Issuu

News from Maine’s Island and Coastal Communities

THE WORKING

volume 35, № 7 n sep 2021 n free circulation: 50,000

published by the island institute

State funds working waterfront protection

workingwaterfront.com

OFFSHORE BACK THEN—

Land for Maine’s Future gets $40 million By Tom Groening

of Maine Coast Heritage Trust, who assists with the LMF work. The commitment of at least $4 he state budget adopted in early summer dedicates $40 million million toward securing protective to the Land for Maine’s Future easements for privately and publicly program and at least ten percent of held fishing access sites is being cheered that money will be used to preserve by advocates for preserving working waterfronts. Maine’s working waterfront 3,500-mile coast only access for commercial has about 20 miles of fishing. “We’re actually access for commercial Historically, the buying something. fishing and aquaculture land access preseroperations. vation program is They’re selling The money will be funded through voterthe state their awarded through a approved bond referenda, but the legislature development rights.” competitive process that includes the Department and governor agreed to —DEIRDRE GILBERT of Marine Resources fund it without seeking scoring proposals and voter approval. making recommendaLegislative leadership and the governor’s office “decided tions to the Land for Maine’s Future there was enough revenue in the board, said LMF director Sarah Demers. Since it began in 1990, the program budget” to warrant direct funding of the program, said Jeff Romano has provided $9.6 million to applicants

The Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport has become the repository of the documentary photographs of Jeff Dworsky who shot primarily in Stonington in the 1980s. This image shows Paul Dorr and Carl Burges far offshore fishing for halibut using alewife pieces for bait. To see more of Dworsky’s photos, turn to pages 14-15.

for working waterfront preservation, she added. This component of the program has been included in LMF funding in 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2012. An average LMF expenditure for securing a covenant

is $250,000, said Deirdre Gilbert, director of marine policy for DMR. The program is structured so a private, nonprofit, or municipal owner of a wharf continued on page 7

Bluefin: Gladiator of the sea, delicacy on the plate Management has succeeded in growing stock By Laurie Schreiber

hen a Western Atlantic bluefin tuna takes the hook, the effect isn’t subtle. “They’re like a freight train hitting on your rod-and-reel,” long-time

Portland fisherman Pete Speeches said of the massive fish. “The reel streams off and the fight is on. It can be 10 minutes or 10 hours.” The trick is to outmaneuver the fish— force it to swim, tire it down. Eventually it stops running and starts to pinwheel in smaller and smaller circles.

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID PORTLAND, ME 04101 PERMIT NO. 454

CAR-RT SORT POSTAL CUSTOMER

“The fish that gives us the hardest University of Maine’s School of Marine time are the athletes,” he said. “I call Sciences whose specialties include them gladiators.” bluefin. “We have by far the largest The bluefin is one of a variety of tuna minimum size in the world.” species that frequent the East Coast. The goal of the 73-inch minimum Commonly reaching lengths over six size is to ensure the fish grows large feet, this high-jumping, enough to spawn before fast-swimming fish it can be harvested. The travels long distances use of hand gear is also “Around 80 across the open ocean key to conservation. between spawning and “In the commercial catepercent or better feeding areas, according gory, around 80 percent or to the University of of the bluefin that better of the bluefin that Maine Sea Grant. are caught in the are caught in the U.S. are The commercial fishery done so using rod-andU.S. are done so is guided by international reel and harpoons—very and federal management using rod-and-reel primitive gear by fishery programs that include standards,” said Golet. “We and harpoons.” the use of selective gear catch them one at a time— such as rod-and-reel and no big purse seining operharpoons, along with ations anymore.” catch limits and seasonal sub-quotas. Speeches called the fishery the poster “Compared to other bluefin fisheries child for successful conservation. around world, we have a lot of things “We manage our fishery better than that are conservation-minded,” said anybody in the world and have had Walt Golet, an assistant professor at the continued on page 7

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

Homegrown eels

American Unagi will raise elvers to market size Story and photos by Leslie Bowman

aine’s most lucrative fishery by the pound is its spring elver run, and as such, it seemed an obvious candidate for aquaculture. In Asia and Europe there is a long tradition of eel farming. But it took a woman from Indiana with a degree in aquaculture from Auburn University in Alabama to bring the concept to Maine. Sara Rademaker’s “Ah-ha!” moment came in 2012 when the price of elvers—also known as glass eels— exceeded $2,000 a pound. She had been searching for a land-based aquaculture candidate and found it. After raising 100 elvers to market size in her Thomaston basement, her American Unagi business is now building a full-scale growing facility in the Waldoboro industrial park The business won support from the University of Maine, first at the Darling Center in Walpole, and then, for the past three years, from the Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Franklin. ACE, a company based in the Netherlands, designed the recirculating system the facility will use at its new plant. Until the new plant is completed, Rademaker and her crew are harvesting mature eels for market in Franklin. At one time, all elvers harvested in Maine were sold to the Asian market for their grow facilities. Now a portion of the state quota of 9,688 pounds will be allocated for domestic production. In the wild, an eel may take up to 40 years to reach maturity and return to the sea for breeding. Rademaker has been able to raise eels to maturity in about a year. The eels have a 1.4 pound of feed to 1 pound protein production ratio. American Unagi is currently supplying restaurants in the Midcoast and Portland, where chefs are pleased with the fresh local product. Among the elver fishermen, John Seeley and Susan Boutin recently tasted some local smoked eel and said it was “pretty good.”

Sara Rademaker at the Franklin facility.

Sara Rademaker on one of her daily visits to the construction site in Waldoboro. The 27,000 square foot facility should be ready for the 2022 elver season.

A mature eel at harvest.

Sara Rademaker, at right, holds a mature eel while, from left, Sophie Swain, Kathleen Marciano, and Alex Nguyen watch.

www.workingwaterfront.com . September 2021

Alex Nguyen places eels in a sorting device with help from Sophie Swain.

Tanks designed and imported from the Netherlands await installation at the new Waldoboro facility.

Smoked eel served on a cracker with beet-seaweed kraut.

Jonathan Fritts harvests from one of the large grow-out tanks.

Kathleen Marciano loads an eel for market.

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

On the record with…

Cathy Ramsdell of Friends of Casco Bay Long-time director leaves organization, bay stronger

