingertips—it’s likely that adult mammals retain the genetic code for regeneration, raising the prospect that pharmaceutical therapies could be developed to encourage humans to regenerate tissues and organs lost to disease or injury instead of forming a scar. In his recent research, Godwin compared immune cells called macrophages in the axolotl to those in the mouse with the goal of identifying the quality in axolotl macrophages that promotes regeneration. The research builds on earlier studies in which Godwin found that macrophages are critical to regeneration: when they are depleted, the axolotl forms a scar instead of regenerating, just like mammals. The recent research found that although macrophage signaling in the axolotl and that in the mouse were similar when the organisms were exposed to pathogens such as bacteria, funguses and viruses, when it came to exposure to injury it was a different story: the macrophage signaling in the axolotl promoted the growth of new tissue while that in the mouse promoted scarring. The discovery of an alternative signaling pathway that is compatible with regeneration could ultimately lead to regenerative medicine therapies for humans. Though regrowing a human limb may not be realistic in the short term, significant

James Godwin, Ph.D., with axolotl; an axolotl from the colony at the MDI Biological Laboratory. PHOTO: COURTESY MDI BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY

opportunities exist for therapies that improve clinical outcomes in diseases in which scarring plays a major role in the pathology, including heart, kidney, liver, and lung disease. “We are getting closer to understanding how axolotl macrophages are primed for regeneration, which

will bring us closer to being able to pull the levers of regeneration in humans,” Godwin said. “For instance, I envision being able to use a topical hydrogel at the site of a wound that is laced with a modulator that changes the behavior of human macrophages to be more like those of the axolotl.”

“Another Fine Day” woodcut by Holly Berry

Fern linen tea towel by Morris and Essex

Wooden chart tray by Evan Emmott

Wall hanging by Wild Rosie

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The Working Waterfront . August 2021

Foot traffic is back.

Patrons at RíRá Irish Pub react to a soccer game on TV.

Hot town, summer in the city Portland’s Commercial Street is alive again PHOTO ESSAY BY MICHELE STAPLETON

Portland Lobster Company offers deck dining over the water.

www.workingwaterfront.com . August 2021

A street singing performance.

Painting at the Muse Paint Bar.

Customers browse at Sea Bags.

Passengers disembark from a land-sea trip on the Maine Duck Tours.

Orders up at Becky’s Diner.

The Working Waterfront . August 2021

Our Island Communities Girls running club built connection, confidence Virtual training was perfect fit for islanders By Robin Chernow

URING THE PANDEMIC, I missed working with kids, so this spring, I registered as a volunteer coach for Girls on the Run (GOTR). An afterschool program for girls in grades 3-5, GOTR “inspires girls to be joyful, healthy, and confident.” Throughout the season, girls meet twice weekly, growing social-emotional skills and working towards completing a 5K. After deciding to coach, I learned that GOTR had developed a virtual model of its curriculum during the pandemic. I immediately thought about the smallest outer island and rural schools, where students have few opportunities for team activities due to tiny student populations. I reached out to teachers, parents, and community members in small communities along the coast, and within a few weeks, we had five girls registered for our Virtual Islands GOTR team. They hailed from Cliff Island, Isle au Haut, Deer Isle, and Little Deer Isle. Chloe on Cliff, for example, is one of three students in her K-5 school. Joining our GOTR team, she experienced a different social environment with four other peers close to her age. We met on Zoom on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The first week, we got to know our teammates. Three of us have chickens at home! Everyone loves art! We discussed our GOTR goal of completing a 5K in June. Three whole miles?! That sounds like a lot. How would a virtual running club work? GOTR Maine mailed journals to each girl and offered creative options for movement, rather than focusing strictly on running. We ran in place, did squats and star jumps. We skipped, lunged, and “wacky danced” to music. All of these physical exercises were sprinkled throughout lessons on positive self-talk, inner beauty, and showing empathy. After practice, girls continued their workouts individually, building from 10 minutes the first day to 45-plus by the end of the season. Girls logged whether they rode a bike, hiked, chased their chickens, or ran down the road to their grandma’s house. One day mid-season, I received an email from Chloe’s dad, saying she would be absent due to a dentist appointment on the mainland: “She’s

Girls and coaches warm up before the 5K in Deer Isle.

Gianna gets her award from Robin Chernow.

bummed [to miss practice], but we will do and log her workout. I know she is shy, but she really does look forward to these meetings.” Chloe may have been shy, but she was engaged: listening attentively to teammates, writing in her GOTR journal, enthusiastically participating in physical exercises. Throughout the season, the girls embraced warm-up games, showed us their power poses, and shouted cheers to conclude each practice, despite the time-lag on Zoom. These provided silliness, camaraderie, and fun to our virtual team. By early June, all the girls completed their 5Ks in their respective communities. Each girl ran with a running buddy, and my co-coach and I visited the islands, bringing encouraging signs, chalking the roads, and meeting with girls in person. Before meeting with the Deer Isle girls, I ran with Gianna and her mom on Isle au Haut. Familiar faces and strangers alike had seen the 5K posters, cheering as we ran past the ferry landing and the Acadia National Park Ranger Station. GOTR emphasizes personal goal-setting and

Happy, proud family hugs after completing the 5K.

positive self-talk. “Keep moving forward” when you are tired. Walk for a while to rest, tell yourself some encouraging words, and keep going. I asked the girls what the best part was about the 5K day. Chloe shared “getting my medal” after finishing the 3.1 mile run was a highlight. Nineyear-old Claire explained, “It wasn’t a real race so it didn’t matter if I didn’t win. The easiest thing was having a running buddy.” Kennedy, also 9, agreed. Even though the 5K “was long and my legs hurt,” the drink table and running buddy made it easier. Maeve, 10, practiced one of her GOTR skills during the 5K. She recalls, “I was able to use positive self-talk” while running, which helped her to keep going. Reflecting on the season as a whole, girls shared favorite memories including silly warm-up games, our team’s love of chickens, and our super-strong power poses. I am grateful for this fun, empowering season with our Virtual Islands GOTR Team. Girls on the Run Maine is currently seeking sites for fall 2021 teams. Visit www.girlsontherunmaine. org for more information.

Matinicus honors our friend, Kevin Waters By Kimberly Peabody

ast year on July 5, I was mindlessly scrolling social media. My husband was taking a shower. Life was as normal as it could be during the early months of the shadow of COVID. We were navigating the challenges but still working and living without too many obstacles on Matinicus Island. As I scrolled, I saw my children’s pictures and posts, a few friends’ updates, and then I paused. A crew member of Penobscot Island Air, the air service that was invaluable to our remote island, posted an updated profile picture at 9:48 p.m. A huge lump formed in my throat, my head started to spin.