By Laurie Schreiber

hen Friends of Casco Bay formed in 1989, the water was some of the most polluted in the nation. Today, the bay is far cleaner and healthier, with strong protections in place thanks in large part to Cathy Ramsdell, the organization’s executive director since 2003. Ramsdell ushered Friends toward a strong financial footing and organizational structure while leading staff and infusing programs with her lifelong passion for the marine environment. During her tenure, initiatives have tackled sewage and pesticide pollution; launched water quality monitoring programs and educational outreach; and improved vessel pump-out services. Last year, Friends announced a 10-year plan to address climate change. A graduate of College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, where she obtained a degree in human ecology, Ramsdell’s early career took her to the Bering Strait to study seabirds, Georgia’s barrier islands to protect nesting loggerhead sea turtles, and the Gulf of Maine to catalogue whales. As a certified professional accountant, she’s advised executive directors, business owners, and family foundations on financial, professional, and organizational development. Preparing for retirement in September, she reflected on her work. The Working Waterfront: What brought you to Friends? Cathy Ramsdell: A lot of my consulting focused on the world of nonprofit organizations. Someone told me Friends of Casco Bay was looking for their first full-time executive director. I thought, “This is perfect for what I’ve been doing. I can do this for two or three years, get things on a solid financial footing, then pass it to someone else.” I’ve been here ever since and loved every minute of it. WW: What appealed to you? CR: The approach to the work in the marine environment was integrated with the idea of community. They wanted a person to work with the waterfront and the community to improve and protect the health of the bay. To me, that felt like a human ecology approach, rather than pointing fingers and saying, “You’re the bad guys and we’re the good guys.” We’ve found that sitting down and having long, hard conversations has been really effective. WW: How do you have those conversations in today’s era of polarization? CR: People are often dug in on opposite sides. But one thing that’s magical is that the health of Casco Bay is a value everyone shares. We want to build areas of commonality. WW: What climate change impacts are you seeing? CR: Things in the bay are changing quickly. We rely on scientific data as the basis of the work we do. It’s a conversation-starter to say, “This is what we’re seeing for change.” We get involved at the local and state level. For example, when the legislature took up a sea level rise bill, our baykeeper was able to successfully make the point that our coastal land use laws need to be updated to take sea level rise into account, so we can start doing things like protect critical infrastructure along the coast. We have close to 30 years of data now. This will allow us to ask how conditions in the bay are changing. Weather patterns are very different, with long periods of

“Our baykeeper was able to make the point that our coastal land use laws need to be updated to take sea level rise into account…”

drought and rain events that are very intense. We’re seeing more erosion, more sediments, more nutrients being brought to the bay from stormwater runoff and rivers and streams. We’re seeing big changes in acidity levels. All of those data sets are available on our website. One of our long-term organizational goals is to collect these data for many years to come so we can see what’s happening over time. WW: What are some threats that have changed over time? CR: We’ve spent a lot of time working on oil spill preparedness. Bacterial closures on clam flats are still an issue, but less so. Nutrient loading and rising temperature will likely be a growing problem. In the 2000s, we started identifying sources of nitrogen. We continue to do that. Anywhere you have large concentration of humans, that’s where you have large concentrations of nitrogen. And climate change is galloping right along. There are going to be unexpected disastrous storm surges and storms. That means a lot more degraded water quality, drought, and lots of runoff. WW: What’s your message going forward? CR: We don’t do this work alone. We actively work with many other entities. There’s a lot of collaboration. That’s how we get the work done. It takes longer but, at the end of the day, the work is much more effective. It’s really important to share the work and share the figuring out of what needs to be done and why.

. April 2020 . September www.workingwaterfront.com www.workingwaterfront.com 2021

13 5

Lobster Institute is hub for industry, science

UMaine organization has expanded its reach and influence By Laurie Schreiber

arlier this year, federal funding became available to study the interaction between the burgeoning offshore renewable energy industry and other ocean users in an area from the Gulf of Maine to waters off New York. It was an opportunity to bring to the table the massive amount of spatial data collectively accumulated by Maine’s lobster industry, which could be processed by University of Maine data management specialists. Richard Wahle, director of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine, put in a proposal for the funding. “I do everything I can to try to maximize the engagement of University of Maine faculty and students with stakeholders,” Wahle said. And engagement and research sums up the role of the Lobster Institute. The Lobster Institute has served as a center of collaboration and outreach in support of the resource and fishery since its inception in 1987. When anyone thinks of the lobster industry, the image of fishermen hauling traps comes to mind. But the industry, and the creature of the briny deep that it depends on, is supported by an ever-evolving background of research and monitoring designed to ensure—ultimately— that consumers have all the lobster they could possibly want on their plates. That research and monitoring is conducted by a diverse cast that includes government, academic, nonprofit, and industry entities. The Rick Wahle PHOTO: COURTESY LOBSTER INSTITUTE recent funding proposal was just one example of Perkins Center and director of outreach at the Institute the institute’s many initiatives. for Broadening Participation, both in Damariscotta; In general, the institute conducts and facilifirst mate, captain, and lobster boat owner/operator on tates research related to lobster and serves as a John Martin, Bud Staples, and Elsie GillespieMonhegan chat aroundIsland; the woodstove at Institute the annual townFellow. meeting. and Island Island clearinghouse of lobster-related information. “Chris’s connections to and knowledge of Maine’s It’s grown from a Maine-focused entity to serve lobster fisheries, experience in fundraising and budget the entire domain of the fishery in the Northeast management, grant writing, outreach, and stakeU.S. and Canada. holder engagement will be a huge asset to the Lobster Wahle, who is also a research professor with Institute,” said Wahle. UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences, took the “There’s a lot we’re excited about,” said Cash. “The helm at the institute in 2018. And in recent goal is to see the lobster industry survive and thrive.” years, the organization’s reach has grown. “One of our marquee events is the Canada/U.S. Chris Cash PHOTO: BRENDA BERRY Lobster Town Meeting. It’s a forum for discussing some of the hot topics in the fishery and we do it one alternate sides of the border.” The latest hot topics are myriad, ranging from the endangered North Atlantic right whale and rules that will affect lobstering, offshore wind turbines, bait availability, and climate change, to supply chain obstacles, international trade, and tariffs. While lobster has emerged as one of the few fisheries in the world that is more productive now than ever, it’s also surrounded by uncertainties. Since joining the institute, Wahle has expanded existing connections between faculty and students with diverse groups of industry members, resource managers, and scientists to help tackle those questions. FINANCING FOR MAINE’S MARINE AQUACULTURISTS “We have students looking at climate change and the impacts of the changing ecology of lobsters in a warming environment,” he said. “Recently we secured Lower support from NOAA’s Saltonstall-Kennedy Program to evaluate stress points Interest Rates in the supply chain and to bring new technology to that question,” he said. Available Specifically, the technology is a miniature device strapped on a lobster to monitor Now! its heart rate and movement as the crustacean passes from trap to destination, a journey rife with mortality threats. Levi Moulden Funds can be utilized for boats, gear, equipment, This year, the institute is cashing in on the deep background of its new assistant infrastructure, land and/or operational capital. director for outreach and communication, Chris Cash. For more information contact: Her former positions include advancement officer for Bigelow Laboratory for Nick Branchina | nick.branchina@ceimaine.org |(207) 295-4912 Bud Staples Gerald Ocean “Punkin” SciencesLemoine in Boothbay; program and development director at the Frances Hugh Cowperthwaite | hugh.cowperthwaite@ceimaine.org | (207) 295-4914

Sea Farm Loan

G.F. JohnstonConsulting & Associates Civil Engineers Concept Through Construction

• • •

Regulatory permitting • • Land evaluation • Project management

Site Planning Sewer and water supply systems Pier and wharf permitting and design

12 Apple Lane, Unit #3, PO Box 197, Southwest Harbor, ME 04679 Phone 207-244-1200—

www. gfjcivilconsult.com —

Thewww.workingwaterfront.com Working Waterfront . September 20212020 . April

cRanBeRRy RepoRt

Marine Patrol adds new vessel will work Freeport to Bremen ting,Endeavor painting lines, eating , and throwing rocks

he Maine Marine Patrol has added a new state-of-the-art vessel to its fleet. The Endeavor, a 42-foot vessel with a Calvin Beal hull, was built by Farrin’s Boat Shop in Walpole and sford. launched in South Bristol. She bright redrecently with a black stripe) and, like piece of purple rope to the end of the izzas, will be home ported in West Boothbay. every other lobster fisherman in Maine buoy line or toggle, but all attachments busier this “The crewheatread Farrin’s decades winter, about, has talked about, must be made with a splice or a tuck. re the of experience building I know it’s a stretch to compare foland experimented withMaine purplelobster paint. eason. boats were greatregulations to work with, ” said lowing Maine whale rope requireTheand latest whale require portu- Matt Talbor, marine patrolto captain. all Maine lobster fishermen use new ments with a plein air workshop, but riends “They builton a stout vessel that serve markings the ropes theywill attach to a person could return home from eirip to our mission forDepending years to come. ” close ther and say that they’d been paintlobster traps. on how g was toThe P/V Endeavor the ing in their spare time. If Bruce were shore they fish, theywill willreplace have to add ere so P/V Monitor, a 22-year-old 35-foot 2-4 purple marks on each buoy line. writing an essay on how he spent his ou did Young Brothers wasordamaged On warps that arewhich 100-feet less there winter vacation, painting would be a ques- by electrical in 2019. must be onefire 12-inch purple mark with- part of it. Another part would be the ber at inThe new, largerofvessel willand provide a few fathoms the trap a 36- description I heard him tell his brother e sub- ainch saferpurple and more stable platform mark within 2 fathomsfor of Mark about walking to get doughnuts, meet- Marine while that hauling the buoy.Patrol If the officers warp is longer 100 in February, with our son Robin, and floor!) and lobsteris gear both our grandchildren Henry and Cora. I feet, inspecting the requirement for ain12-inch e and near-shore and off-shore It was away with friends in Portland, and purple mark near the trap,locations. a second 12h our will accommodate a 14-foot rigid hull inch purple mark halfway to the buoy, Stephanie was away with friends in Maine. inflatable that can be carried on buoy. deck Florida. Father and son were in charge. and a 36-inch mark near the oal of andBruce used figures for at-sea which1,500 are “Yeah, we got doughnuts at The he boardings will be putting onsid- conducted to checkonvessels forincomplito 1,800 markings his rope all; two Cookie Jar and then walked to the n, but ance withweeks marine to three of resources extra worklaws. if he does beach for a picnic and to throw rocks.” virus- itLike thehiring Monitor, Endeavor will Eating homemade donuts and without help.the A number of fishtime be assigned to Marine Patrol’s Section ermen are applying paint to their ropes throwing rocks at the beach—if that t to it. 2by (Freeport to Bremen) where it will be The isn’tpatrol a mirror of ismany resting them in 3-foot long gutters vesselimage Endeavor a newchildstate-of-the-art addition to the Maine Marine Patrol fleet. I can operated bylengthwise-halved Specialist Evan Whidden. made from PVC pipe. hood summers on Islesford, I don’t The 42-foot Endeavor has spray a 15-foot Bruce’s first attempt was with paint know what is. q paint, beam “The Endeavor is a high-perfor- “It will fill the void left by the loss enforcement and search and rescue is powered horsebut heand soon moved onbytoan the800 more effi“time power addition the Marine V8 MAN Tierpaint. III diesel engine mance cient brush and latex Barbara Fernald livesto on Islesford (Little of the Monitor and allow our officers activity in this very busy section of e and with Jay Carroll. a ZF500-1A marine Some fishermen will gear. add a 3-foot Patrol’s Cranberryfleet,” Island)said with Col. her husband Bruce. to more effectively conduct vital the coast.”

down, islanders mix prep work and gatherings

ISLAND TRANSPORTER, LLC

MARINE TRANSPORTATION OF EQUIPMENT AND MATERIAL

osh

Acadia Fuel & Marine, LLC

Acadia Fuel

Craft Charter Barge serviceLanding available for hire.for Fully licensed and insured. *Specs: Deck space 47’x14’, 50 ton cap, hydra crane with 30’ reach, Fuel & Propane drivers needed. 10 knot cruising speed.

Must have Hazmat. Must apply in person. Call to reserve 207-244-9664 or visit www.acadiafuel.com

Acadia Marine WE CAN LAND ON UNDEVELOPED SHORE

WILL BARGE ANY WHERE ON THE EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

Full service marine—commercial and industrial work.

Two barges available for charter! Our first barge, BEACON, transports our heating products and company trucks.

With service along the entire coast of Maine •Building supplies •Asphalt/concrete trucks •Utilities/well drilling

•Gravel, stone •USCG licensed •Hazmat endorsed

The second barge, SALVAGE III, does marine construction. The barge is 86 x 24 ft. with 100 ft. crane reach. We build docks, piers, floats, complete mooring work, salvage work, and haul for winter storage of floats and repairs. State wide service. Boom truck rental also available.

Call to reserve 207-244-9664

M/V Reliance and Tug Josh Central Office: (207) 594-7860 • Cell (207) 266-3547 transporter@rocklandmarinecorp.com • www.islandtransporter.com

www.workingwaterfront.com . September 2021 WORKING WATERFRONT

continued from page 1

or landing area is paid to renounce the right to develop the property for a use that is not fishing related, such as housing or commercial structures like restaurants or hotels. The access is secured permanently through an easement attached to the deed which cannot be revoked. Recreational use is often allowed, but it is understood as an ancillary activity at a site winning funding. “It’s not a grant program,” said Gilbert. “We’re actually buying something. They’re selling the state their development rights.” Property owners are willing participants in the transaction and typically, they use the LMF funds to reinvest in capital improvements to the site or equipment, she said.

In awarding funds, the primary consideration by the LMF board is access, Demers said, with the amount of commercial uses there also a factor. Most of the awards go toward shorefront properties, but sometimes, land adjacent to the site is included. Waterfront property in Spruce Head won funding in one round, she said, then in a subsequent round, it was awarded money for a parking area. “It’s a policy statement from the people of Maine that working waterfronts are critical components of our economy,” Demers said of the decision to dedicate at least $4 million to the program. Lobster coops, which typically own wharfs, floats, buildings, fuel tanks, and land, have been awarded funding through the program. Among those, said Gilbert, are coops in: Bremen, Friendship, Westport,

BLUEFIN

Pemaquid, Port Clyde, South Bristol, Spruce Head, and Vinalhaven. Over the years, some coops have been wary of participating in the program, she said, but when their board members converse with their counterparts at coops that have been funded, they see its value. “They inherently understand that they have a longterm interest in retaining access,” Gilbert said. “We see pretty decent geographic representation,” Demers said of the location of applicants. And to date, every proposal has been funded. “We’ve had tremendous support from legislators,” Gilbert said of the program, and the public understands that working waterfronts “are under threat of conversion.” The LMF board meets on Sept. 24 to set a timeline for proposals and awards, Demers said.