“It can’t be, no…” Broken heart and sad-face emojis began popping up under the picture. I typed a quick message to this crew member. Praying. The response confirmed my fear. Kevin Waters, owner, operator, and pilot, and husband, brother, son, and valued and trusted friend had passed away unexpectedly earlier in the evening. In the days, weeks, and months that followed, tears flowed, heartache was felt, and stories were shared. Kevin was so many things to so many people, but for our island, he and his crew were a vital lifeline. Our families and friends depended on him for business supplies, repair and replacement parts, medicine, food,

mail, and more, and we could get them by picking up the phone and hearing Kevin’s voice. “You’ve got it Honey! It’s on the way!” or “Yup, your kid just walked through the door and we are loading them up. They will be in the air and home in a few minutes!” or “You’ve got it Kiddo! Headed your way!” There was a joke, a smile, a hug. “You count!” was said to all who passed through the service either headed to an island or just coming off. “God Loves ya!” followed with a pat on the back. “You know it Honey!” or one of my favorites when talking to Kevin about anything to do with computers, “I’m just Fred Flinstone over here, but we’ll make it happen!”

www.workingwaterfront.com . August 2021

Islesboro grad immersed in Polynesian culture Traditional navigational skills taught and absorbed at sea By Emily Lau

n September 2020, I left Islesboro for a gap year on the island where I grew up, O’ahu, in Hawaii. Having a whole year to be back home was incredible, and most wonderful of all our adventures was my time volunteering with the Polynesian Voyaging Society, or PVS. PVS was founded in 1973 to prove that the ancient Polynesian people had the ability to navigate and sail the Pacific Ocean. They built Hōkūle’a, a traditional wa’a kaulua (double-hulled canoe) and sailed it over 2,000 miles to Tahiti using only non-instrument navigation, creating a wave of pride in Polynesian culture and interest in voyaging throughout the Pacific. In the decades since that first voyage, PVS has sailed Hōkūle’a hundreds of thousands of miles over the world, becoming a symbol and a source of pride for the Hawaiian people. To be able to volunteer for an organization doing such powerful work to reclaim Hawaiian culture was rewarding. We relashed Hōkūle’a completely, a process which requires hundreds of hours of work and around 6 miles of line. Those lashings will take her around the whole Pacific Ocean on the Moananuiākea Voyage and hold her together for the next decade—so it feels like wherever she goes, I go in spirit, too. But I didn’t just go in spirit. I was incredibly lucky to be a crew member and a navigation student on Hikianalia, the wa’a kaulua escort boat for Hōkūle’a, on a training voyage in May. The original plan was to voyage down to Ka Houpo o Kāne (the doldrums), but due to weather conditions, we had to stand by for over a week in Lāhainā, Maui. To a Hawaiian mindset, it was the only course of action that was respectful of nature, the wa’a, and the crew. Instead of pushing on to sail through the raging ‘Alenuihāhā Channel, we saw ancient petroglyphs in Nu‘u, hiked up to a heiau, weeded a lo‘i, snorkeled over the reef outside Olowalu, worked on Maui’s wa‘a kaulua, and became acquainted with the canoe compass and the star lines used in navigation. I love how PVS considers the cultural aspect of voyaging to be as crucial to the sail as any physical preparation, as evidenced not just in the cultural training and protocol, but in the attitude towards any obstacle as an opportunity to learn and honor our traditions. Once the ‘Alenuihāhā Channel calmed down, we set out south from Maui. After the first light squall, a double rainbow emerged off our bow, reflected in the ocean as a circle of color. As we sailed to Hawai‘i Island, we could see Kohala, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualālai ahead of us, with Haleakalā behind. I could almost imagine what

On Matinicus, 23 miles out to sea, the community sentiment was voiced by Lacey Leigh: “We need to do something.” That is what Lacey did. Gathering islanders together through social media, ideas started flowing. Lacey wanted something at the island airstrip that honored the man we loved. A bench. A simple, solid, and beautiful granite bench. Through Lacey’s sister-in-law, Kristine Ames, a piece of granite in the shape of a plane was cut by Wes Reed of Vinalhaven Granite Works. Kelly Webber went to Brooks Monuments to discuss engraving. Everyone in the group chat shared suggestions, advice, and offered to help. Robin Ames started a Go Fund Me account for the expense with any additional funds to go to Terry Waters for a scholarship fund in Kevin’s name. Groundwork began at the Matinicus Airstrip. Gary Peabody, UBETCHA Offshore Engineering, cleared

Emily Lau piloting Hikianalia on her birthday; Hikianalia underway.

my ancestors must have felt, seeing these breathtaking peaks rise up out of the ocean after thousands of miles of sailing. A sense of how rich and united a kingdom Hawai‘i is filled my blood. We sailed south for about a day, out of sight of land. A ring of clouds lined the horizon, with ‘ehukai underneath, lightening the sky’s blue above the ocean. Bruce Blankenfeld, our captain and a Pwo navigator, pointed out the major eastern swell, a south-east swell, and a sporadic set of small waves from the north, fishing out useful knowledge from a chaos of water. He drew meaning and understanding out

of the night sky, too, until I, too, could see starlines rise and set, and measure the moon’s path along the ecliptic with my own hands. His lessons in navigation were expansive and illuminated my world, beyond just the sky. The return home passed in a blur. In no time, we were back ashore, loaded with lei, feeling the exhaustion begin to sink in. But though the training sail has ended and I am back in Maine, I know that caring for the wa‘a is a lifelong kuleana, and that I’ll be a part of the wa‘a ‘ohana forever. I wouldn’t want to voyage through life any other way.

the location, flattened the spot, built a rock garden and filled in the garden area with dirt. The challenge was getting the bench from Vinalhaven to Matinicus on a boat. On April 10, Troy Ames was finally able to bring it across on his boat, the Defender II. He then assisted Gary Peabody and Danny Lewis in placing Kevin’s Bench in the garden. It took some time and the garden is now being planned and planted for the first The bench established at the air strip on Matinicus Island in anniversary of Kevin’s passing. Islanders honor of the late Kevin Waters. PHOTO: COURTESY KIMBERLY PEABODY will be donating perennials and annuals to be planted around the bench. Many things have Lacey and the Matinicus community hope that changed since July 5, 2020 but the one thing that every time someone sits on Kevin’s Bench while hasn’t changed is how much this island community waiting for the plane to arrive or watching it take misses our friend. off, Kevin and everything he meant to us all, will Kevin will always be remembered for his compas- be remembered. sion, his friendship, his service, and his “Kevinisms.” Fly high friend. We miss you.

The Working Waterfront . August 2021

Frenchman Bay salmon farm sparks opposition Bar Harbor Town Council, fishing fleet oppose project By Laurie Schreiber

proposal by a Norwegian firm to install a large salmon farm in Frenchman Bay is drawing fire from a range of local stakeholders. American Aquafarms was launched in Portland last year by Mikael Rones, CEO of Global AS, which is based in Trondheim, Norway. The firm submitted applications earlier this year to the Department of Marine Resources to lease two 60-acre sites in order to install 15 “closed net” pens and an operations barge at each. The pens and barge would account for about 10 acres of each lease, with the mooring field taking up the rest of the space. The goal is to grow 66 million pounds of Atlantic salmon per year. According to the applications, closed pen systems have been developed and used for 30 to 40 years in Norway, have become more commonplace in the last five to six years, and represent the “next generation” of fish farms, the application says. The company projected it would take 20 months after the first pen is in operation for the facility to reach full production. The salmon would be processed on land at the former Maine Fair Trade Lobster facility in Gouldsboro. American has an option to buy that property. Total investment is estimated at about $300 million. Norway is the world’s leading producer and exporter of salmon. Company representatives have said they chose Maine as their location for its ideal ocean conditions and proximity to the U.S. market.

This rendering of a closed pen shows how the system works. IMAGE: COURTESY AMERICAN AQUAFARMS

But there’s a growing outcry from local interests. Twenty-six Bar Harbor fishermen signed a statement opposing the proposal. Their concerns included the potential for “loss of prime fishing ground for lobster, scallops and shrimp,” increased fishing pressure on grounds adjacent to the proposed operation, loss of

gear from service vessels and related support activity, navigational conflicts, water pollution related to discharge, feed and fuel spills, habitat impacts, and disturbance to the ocean bottom around the pens. In addition, the statement said, the proposal could lower “the potential for a comeback to the historical fisheries

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The project would be located just 2,000 feet from Acadia National Park at its closest point.

Visualization of a salmon processing facility and hatchery proposed at the former Maine Fair Trade Lobster facility in Gouldsboro. IMAGE: COURTESY AMERICAN AQUAFARMS

of the bay, including the recent shrimping fishery that centered inside the bay on these two deep water holes.” It also cited an “unwanted disruption to our way of life and to the environment that we work in.” In a separate statement, Kathleen Rybarz, president of Friends of Frenchman Bay, said her group is opposed to the project. “One cannot overstate the destructive impact of this large-scale proposal on a bay that already strives to balance multiple fisheries, heavy recreational use, cruise ship visitors and increasing ocean warming,” she said. At a virtual meeting in June, the Bar Harbor Town Council voted to request intervener status on the application.

“People are starting to feel more and more strongly about whether we would like this to occur in Frenchman Bay or not,” said the council’s chairman, Jeff Dobbs. About a dozen people spoke against the project at the DMR’s virtual informational meeting. In his written statement to DMR, Acadia National Park Superintendent Kevin Schneider noted the project would be located just 2,000 feet from Acadia National Park at its closest point. “While many other commercial fishing and aquaculture activities take place within Frenchman Bay, and exist in harmony with Acadia National Park, this development is totally different than existing aquaculture activities near the park,” Schneider wrote.

“The scale of this development—the equivalent of 16 football fields—is unprecedented in Maine and incongruous with the existing nature and setting of Frenchman Bay and its surrounding lands.” Eirik Jors, the company’s vice president, said aquaculture has been developed in Norway off similar coastal areas populated by small communities that have “embraced and adapted to the introduction of aquaculture as a part of the environment.” He said the pen technology has several layers of redundancy that minimize environmental risk. A group called Frenchman Bay United sent a letter to U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland asking for her help. “Unfortunately, Maine’s current rules and regulations offer inadequate protection against a large-scale industrial aquaculture project like this and disenfranchise many stakeholders around the bay from having a meaningful say in the consideration of permit applications,” the letter said. The letter called for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the only federal permitting authority for the project, to conduct a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement under the terms of the National Environmental Policy Act.

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The Working Waterfront . August 2021

Classic yacht racing returns to Maine

Events set for Boothbay Harbor, Camden, Castine, Brooklin

lassic yacht racing will return to Maine, a natural pairing thanks to the state’s worldclass boatbuilders, yacht designers, and the sail-friendly nature of its bays. The Classic Yacht Owners Association based in Newport, R.I. has established Maine as its own district in a newly formed competition called the Classic Yachts Challenge Series. To win the Maine series, competitors need to race in three races in the state in two separate events. The Maine district’s racing season includes: • Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club Regatta and Shipyard Cup Classics Challenge, July 24-25 • Camden Classics Cup, July 29-31 • Castine Classic Yacht Race, Aug. 5 • Camden to Brooklin Feeder race, Aug. 6 • Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, Aug. 7 These are destination regattas, with each town putting out the welcome mat for sailors and crews. Because each regatta has its own flavor and charm, yachts come in from the Caribbean, Long Island Sound, across New England, and along the coast of Maine to participate. The membership-driven, nonprofit Classic Yacht Owners Association was established in 2015 to encourage fellowship amongst owners of classic yachts. The Boothbay Harbor event has expanded to include several divisions featuring classic yachts rather than superyachts. It is presented by the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club in conjunction with sponsors Hodgdon Yachts, Bristol Marine’s Shipyard, and others. Presented by Lyman-Morse, the Camden Classics Cup features two days of racing and post-race parties, a one-day youth regatta, and a parade of sail through

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Camden’s inner harbor. The Camden Classics Cup is followed by Camden Classics Week featuring a variety of maritime-related events and destination racing to Castine, Brooklin and the outer islands. The town of Camden and its businesses embrace the maritime theme with art displays, a classic car expo, lectures, music and film, and youth events. LifeFlight of Maine is the beneficiary of the event, and to date, $45,000 has been donated to the nonprofit. The Castine Classic Yacht Race features a fleet of classic and “spirit of tradition” yachts sailing on a course from Castine to Camden, culminating in the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta. On Wednesday, Aug. 4, the Castine Yacht Club will host a cocktail reception for all participants and crews, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

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The Camden Yacht Club Classic Yacht Feeder Race, in its 34th year, has boats sailing to Brooklin. It’s the second race of the Wooden Boat Series and is the largest fleet to race out of Camden Harbor every summer. The Eggemoggin Reach Regatta began humbly in 1985 with thirteen wooden boats and a dream. Organizer Steve White along with Frank Hull of Brooklin Boatyard first envisioned the race as an opportunity for wooden boat owners to get together and enjoy each other’s company as well as to compete. The race quickly grew to 125 boats and is now co-hosted by Brooklin Boatyard and Rockport Marine. The regatta’s 15-mile course has remained the same over the years and only once was the race cancelled due to fog.