Experience Maine Through Art

continued from page 1 a tremendous rebound in the western Atlantic stock,” he said. For Speeches, bluefin is a lifelong pursuit. For many years, he had an automotive shop in Portland. But the fifth-generation fisherman has also been chasing tuna from the Gulf of Maine to North Carolina since the 1980s. And he’s involved in policy and research through the American Bluefin Tuna Association and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. In 2016, he was recruited by National Geographic Channel’s Wicked Tuna, which follows top New England fishermen. His daughter Erin joined him. How does he find the fast-swimming fish? “There’s an old saying—fish where the fish are, not where you want them to be,” he said. Pete Speeches, a tuna fisherman based in Portland, and his “Part of the mystique is knowing where they daughter Erin love to fish for tuna. PHOTO: COURTESY PETER SPEECHES are. That’s a whole book unto itself.” These days, there’s more interest than ever in Given his long experience, he’s familiar with his pursuing bluefin; seasons often close early when quarry’s travels. “Tuna are pretty straightforward,” he said. “They quotas run out. “That speaks to the number of fish that want to eat and they’re usually where the bait is. If you can find a spot with a lot of forage fish”— are around and how much is being landed,” like herring, squid, mackerel, and codfish—“you’ll Golet said. The majority of domestic bluefin goes to usually find tuna.” Or park near the scallop or gillnet fleets; tuna will sushi markets in Japan, according to NOAA FishWatch. But U.S. consumers have a growing nosh on the shells and guts shoveled overboard. The search starts in known haunts closer to shore taste for sushi. Speeches likes to shave slices of and goes from there. Speeches’ boat, a 45-footer raw tuna and pair it with wasabi and soy sauce. Although the fishery isn’t as lucrative as it named Erin & Sarah, is outfitted for multi-day trips. There can be a lot of waiting around for the tell-tale once was, the delicacy makes it all worthwhile. “It’s where I’m meant to be,” he said. “It’s a bite. Then comes the freight train. thrill and a lifestyle, not just a vocation.” “It’s an adrenaline rush,” Speeches said.

...for your camp or castle enjoy original Maine paintings...from the rocky coast to the islands...capturing the many moods of Maine in all its beauty...

www.midgecolemanfineart.com colemanfineart@verizon.net

Full Service Boat Yard, Repairs, Storage & Painting

207-594-4068

P.O. Box 443, Rockland, ME • knightmarineservice.com

156 SOUTH MAIN STREET ROCKLAND, MAINE 04841 TELEPHONE: 207-596-7476 FAX: 207-594-7244 www.primroseframing.com

Permits for coastal structures... NEW OR EXISTING DOCK, PIER, RAMP, FLOAT, RIP RAP DEP • Corps of Engineers Submerged Lands • Local Permits Commercial Fishermen, Residential, Municipal

IT’S HERE!

“Downeast Folk” CD Songs about life Downeast

LEBLANC ASSOCIATES, Orr’s Island, Maine Call: Joe LeBlanc 207-833-6462 or leblancjd@comcast.net

Get your copy today Includes booklet “The Story Behind the Songs”. On sale now at eBay and Amazon.com or Contact: books4johnsmith@gmail.com

www.islandjournal.com

...we do the work...you get the results! reasonable, fixed prices money back guarantee

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

Rock Bound

A roadway reminiscence

Moving to Maine was a gut-level choice By Tom Groening A FEW WEEKS AGO, my wife and I happened to be driving on the Maine Turnpike between Lewiston and Augusta. It had been a long time since we’d traveled that stretch of highway, because living in Belfast, the logical route south is Route 3 to Augusta to I-95, then I-295 toward Portland. With all the rain in July, the sides of the highway were verdant, and the trees on either side were thick enough to block any views of development. It reminded me of another time driving this stretch of road, 38 years earlier, almost to the week. We were traveling to Kents Hill just west of Augusta where I’d been hired as an English teacher at a boarding school. I was driving a small box truck with all our possessions and my wife was driving our 1968 Chevelle with our dog. Driving the turnpike now made me chuckle, remembering that first trip. Coming from New York, my bias was betrayed in reading the map of Maine. The turnpike, I could see, would keep us away from the horrors of metropolitan driving, an option I was happy to have, given what it was like leaving Long Island by traveling through “the city,” as we called it. Months later,

colleagues told us I-295 was a faster way to Portland, and I saw that my fears of big-city driving were unfounded. Moving to and settling in Maine has been a central part of my story. Maine suits me in ways that other places I’ve seen and imagined don’t. I work at being content no matter my situation, but Maine provides a baseline for that contentment. Given the state’s anemic internal population growth, newcomers like me have been important. The wave of backto-the-landers a dozen years before we arrived certainly have had a documented positive impact to culture and economy. The immigrants from several African countries who have transformed the cities of Lewiston and Portland have helped, but more newcomers are needed. Twenty years ago, I did some cursory research into what it would take to emigrate to Canada and learned that points were subtracted for each decade of age, and points added for each level of education. It’s a pretty universal approach, because luring young, educated people to your state or country translates to vitality. I would never assert that people like me are somehow better for Maine than someone born here. In fact, the rap against us is that we often try to

remake our communities by adding the amenities we left behind. There are organizations devoted to bringing young people here— Live+Work in Maine is one we’ve reported on—and they focus on highlighting affordable housing; easy access to rural and water-based recreation; friendly downtowns with pubs, coffeeshops, and music; and broadband. Looking back at my 24-year-old self, who did not plan on staying in Maine for too long, I struggle to remember what persuaded us to put down roots here. The long, varied, and beautiful coast was a big factor. In our first two years at the school, I had to stay on campus every other weekend. The weekends I was off, we hopped in the car and explored, discovering Camden and Rockport, Acadia, Deer Isle, Boothbay Harbor, Brunswick, and Portland. It wasn’t hard to imagine a rich life in any of these regions. And the idea of carving out a sort of homestead on a good-sized piece of land had taken root before we even left New York, and it was clear that was possible here. Making a living was a concern. When it came time to buy land, we drew a triangle from Belfast, to Somerville, to Brunswick and began searching. When we bought 48 acres in

Belfast—for $12,000—it seemed that I could commute to a job in Ellsworth, Bangor, Waterville, Augusta, or Rockland. Today, traveling daily to anywhere but Rockland seems brutal. The other qualities of life that appealed to us were the pretty and lively downtowns, not surrounded by retail sprawl; the friendliness and self-reliance of the people; the room to roam that didn’t require long drives; and a sense from everyone we met that Maine was a place people were proud to live in. All these years later, Maine still suits me. I worry about the creep of retail sprawl and escalating real estate values along the coast. But I retain a faith in that pride that so many have in living here. I’m willing to bet that give-ahoot levels about one’s community are higher here than in many states. That gives me hope. Maine and the world have changed so much since 1983, but the qualities I noticed back then remain, and it seems to me they hold the key to a bright future. Tom Groening is editor of The Working Waterfront.