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WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ocean resilience, we are talking about capacity to heal and sustain ocean systems over time when interrupted by natural events such as extreme weather, flooding, and earthquakes. The challenge is the intrusion of human activities such as nearshore development, agricultural run-off, industrial pollution, filling and dredging, and port construction—all of which disturb the natural order and make significant, detrimental changes to the environment not easily renewed or repaired. Some observers estimate that over 40 percent of marine factors create small variances. Even the devasecosystems—coral reefs, mangrove forests, rocky tation of a major coastal hurricane does not set shorelines, and seagrass beds—have been severely the complete economy off-kilter with serious, impacted due to such land-based activities aggra- but limited social effect, typically addressed by large federal funds and other resources to vated by relentless, illegal fishing. How then can ecological resilience be sustained? And mediate and compensate for the damage. Such an event in Tobago, or Puerto Rico, given the documented consequence on social resilience, how really can we expect to redress and progress results in a very different scenario: widespread physical destruction, destroyed services, out of a global situation that may be beyond repair? An article by Dr. Anjani Ganase, an ecologist at disrupted employment, and little to no funds the Institute of Marine Affairs in Tobago, suggests available to address social needs or the cost of various tools with which to confront the challenge: restoration. Resilience, then, is a personal matter, not a coastal zone management, upstream pollution reduction and controls, marine spatial planning, fisheries statistical report, but a set of circumstances policies, re-purposing of fishers to aquaculture, and measured by loss, the possibility of renewal, and the outcomes experienced other good ideas that can help, even if on the ground and along shore. only to diminish the decline and deteThat is no longer a hypothetrioration and begin to heal the natural ical event, but a recurring one and community wounds that people in worldwide, where what we typically poor and undeveloped places have done and to what we have have endured. How much time done it can no longer protect us Tourism has helped, at least in terms do we have with from not just natural events, but of employment and tax-revenue, but man-made ones too. impacts of beach-front construcno significant Scale is also a measure of time. tion, over-consumption of limited national ocean How much time do we have resources, crime, and health issues policy to change to take steps to protect from suggest a false economy. mistakes of our own making? Further, the financial forces may the behaviors How much time do we have with now be even more destructive than that created the no significant national ocean we fully understand. Recently, the U.S. policy to mitigate and change Bureau of Economic Analysis released problem? the structures and behaviors its first official Marine Economy that created the problem? How Account, a satellite analysis of U.S. would it be if that 1.9 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP). of Gross Domestic Product was The report indicates that the marine lost? What would happen if all economy, touted as the blue economy, represents 1.9 percent or $397 billion of current- that value was lost to us in a global economy dollar GDP in 2019, and grew at an annual rate of where ocean environments and financial 4.2 percent, a substantial increase over the 2014- connections, the maritime goods and services 2018 analyses. For the first time, the report looks that are essential to our health and welfare at the marine economy by industry categories: every day, were no longer available? How resiloffshore minerals, real estate, transportation, sight- ient, then, would we be? How resilient, then, seeing, ferries, ship-building, tourism, and national could we be? defense. The geographic scope includes the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans within the U.S. Exclusive Peter Neill is director of the World Ocean Economic Zone (up to 200 miles offshore), as well as Observatory, which produces weekly radio other discrete ocean bodies within the U.S. essays heard on WERU-FM, 89.9, on It is the scale of this enterprise that matters. The podcast at apple.com/us/podcast/worldmarine economy GDP is small in the context of the ocean-radio/id425361249, and at www. overall U.S. economy, but it is enormous compared to worldoceanobservatory.org/world-ocean-radio. that of a Caribbean island state. External economic He lives in Sedgwick.

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Saltwater Cure

The tenuousness of wild places A trip west reminds us of nature’s fragility By Courtney Naliboff I’M WRITING this month’s column poolside, a very unusual place for me to be. After not leaving the state for 18 months, Bill, Penrose, and I masked up, braved a transcontinental plane ride, and landed in San Diego in late June. After a few days of Mexican food, record shopping, and extended visits with Bill’s aunts and cousins, we packed up and drove with his parents to Sedona. Sedona has become a regular vacation spot for us, with three visits under our belts before the pandemic. We obviously didn’t make the trip in 2020, but were eager to get back to it as soon as it seemed safe and reasonable, and all family members over 12 were fully vaccinated (Penrose is still masking up indoors). This year’s trip had an unforeseen wrinkle, however—the Rafael Fire. A week or so before our trip, my father started sending me headlines from Arizona news organizations: the Rafael Fire, started by lightning strikes, was burning tens of thousands of acres in the Prescott and Coconino National Forests. Nearby towns were under “go

orders”—not an evacuation per se, but over the West Coast. The forest service’s a call to readiness. A planned kayak decision to completely cut off access trip on the Verde River was canceled. to the trails made sense and served to By the time of our arrival on the Fourth eliminate an additional risk factor— of July, both forests, and every trail in human callousness and lack of regard for our surroundings. them, were closed. But we felt it as a loss, with an It was a circumstance none of us had imagined. For us, a trip to Sedona emotional response. Boynton Canyon: closed. Bell Rock: was synonymous with closed. Thompson nearly unfettered Trail: closed. The vistas access to seemingly we held dear, so alien infinite trails—flat We took for our coastal homes, loops, stream crossings, granted our right to from rendered inaccessible. steep ascents, riparian After a few days, traverses emerging enter these forests, we received the good suddenly upon the with our hats and news that the fire was remains of cliff dwellwalking sticks and contained, perhaps aided ings and petroglyphs. by the heavy rainfall of We took for granted rugged shoes. our first night in town, our right to enter these and the forests would forests, with our hats be reopening, and we and walking sticks and rugged shoes, and never considered immediately planned a hiking itinerary. The temporary loss of access made the their fragility. The conditions creating this seem- trails more precious, and our experience ingly new fragility aren’t a mystery. of them more urgently important. But it also served as a reminder Ever increasing drought, paired with dramatic storms, created the same of the fragility of all of our beloved tinder-box environment echoed all outdoor spaces, from Maine’s lobster

fishery, to Tumbledown’s now-closed campsites, to San Diego’s sandy, waveswept beaches. We humans can only do so much to keep them safe. So much is out of our control, and I fear watching them slip through our fingers as the changing climate drives more extreme weather events, the waters warm, and the shoreline erodes. We have a hike planned for tomorrow morning, the first of several this week, along with excursions for antiques, cactus-themed tchotchkes, and tasty treats. Sedona is defined by its stunning views of red rocks, but they aren’t promised to us forever. Nothing wild is. Sometimes stepping away is our best tool to lengthen the amount of time we are privileged to spend in the forests, climbing mountains, on the shore, or on the ocean, as much as it might tug at our hearts. Courtney Naliboff is a teacher and musician who lives on North Haven.

Journal of an Island Kitchen

The pleasing economics of growing peas Variations abound, and so does the harvest By Sandy Oliver BACK IN MID-APRIL, island neighbor Marilyn Pendleton, a prodigious gardener at age 90, asked me if I had my peas in yet. I didn’t but she did, and they were up. Nonetheless, by golly, I had peas by the Fourth of July with nothing strenuous required to get them this year by the traditional holiday time. Partly because my niece helped me put up fencing for them; partly because we had fairly salubrious weather around April 27 when I put presoaked peas in the ground; and partly because I bit on the catalog description of an early, not too tall, and flavorful pea named Strike, we managed to shell out a decent quantity to eat and also have some to freeze. Usually, my peas come in towards the middle of July. This year Green Arrow and Tall Sugar Snaps probably will ripen up in another week or so, though we have pinched a few of the slightly too-small sugar snaps already, snacking and “testing.” By then Strike may even set another bunch of flowers. We’ll see, though certainly not if a heat wave returns. Last year I went for a pea called Champion of England. Champ grew

and grew. And grew. It topped the tendrils get distracted by another pea fence and kept going, then fell over plant to wind around or dive off in another direction altothe top. What a mess. gether, clutching at Partly my fault because straws in the mulch. I greedily planted them I will unwind them too densely, still Champ and lead them into proved altogether too Occasionally the fence, wrapping ambitious a plant for the a couple of tendrils kind of fencing I have to some tendrils around the fence wire, offer, so I decided not to get distracted by until they catch on. plant it this year. No matter what, I’m hopeful that Tall another pea plant I miss a few mature Snaps don’t get too to wind around… pods when I pick, and much taller before they the tight, but slight begin to yield or I’ll wrinkled pods hold have the same topple starchy peas suitable problem again this year. for soup. I don’t think Comparatively, Strike’s of the peas as having well-behaved, modest height of about 2 feet suits me just fine. gone by, merely gone into a different, I no longer plant peas densely and equally useful, phase. I always think thin them even though I can eat the I’m looking out for them, but miss thinnings. I plant them at 2 inches them if I don’t shake the vines a little apart—that’s tip of a fore finger to the to spot that wobble particular to peas second knuckle—and if one doesn’t revealing their location. Sitting on the porch with a basket come up, I plant a replacement. If my seed peas get old, I plant them cheek of picked pods, a bowl for shelled by jowl in a small flat and harvest them peas, and a bucket to catch empty as pea shoots. You can harvest just the pods provides a peaceful moment in summer when sitting still can be tendrils to drop into salads, too. Usually, peas are good at finding the pleasantly productive. A friend to help fence to climb up. Occasionally some halves the effort.

I recall a visit to Mennonite country in Pennsylvania, visiting a farm where the younger women in a family picked peas from generously long rows in the large garden and elders shelled, shaded by an old tree. Everyone had a hand in the process, all of them helpful participants. I have no idea if one of them thought it was inefficient, or boring, or considered whether they could earn enough money doing something else to buy peas grown, picked, shelled and canned or frozen somewhere away. One way to think of it is, for example, if I were 50 years old, I’d have done it perhaps 36 times with another 30 to go, God willing, if I lived to age 80. Sixty-six seasons of shelling peas seems a pretty tolerable number compared to the 5,200 times I’ve done laundry twice a week for 50 years. The economics of pea growing is not calculable; it’s food, entertainment, and soul satisfying altogether. Priceless. Sandy Oliver is a food historian who gardens, cooks, and writes on Islesboro. She can be reached at sandyoliver47@ gmail.com.

www.workingwaterfront.com . August 2021

Book Review

Memoir traces abuse, addiction, and revival Actor who keeps a home in Rockport confronts his past Walking With Ghosts By Gabriel Byrne (Grove Press, 2021)

Review by Tina Cohen

ince reading Gabriel Byrne’s recently published memoir Walking With Ghosts, I’ve delayed watching the newest HBO season of In Treatment in favor of first re-watching the previous three, which aired 20082010. Those star Byrne, who won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of a therapist. It occurred to me to wonder if his role as Dr. Paul Weston, seen in sessions with clients, may have helped develop qualities in his writing—a candid and comfortable contemplation of memories, dreams, and “walks with ghosts.” Byrne opens himself up to readers the way someone sitting with their therapist might, sharing personal, stream of consciousness grappling with who he is, what he feels, and what has shaped him. This is no star-studded tell-it-all, nor even a linear life narrative. And how, you might ask, is this author and awardwinning actor (The Usual Suspects is a fan film favorite) related to Maine? Byrne calls Rockport home, with a house on a hill by the shore. His family

spent the pandemic months hunkered down here, point of disgust with his drunkenness, his self-delivand it is where he and his wife, Hannah Beth King, ered oblivion. It is an accomplishment to be proud of, a documentary filmmaker, are raising their young his now 20 years-plus of sobriety. Along with drinking, denial and avoidance were daughter, and where Byrne—when not off working ways he used to escape the past. Byrne’s creative life in movies—is writing his next book, a novel. Born in 1950, Byrne grew up in metro Dublin in also allowed for “stepping into a dream, where time an Irish-Catholic family. His father built barrels at is altered by imagination.” He describes himself now as no longer “afraid of what’s buried in the Guinness beer distillery. Byrne was there.” He muses, “For so long I blamed recruited to studying for the priesthood myself. Ashamed and guilty that I had as a youth; it was an esteemed vocation done something wrong.” and one with an academic component Years later, locating a priest he had that held appeal. Yet, among the priests Byrne can been seduced and violated by, he makes he wanted to learn from and please were a phone call to confront him. But the some capable of exploiting their roles as sometimes be priest was old, enfeebled, seemingly moral authorities to take advantage of brutal with unaware who was on the other end of the vulnerable. forthright the call. Byrne backed off, foregoing the He was groomed with their praise: extraction of an apology or the satisfac“He liked that I was a shy boy and that descriptions. tion of facing down an abuser. But what I was his favorite pupil and that is why he did get was the opportunity to expehe liked to have me near, in the front rience himself as someone willing and seat.” Confronted with sexual predaable to hold an abuser accountable. He tion, childhood innocence is a liability, knew he had deserved better. offering no protective counter strateIt’s that kind of success that most gies. We read, in very understated but undeniable ways, how Byrne experienced their earns my respect for Byrne. His story suggests we abuse. Needless to say, Byrne left that calling behind. could accept those challenges, too—confronting our Only when he tried acting did he experience a “fit,” past and summoning the courage and curiosity to walk with our ghosts. something that felt right to do. His past alcohol abuse is also woven into this picture, and Byrne can sometimes be brutal with Tina Cohen is a therapist who has a seasonal home forthright descriptions. Finally, he is pushed to the on Vinalhaven.

Revisiting Isaac’s Storm

Account of deadly Texas hurricane is a warning Isaac’s Storm: A man, a time, and the deadliest hurricane in history By Erik Larson

Review by Tom Walsh

ow that nearly everyone with a three-digit IQ has come to realize that “denial” is not just a river in Egypt, confronting the relentless challenges of climate change has emerged as a global priority, should life on Mother Earth be sustained in any recognizable form. For years now readers of The Working Waterfront have heard again and again that the Gulf of Maine’s relatively shallow waters are warming faster than any other comparable North Atlantic bay. This ongoing climatic and oceanographic reality is triggering well-founded concerns about the impact of higher seawater temperatures on commercial fishing and other aspects of coastal living. Just ten years ago, Maine enjoyed an abundant shrimp fishery and an extended scallop season. Not too long ago just off-the-boat Maine shrimp, still alive and kicking, could be had along Downeast roadways for a dollar a pound. Partial to colder North Atlantic waters, the tiny but tasty shrimp have since migrated north from Maine to Canada.