Reflections

Progress through personal connection Relationships are key to science and fishery work 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 Hannah Greene WHEN MY FELLOWSHIP began a year ago, I’ll admit I was a bit lost. My host organization, the Downeast Institute (DEI), had applied for a fellow before the pandemic. At that time, its facility was open for public tours, visiting scientists were scheduled to conduct innovative research in marine science and aquaculture, and hundreds of students from primarily K-8 schools throughout Washington County were trampling in and out of the Education Center weekly. Upon my arrival last September, that version of DEI was foreign to me. Without all the hustle and bustle, I worried that I wouldn’t find my own special place at the institute. I was concerned that the position envisioned for me had vanished, which was somewhat true. I was, however, able to find my niche this past year. While I haven’t exactly been

doing the work I originally came to do, I believe what I have accomplished has been even more meaningful and timely. I’ve been in the business of building connections, which has arguably never been more critical. I’ve built trust and respect among DEI’s small group of some 15 employees by being open and willing, and saying “yes” to as many collaborations and opportunities as possible. It was also important to me that I develop connections in the local Jonesport-Beals community, formally, by volunteering at the Beals Heritage Center and Peabody Memorial Library, and informally, by befriending strangers in places as random as the auto repair shop. Never was I more pleased than when, only a few short months into my fellowship and bundled up with a face mask and thick winter coat, students and school staff began recognizing and greeting me in public. I helped strengthen connections within and between the fishing and scientific communities along the Maine coast through my work at DEI on Dr. Brian Beal’s clam recruitment monitoring network and in the creation of informative shellfish management videos. I’ve even

grown friendship connections through my fellowship-supported participation in the Maine Environmental Education Association’s changemakers network, and with the other Downeast Island Fellows during in-person “mini-retreats” and weekly “peer coaching” calls. Strong connections are the cornerstone of small, rural communities like Jonesport-Beals and of growing nonprofit organizations like DEI. Through long winters, changes in local industries and economies, population aging and loss, and a pandemic, this unique corner of the world still has an abundance of dedication to place and to each other. To me that’s beautiful and it’s something we should all emulate. One year into my fellowship, I can confidently say that I have found my place. It’s been a year of simultaneous constants and change, and one of tremendous personal and professional growth. The best part of being an Island Fellow is that I’ve had the opportunity to assist with a wide variety of projects, from education programming and public outreach to research projects in the field and lab. The experience of working on “a little bit of everything” has helped me better

understand the types of work I enjoy doing and want to pursue in the future. The experience of living year-round in a remote community has shown me how creative and resilient I am. I even (somewhat) look the part of a Downeast Mainer now. I can walk out on a mudflat in hip-waders without falling down. I’ve invested greatly in Carhartt clothing. My co-workers have taught me regional slang (e.g. the phrase “stove up”), and I’ve caught myself letting a “yessah” slip out from time to time. I’m proud of the work I’ve done and how I’ve grown, and I’m thrilled to discover what connections I’ll create in my second fellowship year. Hannah Greene graduated from Wheaton College in 2020 with a B.A. in environmental science and double minors in public policy and public health studies. She is based on Beals Island working with the Downeast Institute on educational community research projects.

www.workingwaterfront.com . September 2021

LINK TO ORRS— This image, believed to have been made in 1905 by G.O.W. Servis, shows pedestrian bridges leading to Orrs Island in Harpswell. Do readers have more information? Write editor Tom Groening a short note at tgroening@islandinstitute.org.

Op-Ed

Is Maine hosting the best aquaculture technology? West Coast firm uses lower impact approach By John Krueger MAINE’S COAST IS WITNESSING multiple plans for large aquaculture projects, including two new sites planned for Frenchman Bay, in addition to those in Belfast, Bucksport, and Jonesport. For some, the possibility of jobs and tax revenue from industrial-sized aquaculture is appealing. The success of these plans, however, is dependent upon new, complex technologies. Maine is becoming positioned to be the proving grounds for these new technologies. Does Maine’s existing permitting process help determine what’s best for the state and the environment? The permitting process is very technical, making understanding difficult for the average Mainer. Our state regulators are underfunded and standards for permits leave significant room for argument. Regulators consider two types of standards. One standard is a technology based standard, or “best practical treatment,” where “practical” can be subjective. Another standard that can be measured is a water quality-based standard. Maine’s weak marine water quality-based standards include a temperature regulation and difficult-to-verify parameters such as “anti-degradation” and “assimilation” policies. Evaluating these predictions depends on high-tech computer modeling, where results often vary by factors of two, and they need verification to be trusted. Maine regulators ultimately must accept investor promises. The industry claims they can build in Maine some

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)

of the largest-in-the-world fish factories and meet state guidelines, but few guidelines exist and the only recourse is fines if the technologies fail to succeed. The health of the Gulf of Maine is at stake. If the process approved by Maine regulators for Nordic Aquafarms in Belfast is any example, Mainers should be asking a lot more questions about available and proven technologies. Recently acquired documents from Gov. Mills’ office requested through freedom of information laws illustrate strong corporate lobbying on Nordic’s behalf and government contacts with regulators. Maine environmental regulators did not review competing technologies that offer minimal pollution and relied on unverified computer modeling. One example of weakness in the regulatory process is the inability to verify predictions of how ocean currents affect where pollutants will flow. This determination should happen before the discharge of pollutants takes place. Instead, Maine has asked Nordic to monitor the dispersion of added dye to the effluent after the plant is built and after it is operating at full capacity. Large aquaculture projects in other states are demanding technology that reduces environmental risks. West Coast Salmon’s plan for a 50,000 metric tons per year land-based salmon farm in the Nevada desert uses a minimal liquid discharge system. I have communicated with several at West Coast Salmon’s technology provider, Aquamaof (www.aquamaof.com), and described Nordic Aquafarms’ plan to

raise 33,000 metric tons per year of fish while creating 7.7 million gallons per day of liquid waste containing 1,600 pounds of nitrogen, using enormous amounts of groundwater, and requiring approximately 28 megawatts of electricity from the region’s grid. What would West Coast Salmon’s footprint be for the same size as Nordic’s production? Its technology suggests it would produce one-tenth the wastewater discharge with roughly one-sixteenth the nitrogen at half the concentration, and use half the amount of groundwater while requiring less power. West Coast Salmon is using technology that is currently producing fish successfully at some 50 sites around the world. Throughout the permitting process, Upstream Watch has encouraged Maine’s regulators to consider other examples of proven technologies such as minimal liquid and zero discharge. Why would we want to unnecessarily use excessive groundwater and add pollutants to our coastline? Why bend our environmental standards at this crucial time when better systems already exist? John Krueger is a board member of Upstream Watch and holds two chemical engineering degrees from M.I.T. He is a retired division director of licensing and enforcement at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and retired director of Maine’s Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory. He lives in Northport.

THE WORKING WATERFRONT

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

386 Main Street / P.O. Box 648 • Rockland, ME 04841 The Working Waterfront is printed on recycled paper by Masthead Media. Customer Service: (207) 594-9209

Editor: Tom Groening

tgroening@islandinstitute.org Our advertisers reach 50,000+ readers who care about the coast of Maine. Free distribution from Kittery to Lubec and mailed directly to islanders and members of the Island Institute, and distributed monthly to Portland Press Herald and Bangor Daily News subscribers.

To Advertise Contact: Dave Jackson djackson@islandinstitute.org 542-5801

www.WorkingWaterfront.com

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

Boat club offers fee for fleet

A view of one of the Freedom Boat Club’s fleet in Yarmouth. PHOTO: COURTESY YARMOUTH BOAT YARD.