Meanwhile, Maine’s lengthy and once-lucrative scallop season has been getting shorter every year with lower landing limits and rolling closings of stressed habitat. While consumer demand for Maine scallops remains high, yields are dwindling. Besides algae blooms, sea rise, and changes in seawater temperature and salinity, the warming of the Gulf of Maine is also a prerequisite to coastal Maine’s increasing vulnerability to strong, destructive, and deadly hurricanes, which are fueled by warm waters. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s best guess assessment of the current 2021 hurricane season— traditionally June through September—predicts a 60 percent chance of “above-normal” hurricane activity. It’s a grim prediction that comes on the heels of a recordshattering 2020 hurricane season, which included 30 named storms, including seven of 14 hurricanes that developed into Category 3 storms with sustained winds of at least 111 mph up to Cat 5 storms with winds of 157 mph and beyond. Historically, coastal Maine is no stranger to hurricanes. In early September of 1954 twin hurricanes slammed New England’s shoreline 11 days apart, at times with winds gusts upwards of 180 miles per hour. Hurricanes Carol and Edna submerged downtown Providence in 13 feet of water. The “twins” resulted in 564 deaths and 1,700 injuries while destroying or heavily damaging 9,000 homes and 15,000 boats as the two storms moved north into coastal Maine, where they left two dead and $40 million in damage. Though not new, Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm is a remarkable, 1999 account of what remains the

deadliest hurricane in American history. It’s a mustread that delivers a meteorological and historical context for understanding the horrific potential of devastating hurricanes. It’s a carefully crafted, true-story account of an unprecedented and, given the crude weatherwarning capabilities of the era, largely unpredicted storm. The Sept. 9, 1900, hurricane made quick work of Galveston, which was then the third-largest city in Texas. It was a hurricane that killed as many as 8,000 people virtually overnight. Larson’s patchwork of survivor accounts and endless other historical records represents contemporary historical writing at its best. As he does in his many other books, this modern-day historian blends real events with the actual men, women, and children involved—some who survived and countless others who did not. It’s history well-done, not historical fiction, a genre that blends real events with a mix of real and fictional characters that can leave readers baffled by what “really” happened and to whom. In true Larson style, Isaac’s Storm is 273 pages of hypnotic narrative supplemented by 48 pages of notes, footnotes, and an index. It is, as an early literary critic put it, “thrilling, powerful, and unrelentingly suspenseful.” It’s also a stark reminder to coastal communities 122 years later that in a modern era of unpredictable climate changes, Mother Nature is not to be taken lightly. Tom Walsh is a science writer who has written for several Maine newspapers.

The Working Waterfront . August 2021

Field Notes

Flycasting for striped bass Penobscot Bay seeing fewer of legal size By Sue Bernier ASK ANYONE WHO knows me well, and they will tell you that I am not known for my patience. It’s become a bit of a recurring joke with my Island Institute teammates—want a quick decision? Call Sue. The downside: I don’t often think things all the way through before launching the next project. The upside: once decided, I am persistent in my pursuit of the goal. So when I fell out of my fishing kayak in pursuit of the summer’s first striped bass in early June, I got right back in and re-launched. First, I should confess that I didn’t exactly “fall.” It was more like a slowmotion, clumsy cartwheel from the bank to the kayak, to the water of Penobscot Bay. Weeks later, the bruises remind me that it was no easy trip to the rocky bottom of my little cove. Second confession: I got skunked. Not a nibble or a single heart palpitationinducing tug on my fly line. It’s not the first time I’ve cast my line for striped bass and been denied. I have lived on Verona Island for more than 20 years and I’ve lost more flies than fish. On calm late afternoons, when the wind dies down, we can see the fish

causing V-shaped trails on the water. Last year we purchased fishing kayaks, and now I can launch from my backyard and chase down the waking fish. That doesn’t mean I can catch them. “Catching waking striped bass on a fly can be hard. Really hard,” wrote Capt. Peter Fallon, president of the Maine Association of Charterboat Captains and co-founder of Gillies & Fallon Guide Services, LLC. “So many elements need to come together and do so at precisely the right instant to succeed.” So far, nothing was coming together very well for me. I recently contacted Capt. Fallon in search of advice and perhaps a bit of reassurance. Was it my lame attempts at casting while trying to stay afloat, or were the striped bass eluding even the experts? Why not ask the guy who can be found guiding and writing for “MaineStripers.com”? “Water clarity and temps are more like early July than mid-June,” wrote Capt. Fallon. “If you love to sight cast to shallow water striped bass, get out there now.” Enter the persistence. I lost my perfectly new Lefty’s Deceiver—a trusted fly for trolling striped bass— during the unexpected cartwheel into the water. I tied on another fly,

something with a long chartreuse tail, and kept paddling. Paddle, jig, paddle. Nothing but a school of lion’s mane jellyfish. From the safety of my kayak, the undulating oranges and reds of the jellyfish were mesmerizing. So much so, that I almost forgot I was having no luck on my quest for striped bass. Where were they? “The most significant change over time is in the age structure of the striped bass population,” replied Fallon, in response to my next set of questions. (I did say persistent.) “We just don’t have the diversity of size/age in fish over 30-32-inches that we used to see. When I started fishing the Kennebec in the early ‘90s, we had far more fish that were 36 inches or larger. As the minimum size decreased in most states from 36 inches to 32 inches and then 28 inches (and bag limit increased from one fish to two fish per angler, per day), we watched our fishery change significantly. Fish over the legal size-limit became much more scarce,” Fallon explained. Except that this fly fisherwoman would settle for one tug on the line, and I’ll know I wasn’t soaked, bruised, and lost a fly for nothing. My last question for Fallon was about what he was

seeing in striper populations and locations. Maybe I need to head south? “Reproductive results since 2015 have been pretty dismal,” he said. “Many of us are concerned about climate-change driven environmental conditions in striper spawning areas. Are they reproducing in more places than we think, or has something changed in their traditional nursery grounds that has more of them migrating at an earlier age? “Some striper anglers speculate that our fishing in Maine will improve as waters warm along the entire coast. The shift northward of the black sea bass population is dramatic, well documented, and driven by climate change. But what happens with another species, like striped bass, is so complex I think it’s premature to predict that more bass will travel to Maine in their annual migration,” concluded Fallon. When the striped bass show up again next June, I’ll be waiting. Next time, in dry clothes and with more than one spare fly. Sue Bernier is chief philanthropy and marketing officer with the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront.

Fathoming

Why we must let salt marshes ‘breathe’ A coastwise approach underway to improve flows By Susie Arnold SALT MARSHES comprise more than 22,000 acres, or 34 square miles, in Maine. These ecosystems provide myriad ecological and climate services, such as habitat for wildlife, including endangered species, buffering of coastal flooding, and carbon sequestration. But, if you aren’t a bird enthusiast, waterbird hunter, or a marsh ecologist, you may not pay much attention to these tidal wetlands. The next time you pass the Taste of Maine restaurant on Route 1 in Woolwich, notice how the road dips down between two marshes that look remarkably different. The difference results from the extremely small culverts in the road that severely restrict the exchange of tidal waters. Tidal restrictions alter the biological characteristics of a marsh, and can reduce tidal sedimentation, impair marsh peat accumulation, and cause peat subsidence, each of which undermines the ability of marshes to keep pace with rising seas. Hindered flow can also interfere with marsh carbon dynamics. Some scientists liken the complex carbon dynamics to “the breathing” of the salt marsh, where they suck up carbon dioxide and, in some cases upstream of a restriction,

actually become net emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. There are over 800 tidal road crossings in Maine, 90 percent of which restrict flow and alter the natural composition of tidal wetlands, including not just saltmarshes, but also clam flats and hard bottom habitats. You can peruse present tidal restrictions (culverts, bridges, dams, etc.) and future tidal crossings (under sea level rise) in Maine Coastal Program’s Tidal Restriction Atlas. Maine Coastal Program conducted a statewide assessment of every tidal road crossing using satellite imagery and historical data sources, such as 150-yearold charts to identify restrictions and changes in habitat. While roads are the cause of the vast majority of restrictions, other causes were also identified such as old railroad bridges built up onto solid embankments, dykes, and tidal dams. Importantly, most of these roads were not designed to withstand increasing coastal flooding. Sea level rise, storm surge, and more frequent intense precipitation events all put this infrastructure at risk and can lead to interrupted access and higher than anticipated maintenance costs. But a pioneering program to improve the process of updating road

crossing infrastructure in tidal ecosystems is under development right here in Maine. The “CoastWise Approach” is a collaborative effort with over 30 partner organizations, led by Maine Coastal Program. The CoastWise Approach provides a voluntary set of best practices based on the latest science and aggregated knowledge of experts in Maine and other states. Considering that many of these structures will be in place for 50 to 75 years, it is a lot less costly to invest in structures that will perform well during their entire service life, rather than to have to fix or replace them in the near future. Many coastal municipalities have roads that are either town-owned or private. In Harpswell, for example, 63 percent of the roads are private. Every wetland road crossing is different, with the tidal nature of the flow adding to the complexity. Thus, the methodology outlined in CoastWise is particularly conceived for municipalities, private road owners, and their engineers to navigate the intricacies and uncertainties of working in rapidly changing coastal environments, ultimately resulting in crossings that are safer, climate resilient, more cost-effective, and ecologically sensitive.

CoastWise Project Manager Slade Moore says there is a sense of urgency. “With the rate of sea level rise increasing, we have a narrow window to act on behalf of at-risk coastal communities and impaired habitats. Awareness is increasing,” he says, “but this stuff is still new to most people, and we’ll need to identify dedicated, long-term funding sources to achieve meaningful gains in fixing a problem hundreds of years in the making.” So, the next time you are driving along the coast of Maine, mix it up a little and instead of travel bingo or “I spy,” consider “count the crossings” or “rate that restriction” and give a shout out to the innovative designers of the CoastWise Approach. Susie Arnold is a marine scientist with 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. She may be reached at: sarnold@ islandinstitute.org.

www.workingwaterfront.com . August 2021

Cranberry Report

Islands celebrate the Fourth with picnics Traditions remain vital on both Cranberry islands By Barbara Fernald (Note: This column was written before the event, for publication a few weeks after the event, to allow Barbara time to volunteer and celebrate with her grandkids at the event.) BOTH LITTLE AND Great Cranberry islands will be celebrating the 4th of July this year with community picnics. On the big island the picnic starts at high noon. Everyone is invited to bring their own lunch and utensils to the ball field. The Ladies Aid will provide lemonade, iced tea, water, and grills for cooking. Live music by the Squeezebox Stompers begins at 1 p.m. Preceding the picnic there will be a parade. Decorated vehicles of all kinds are to meet at the gas pump. There will be prizes for the most patriotic, the best overall, and the best youth entry. Folks on Great Cranberry have great energy for community celebrations. I’ve always admired that about our neighboring community. Over on Islesford, people are signing up to help out with their tried and true version of the Fourth of July picnic, which is organized by the Islesford Neighborhood House as a fund

raising event. I don’t have access to the manageable number of friends as they records, but I believe the first Fourth of make their way over to the fringes of July picnic in the Islesford Town Field the crowd. One of my favorite memories is of was in 1976, as a part of our country’s bicentennial celebration. My parents cooking for the Fourth of July picnic were on the island at the time and I during a downpour. The weather had recall seeing their photographs of the changed abruptly before the picnic, parade down Main Street. There has and people were rushing to get all the been some form of the picnic every tables and chairs set up inside as the skies grew darker. Cindy year since, discounting Thomas’s mother, Shirley last year. Gay, stepped onto the The menu is a choice stage and proceeded to of two hot dogs, or 1/2 play the piano beautiof a barbecued chicken, fully for almost an hour or a veggie burger, or a My favorite as people did their best steamed lobster. Sides way to attend to pivot the plans. include potato chips, the picnic is to The Neighborhood cole slaw, lemonade, House did not own a and homemade desserts. volunteer for grill tent, but several of the People are encouraged to duty. men fixed tarp awnings bring yard games, hula above the windows of hoops, lawn chairs, and the Ladies Parlor. I was blankets. The festivities cooking with my late run from 4:30-6:30 p.m. brother-in-law, Hugh As an introvert I find such large social gatherings a little Smallwood, and the tarps were leaking overwhelming, so my favorite way to in spots. With water dripping off our attend the picnic is to volunteer for faces while we turned the chickens, we grill duty. Cooking chickens, hot dogs, belted out the words to Jethro Tull’s or veggie burgers for a few hours is a “Aqualung” and laughed hysterically. pretty easy way to do some commu- Not to be outdone by our neighbors, nity service and visit with a more Islesford will also have a parade this

year. The 5th Annual Golf Cart and Bike Parade begins at the Neighborhood House at 4 p.m. The route will go up past the school and around the circle, back up Mosswood Road, around by the fire station, and down Sand Beach Road to the town field. On July 4, I will pay my money and attend the picnic with Bruce, our sons, their wives, and our three grandchildren. I’ll still do my part with some baking and some precooking of chickens, but I won’t be grilling. You’ll find me planted smack dab in the middle of the crowd enjoying the afterglow of the parade. With two golf carts at our disposal, and three grandchildren under the age of five, we have some serious decorating to do. This could very well be their first parade, and a wonderful chance to add to the family folklore. Barbara Fernald lives on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island). She can be reached at Fernald244@gmail.com.