Freedom Boat Club has franchises in Maine By Frances Mize

he Freedom Boat Club has gotten more Mainers out on the water this season than ever before. “We saw a significant increase in members last year and into this continuing year,” said Steve Arnold, owner of the Freedom Boat Club’s Maine franchise. “COVID was a big push for people to get outside and reconnect with their families. Boating was the perfect thing for that.” Buying into Freedom Boat Club means access to the fleet of boats that are shared among its members. Started in Sarasota, Fla., in 2009, FBC now operates across the world and is considered the single largest marine franchise in the U.S. Steve Arnold has worked for, and owned, marinas for a long time. He purchased the Yarmouth Boat Yard in 2004 and in 2013 bought the Moose Landing Marina in Naples. When Arnold decided to purchase FBC’s Maine franchise in 2017, he made the boat sharing service available at his own marinas as well as expanding to “You’re allowing additional locations in Portland, South Portland, and Boothbay Harbor. more people to “The whole sharing aspect really resonated with get access to the me,” said Arnold. “You’re allowing more people to get access to the water by joining Freedom versus just water by joining coming into the marina and requesting a slip.” Freedom…” A slip is like a single parking spot for a boat at a marina. Arnold explained that there’s not much turnover for slips, so marinas get crowded fast. “With Freedom Boat Club at our locations, you can theoretically have eight members to one boat,” said Arnold. “It’s great to own a marina while also offering FBC. They’re very complementary,” he said. “We’re big advocates to join Freedom.” Once a customer joins, the costs are easy to compute. “All you do as an FBC member is pay for gas. If you go out and burn up ten gallons, that’s what you pay for,” said Arnold. Things like maintenance costs and insurance are covered by Freedom, and if an FBC user decides to purchase their own boat within the first year of membership, the club will refund their entry fee. “If I decide I want to go and buy a boat in the end, this gave me access to all kinds of boats to try,” said Vickie Ducharme, an FBC customer from Falmouth and frequent visitor of Arnold’s Yarmouth boatyard. “When I began boating, I didn’t know at all what kind of boat I wanted.” FBC also offers special maritime training by licensed members of the Coast Guard, including two hours of on-water instruction. “If there are things that I want particular training on, like docking the boat or navigating, I can also get private trainings,” said Ducharme. Ducharme has always wanted access to a boat, but she’s never wanted to own one. “The season in Maine is so short. You have to winterize and store the boat and haul it in and out of the water.” FBC is an easy option for her. Also, buying a brand-new boat today can usually cost upwards of $60,000. For most customers, FBC is the far more economical choice. The club requires a onetime lifetime membership fee of $7,000-$8,000,and then monthly fees ranging from $275 to $500, in addition to the fuel.

Vickie Ducharme, a member of Freedom Boat Club, poses with a trainer. PHOTO: COURTESY YARMOUTH BOAT YARD.

Freedom Boat Club often run special promotions offering discounts and savings. “It just makes it worth it. Our coastline is so spectacular.” But Maine is by no means the final frontier for the boat club. FBC has close to 300 franchise locations across the U.S. and Canada, and they’ve recently made acquisitions in Europe. “A member in Maine can join, and now you have reciprocity all over the world,” said Arnold. Still, Arnold says that the hundreds of miles of coastline, and 360 islands in Casco Bay alone, make Maine an ideal spot for adventure by boat. “From there you can see things that you just never would be able to see from the car.”

www.workingwaterfront.com . September 2021

Book Review

Treatment plan: Tour the U.S. on a Harley Swan’s Island’s Donna Wiegle gives new meaning to ‘bucket list’ Finding Courage: Navigating Cancer on my Harley

Review by Tom Groening

can’t help but imagine how the discussion about Donna Wiegle’s book might have gone at a bigtime publishing house. “The writer has stage IV ovarian cancer, and she writes about her courage in facing this diagnosis? And there’s a motorcycle involved? How are we supposed to sell this?! Who wants to read something so bleak, so depressing?” Well, it turns out that Finding Courage: Navigating Cancer on my Harley is neither bleak nor depressing and is both inspiring and entertaining. Wiegle lives on Swan’s Island, where she and her husband Charlie settled after the 9/11 attacks. In fact, they saw the news on TV in Belfast as they were traveling to their Pennsylvania home after a vacation on the island and decided then and there to relocate to the island. Wiegle does write clearly and precisely about her condition and that’s not a surprise, given her background. She has worked in healthcare for decades, and on the island, became the part-time administrator of its small health center. She first faced cancer in 1990 but a hysterectomy left her cancer-free. Until 2013. Full disclosure: Wiegle serves on the board of the Island Institute, publisher of this newspaper, and I’ve gotten to know her. We share a birthday, though she’s a year younger than I. And, I’m pretty sure, she’s a lot more energetic, focused, and determined than I am, qualities that were apparent before her cancer returned. The structure of Finding Courage has Wiegle narrating her solo cross-country motorcycle trip of 2019, a kind of “bucket list” adventure that some of us might fantasize about but few would actually undertake.

She has her teal-colored Harley shipped west, flies out to meet it, and she’s on her way. Though the journey takes her on a circuitous path to hit some iconic parks, vistas, and scenic roads, it’s not entirely a joyride. She’s a woman on a mission. Her “Teal on Wheels” trip was a fundraiser to raise awareness about ovarian cancer, whose symptoms often are missed. Teal is the color that has been selected to highlight this disease, which is the fifth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women; one in 78 will be diagnosed with it. The pap test does not detect it. Though she is matter-of-fact candid about some pretty challenging health setbacks, those shorter chapters make up a minority of the book, which reads more like a travelogue. Wiegle is gregarious and, whether ordering a beer and a burger at a bar or bumping into another biker outside a motel, is very willing to alter her plans to engage. And friends in Maine, new friends made on the road, and old friends in Pennsylvania are over-the-top generous in helping her raise money and complete the trip. A couple of her encounters with random strangers in remote locations have her speculating whether she’ll be the victim of a psycho killer. But, time and time again, her openness instead leads to meaningful and encouraging conversation and shared appreciation of the beauty of the countryside with those folks. And the book includes photos of those “strangers,” most grinning from ear to ear after meeting Wiegle. I learned a lot about the challenges of two-wheeling it—intense desert heat, made worse by wearing leather and a helmet, and biting cold on desert early mornings; minimal visibility when rain pelts the helmet’s visor and treacherous traction when it’s under the wheels; battling crosswinds on mountain passes; and planning every stop so the heavy bike doesn’t have to be rolled backwards to hit the road again. As tough as Wiegle is, ovarian cancer is tougher, she confesses. And she wants you to know the early symptoms: the need to urinate urgently or often; trouble eating or feeling full quickly; pelvic or abdominal pain; and bloating. To purchase the book, see www.tealonwheels.org or write Wiegle at donna@tealonwheels.org. Tom Groening is editor of The Working Waterfront.

AT L A N T I C BOAT COMPANY TERN INC.

LAUNCH SERVICES

STORAGE SERVICES

Hydraulic trailer hauling and launching vessels up to 45 tons and 60’ in length.

65,000 sq. feet of inside storage, cold or heated. NO over the road transport

Atlantic Boat Company has had skilled craftsmen building boats for over 40 years.

LAUNCH SERVICES

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

John Herrigel, rear, on a boat with Erik Kleven and Jennifer Lester, owners of the Bleu Duck restaurant in Rochester, Minn.