Observer

An island field of dreams

Vinalhaven Little League team dominates By Phil Crossman LAST MONTH MY ten-year-old grandson and ten other kids about his own age, encouraged by a large group of conspiratorial island adults, poured a pitcher of ice water over the head of an older island man who certainly had it coming. In 1998, after too many years during which Vinalhaven had no organized baseball, Steve (Nipper) Ames and Dewey Ames cobbled together a bunch of kids they hoped would constitute Vinalhaven’s participation in organized Midcoast play. They were too late that first year, but the teams have certainly been very enthusiastic participants in Oceanside Little League ever since. During that time, Coach Nip and the team have enjoyed the help of others— like Dewey early on—most of whom were very enthusiastic dads who’ve been assistant coaches while their own kids were part of the team. But Nip has been the stalwart bond that has held Little League alive and well, very well, in fact, on Vinalhaven. On several occasions during those 23 years, Vinalhaven, given its much

smaller school population, had to be per game. The total scored by oppogiven a waiver from regulators that nents was three. That’s 134 to 3! But there’s more! Nine of the Ravens’ would allow them to play an eightyear-old so they could have enough 12 wins were shut-outs and the three players to round out a team that’s that weren’t account for the three runs scored by opponents. customarily restricted to But there’s more—rather nine to 11-year-olds. much more! Two were During this most perfect games! A perfect recent, his 23rd consecuThe young game is accomplished tive year, Nipper led the when each three batters Ravens to the end of a pitcher who is in every inning is retired season that can rightly responsible for in order without ever be described as stunning. It’s enough that they this unbelievable reaching base. No major league pitcher has ever were undefeated. The best achievement is recorded more than one record ever recorded in major league baseball was Hunter Hamilton perfect game and certainly 116 wins and 23 losses by who’s been at it none has managed two in a single season. Only 23 the Cubs in 1906. since he perfect games have been The Ravens’ record for recorded during 150 years the year was 12 wins, no was eight. of major league ball. losses, but the particulars The young pitcher who of those 12 wins would is responsible for this not be believed, were unbelievable achievement they not witnessed by so many of us and by so many awestruck is Hunter Hamilton, who’s been at it since he was eight but who will now, at opponents. Let’s begin slowly. The total runs 12, soon age-out of Little League and, scored by the Ravens during the 2021 given the particulars of his birthdate season was 134, in excess of 11 runs in the scheme of things, will not be

eligible for high school ball for another year unless a successful petition for exemption is made. Given Hunter’s extraordinary performance, the Raven fielders have not had the experience they might have gained if every now and then an opponent managed a hit. Still, practices have been and will continue to be focused on polishing the skills that will be needed for another successful season. Over the years, Nipper has acquired a perceptive eye for the insecurities that attend adolescence and for the respective strengths of the kids who play for him and that’s been fodder, not only for creating teamwork and achieving strategic placement on the field, but for overcoming those apprehensions. The Ravens are a single cohesive and enthusiastic unit, devoted to the game, to one another and to their coach. Phil Crossman lives on Vinalhaven and owns the island’s Tidewater Motel.

The Working Waterfront . August 2021

‘Stitching Ourselves Together’ tells Native art story Bar Harbor’s Abbe Museum revives art form By Carl Little

Saulis’s Floral Medallion, and Sandra Pictou’s Turtle Medallion, all of which include beadwork and other he first part of the title of the gem of a show, decorative elements. To provide historical/cultural context, the exhibi“Stitching Ourselves Together: Mi’kmaq Porcupine Quillwork” at Bar Harbor’s Abbe tion features quillwork pieces by unnamed Mi’kmaq Museum resonates with multiple meanings. Yes, it ancestors, most of them dating to the 1800s, from refers to the 30 or so quillwork objects on display the Abbe Museum collection. Vintage and contemand their intricate stitchwork, but we also learn porary quillwork draws on a variety of motifs, many the cultural implications of the phrase: For today’s geometric, including chevrons, triangles, squares, Mi’kmaq artisans, working with quills is both a way of semi-circles, and eight-pointed stars. The last is closely associated with the Mi’kmaq revitalizing an art form and a means people’s legend of Kokwit, a star that of cultural survival. Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors Magazine fell into the sea and then emerged The exhibition showcases the work from the water as a starfish. of a group of “emerging” quill artists, In one of six short videos that all women, and their instructor, The exhibition accompany the show, community Tara Francis, from Fredericton, curatorerrors. JenniferPlease Pictou,pay a Mi’kmaq New Brunswick. Calling themselves very carefully, checking especially for spelling, grammatical, close attention to showcases the and factual tribal member, explains how, Quillers of the Dawn, they formed and to all the details in physical, e-mail, andwork web of sitea addresses. Please note that any colors beyond shown are merely group their beauty, these designs represent a collective of porcupine quill artists d on paper. We make everyPark effort to be 100% error free. However, welandscape cannot and be community held responsible for errors once and, more as part of the National Service’s of “emerging” quill cultural and Tribal Historic Preservation ave approved this printout. Pleasegrant check the appropriate box below,broadly, sign, and return“worldviews to: artists, all women… lifeways.” Her prime example is an program to revitalize quill embroiBoats, dery Homes & Harbors, Inc., 218 P.O. Boxquilled 566, Rockland, ME 04841 high-back chair, in the Mi’kmaq Nation of South Main St., Ste. 300, intricately the centerpiece of the show, made Presque Isle. 207-594-8622 • Fax: 207-593-0026 sometime in the 1860s-1890s. Each artist offers a “practice card,” Pictou notes how the chair’s which features examples of various quill techniques: cross-hatching, stitching, overlays. stylized renderings represent lightning bolts, Alongside these samplers are finished pieces: a floral wigwams, the sunrise, and other “ideas of our pin, medicine pouch, barrette. Especially stunning cosmology.” She considers the piece an act of resis- Floral medallion by Norma Jean Saulis. are Tara Francis’s Four Sisters Monarch, Norma Jean tance to the colonial oppression. At the same time, PHOTO: COURTESY ABBE MUSEUM

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Monarch by Tara Francis.

PHOTO: COURTESY ABBE MUSEUM

the chair is like a portal in time and “a testament to our survival.” Handsomely installed, with a repeated image of a woman in tribal garb on the gallery walls, the exhibition is all about raising awareness of quill art and its cultural legacy. Once again, the Abbe Museum makes a point of drawing on Native people’s knowledge and perspective as part of its mission to decolonialize the institution. As Pictou explains, “When we, as Mi’kmaq people, are involved in the curation and narration of our own history, we are able to correct the incomplete and often erroneous narratives assigned to our existence.” While at the museum, make sure to check out the annual Wabanaki student art show across the hall. Now in its 20th year, the exhibition highlights

the creativity of these pre-K through 12th-grade artists from the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkomikuk (Indian Township) and Sipayik (Pleasant Point), and Penobscot Nation at Panuwapskek (Indian Island). From Xavier Newell’s sweetgrass and ash Pieskomonis/Little Corn baskets to River Dana’s digital Galaxy Animals and Eben Francis’s multicolored marker portrait Barack, these students draw on their culture while exploring new media and subjects. This show never fails to amaze and inspire. “Stitching Ourselves Together: Mi’kmaq Porcupine Quillwork” runs through January 2023. The museum is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m., MondayWednesday. Masks are required. For more information, visit www.abbemuseum.org.

A high-back chair from the 19th century. PHOTO: COURTESY ABBE MUSEUM

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