Maine oysters are the pearls of the prairie Minnesota restaurant features Casco Bay product By Tom Walsh

iven the distances and costly logistics involved, it might be easier for The Bleu Duck restaurant in Rochester, Minn., to serve its customers Rocky Mountain oysters instead of flying in fresh oysters 1,400 miles from Maine’s Casco Bay. A downtown culinary fixture for the past five years, the Bleu Duck has been busy cultivating a growing cadre of loyal patrons who know a good oyster when they taste one. Every Wednesday evening over the last three years they’ve been bellying up to the bar—Rochester’s only oyster bar. On a typical Fresh Maine oysters and other varieties sourced in British Columbia, Washington’s Puget Sound, and Wednesday Massachusetts are available throughout the week, but on evening, the Wednesdays oysters are $2 each, not $3.75, when paired with an oyster-centric wine list. On a typical Wednesday Bleu Duck’s evening, the Bleu Duck’s oyster cult goes through 600 oyster cult oysters and more than a few cases of wine. goes through “Few people know the process required to get fresh oysters from a bay to a plate,” said Erik Kleven, the 600 oysters… executive chef who co-owns the restaurant with business partner Jennifer Lester. “A lot more goes into it than it appears. I went to culinary school on the West Coast, and oysters were something I’ve wanted to do here, and something no other restaurant in Rochester was doing.” It’s working. “We had a huge oyster night last night,” Lester said on a Thursday morning in late July. “It’s starting to be like that every day around here.” A chance encounter in Portland two years ago over oysters being served at the Fore Street Restaurant led to Kleven and Lester meeting Casco Bay oyster farmer John Herrigel. Ever since, the Bleu Duck has been sourcing oysters from Herrigel’s surface-cage oyster farm near Herman’s Island at Cape Smalls, the eastern-most point in Casco Bay. Kleven and Lester visited Herrigel’s oyster farm last fall. After a hands-on tour of Maine Oyster Company facilities near Phippsburg, the Bleu Duck’s owners came to a handshake agreement with Herrigel to oversee annual cultivation and production of 5,000 “boutique” oysters to be served in land-locked Rochester. “At this point it’s a very casual and very experimental concept,” says Herrigel, who founded the Maine Oyster Company in 2016, an aquaculture operation that now produces more than 20,000 oysters a year. “It started up this year, and it is a three-year growing process, so we expect our first deliveries in 2024,” Kleven said. “We’ve been talking about flying into Portland to show a small group how John does it. Our entire menu depends heavily on sourcing products from small farms around Rochester. People who eat

here want to know where what we are serving is produced and who produces it. The same is true for Maine oysters.” “It’s a cool concept,” Herrigel said of a Bleu Duck group visit to Casco Bay, which may happen as soon as next year. “We’d use my farm as a base camp and takes them on tours of the region. It might be a group of restaurant owners or customers who are serious about Maine oysters. Or maybe even sommeliers eager to learn more about pairing wines with oysters.” As director of events and front-of-the-house manager, Jennifer Lester serves as the Bleu Duck’s sommelier. “I am always looking and switching wines as much as possible,” she said. “For oysters, we look for wines that are high in acidity and minerality to pair nicely with oysters and all foods. We carry a nice sparkling selection as most people think sparkling is the very first ‘go-to’ in oyster pairings. A lot of our whites we serve by the glass. Verdicchio, Chenin Blanc, rosé, and white blends pair extremely nicely. That is what I am working on with our staff, training them to upsell wines with oysters.” Actor Tim Robbins, a frequent visitor to Downeast Maine and no stranger to coastal Maine oysters, once said: “Eating a raw oyster is like French kissing a mermaid.” So, what distinguishes Casco Bay oysters from Pacific Coast varieties? “Eating a fresh raw oyster is like standing on a beach and inhaling the salt air,” Kleven says. “Maine oysters are crisp and briney and taste of clean and cold water.” A frequent contributor to The Working Waterfront, Tom Walsh recently moved from Gouldsboro to Rochester, Minn.

www.workingwaterfront.com . September 2021

Graham Platner of Frenchman Bay Oyster Company tends to his crop. PHOTO: JOEY CONROY III

Examining the shells. PHOTO: COURTESY MAINE AQUACULTURE ASSOCIATION

Maine Oyster Trail: Follow the shells Growers say oyster ‘experience’ boosts sales By Wanda Curtis

any in the seafood business lost their way during the height of the pandemic. Now, one sector is offering a trail to a recovery. Actually, the Maine Oyster Trail was launched in 2017 by the Maine Aquaculture Association through a website—maineoystertrail.com. Afton Vigue, an outreach and development specialist for the aquaculture association, said when restaurants were shuttered last year, oyster farmers had to pivot to find local markets. Many opened farm stands, hosted farm tours, and offered direct sales from their homes to diversify income and weather the pandemic. In response to that situation, Vigue said, the decision was made to revamp the original Maine Oyster Trail created by Maine Sea Grant and the aquaculture association three years earlier. That project was designed to educate consumers about oyster farming in Maine. The updated trail connects consumers to oyster growers, raw bars, oyster farm tours, “shuck” trucks, boat charters, kayak tours, and other related experiences along the Maine coast. “The Maine Oyster Trail is the first interactive, incentive-based oyster trail in the U.S.,” Vigue said, and it features 75 Maine businesses offering oyster “experiences.” The trail’s trip planner allows users to build their own custom trail by choosing experiences and coastal regions they’re interested in. There’s also an oyster passport to track visits, complete challenges, and redeem check-ins for Maine Oyster Trail swag. A secret grand prize will be awarded at the end of the season. Growers say the trail has already helped increase sales. Graham Platner, who owns and operates Frenchman Bay Oyster Company, said the new website has attracted customers to both his business and the raw bar at his family’s Ironbound Restaurant in Hancock. “The updated trail has driven lots of business to both the farm and the restaurant this season,” said Platner. “Lots of small farms just don’t have the resources, time, or ability for extensive marketing, and so the oyster trail has broadened the market and helped small farms immensely.”

Kelly Punch, catering and events manager at Mere Point Oyster Company, said the business began to diversify its approach during the past year. It now sells oysters directly to customers from the headquarters in a large red barn on Mere Point Road in Brunswick and also offers lobster tails, clams, and shrimp cocktail. Punch said she’s seen new faces at the Mere Point’s farmers market visits and has had new customers participate in a farm tour as the result of the Maine Oyster Trail. “The Maine Oyster Trail has taken the small family farms and raw bars and quite literally put us on the map,” she said. “Being on the trail is going to give Maine farmers the ability to sell directly to the customer and provide the freshest product while building our customers’ connection to the ocean and our food.”

WEDDINGS BARN SUPPERS FARM STAND TURNER-FARM.COM

386 MAIN ST

Platter by Lynn Curran Sargent

Tea towel by Trosko

Solid Ground by Kaitlyn Miller

Pint glass by Benoit’s Design Co.

•

ROCKLAND, ME

•

(207) 596-0701

•

Wednesday through Saturday 10 – 4

To support a Maine artist and shop online, visit TheArchipelago.net

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

Reggie Greenlaw converted a garage for parking into a dance hall known as the Musitoreum. The Merry Mariners and other local bands played for a local crowd, usually middle-age and older. Here Rose Gove, Margaret Hutchinson, Joyce and Junior Bray, and Bob Turner enjoy one another’s company.

Don McGuffy, who lived near Dworsky’s current ho brother-in-law after a collision with rocks. McGuffy life; however, this photo shows her second or third and is piecing in new planking.

An insider’s view of 1980s Stonington

Photographer Jeff Dworsky’s images document a changing town By Matt Wheeler

t happened incrementally, but there was no mistaking the profound shift underway in Stonington in the 1980s. By then, Jeff Dworsky was a local. He’d been sold on the place when he arrived on his own as a teenager from Cambridge, Mass. some ten years earlier. It’s clear in talking with Dworsky that what he liked was that the place belonged to itself. It was a community with deep roots where many generations of fishing families had lived and were still strongly represented. The people were ruggedly self-reliant and at the same time counted on one another. As an outsider, it took patience and a thick skin for Dworsky to find his niche in this hardscrabble society. Later, when he and everyone else there began to see local property being sold to wealthy vacationers, he knew that very soon, the traditional rhythm of life in Stonington would become a reminiscence. He loved photography and decided to tell the story in pictures before the clock ran out. For the next ten years, he captured images of what he knew there—local characters, families, fishing, wooden boats, the odd hours of dawn and dusk, hard work, time, and weather. Penobscot Marine Museum photo archivist Kevin Johnson met Dworsky at the Stonington Opera House in 2015 when the two gave back-to-back slideshow

presentations one evening. Their conversation afterward convinced Jeff to donate his archive of Kodachrome slides from this period to the museum. PMM has digitized this remarkable collection, yielding hundreds of images whose rich colors and deep contrast reflect the unmistakable look of the film stock, no longer available. All that remains is to capture the stories as the museum catalogs the collection. Fortunately, Dworsky is alive and well and happy to talk about his experiences and the photos. A recorded interview last year shed light on a few dozen of these, and created some unforgettable oral history. There’s still a lot to do, and the result will be a wonderful contribution to Maine and New England heritage and folklore. PMM is actively seeking funds to finance the completion of the work. The expense involved is almost entirely the personnel hours necessary to arrange and conduct future interviews with Dworsky, edit the recordings, and record information about the photos in our collections database. If you’re interested in contributing or learning more about the project, please contact the PMM photo archives staff. Your interest and support are much appreciated. Matt Wheeler: (207) 548-2529 ext. 211; mwheeler@pmm-maine.org Kevin Johnson: (207) 548-2529 ext. 210; kjohnson@pmm-maine.org

Sid Eaton, like many people in small, isolated fishing communities, built traps, both for himself and for others as a side hustle. These wooden offshore traps were a commission for another boat.

Edna Gray often sat at a window in her home knitt her husband Steve’s lobster traps. At the moment camera playing his fiddle.

www.workingwaterfront.com . September 2021

ome, assumed ownership of this boat from his y made extensive repairs and brought her back to d major overhaul. Here, he’s replaced the forefoot

During a stormy autumn day, seas broach the lobster car at Caldwell Brothers. Despite the wire traps stacked to one side, there are some signs of tradition still holding sway, such as the wooden skiffs with no motors that were used as tenders.

Archie Hutchinson Sr. relaxes on his porch. The photographer recalls this was a typical spot to find the retired fisherman in warm weather; Hutchinson often gregariously invited passing locals to join him for “a little wine.” He’s no longer living but has descendants who still fish in the area.

ting bait bags and heads from nylon twine for this photo was taken, Steve was in the room off

Steve Robbins (at right), an offshore lobsterman, takes redfish (ocean perch) bait on board his boat from a chute attached to a truck on shore.

Gordon Chapin and James Robbins stand at the stern of the Jan Marie. Robbins had the boat built on MDI. Her original color was white. During her second season, he and his brother, a known prankster, were repainting the hull. Robbins worked his way forward from the stern; when he got to the stem, he encountered his brother, who had just finished painting the other side black.

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

Our Island Communities

The Islesboro Central School today. PHOTO: ANNE McKEE

Not alone: The haunting of Islesboro One ghostly appearance goes to the head of the class Editor’s note: This story first appeared in The Working Waterfront in 2003. It also is included in a collection of Oldham’s stories, Getting Here from There: Life Stories from a Maine Island Community (2020).

By Bonnie Mowery-Oldham

erhaps due to their remoteness and resultant romantic allure, islands possess an air of mystery that’s always made me suspect that islanders must have scores of stories to tell of haunted houses and other paranormal phenomena. Islesboro, for instance, has no shortage of intriguing tales of ghostly presences and mysterious places where, on nightly strolls, one finds oneself walking very quickly indeed. Unexplained floating lights, spectral apparitions, tangibly unsettling atmosphere, and eerie echoes are but a few of the sights, sounds, and sensations that more than one islander has experienced over the years. Some of Islesboro’s spirits associate themselves strongly with certain places, such as Stephen’s Field, with its Headless Horseman legend. For generations, young people have walked there at night with trepidation, dreading to hear the sound of horses’ hooves echoing across the Narrows. Filmy figures have been

spotted taking an evening stroll through the up-island glanced up in time to see an apparition dressed in a cemetery, and the Bluff (supposedly the site of an long, black coat. The specter promptly vanished into ancient Indian burial ground) is said to be visited thin air, causing the caretaker to call it quits for the day. Certain houses on Islesboro have been the scene by mysterious groupings of red lights hovering over houses, visible from the water. Many islanders also of consistent sightings of ghosts. These hauntings can sometimes affect the report seeing floating red lights physical environment, causing frequently in the woods. doors and cupboards to be Often when opening up opened by themselves, furnisummer cottages, island careIn 1926, Mrs. Atterbury ture to be moved about, and takers and housekeepers have noticed hard-to-explain built the last major Islesboro objects to disappear and reappear in different locations. The phenomena. Many island summer cottage of the Grindle Point lighthouse ghost women have gotten into the pre-Depression era… is famous for “apports” (objects habit of announcing their prestransported by unknown ence upon entering a cottage means) moving from one room with a cheery “I’m here! It’s to another. At one Hewes Point just little ole’ me… I’ll do my job and be gone in a jiffy.” They still report a certain cottage, several renters have seen a pair of mischiecreepy “hair-standing-on-end” feeling, hearing foot- vous children giggling about the place. At another steps and thumps, doors slamming, toilets flushing rental home, a little girl with a large bow in her hair has been sighted repeatedly, happily swinging on a by themselves. Most have learned to accept these ghostly manifesta- tire swing in a tree. One up-island summer cottage ghost seems to be tions as part of the territory. Some caretakers “feel” the presence of someone following them around as they partial to music, judging by the radios that seem to turn check out the house, sometimes actually catching sight themselves on in various parts of the house. At this particular cottage, a nanny was awakened early one morning of ghostly figures out of the corner of an eye. While chopping wood one evening, one caretaker by the sound of music mingled with her charge’s baby felt a presence in the woods intently watching him and voice delightedly talking to an unseen presence.

www.workingwaterfront.com . September 2021

Mrs. Atterbury remained a prominent figure in New York and Dark Harbor social circles until her death in 1939.

Sifting through stories of Islesboro hauntings, one island residence stands out as having seen over 50 years of unexplained phenomena—the former Rock Ledge cottage, now the Islesboro Central School building, which is reputed to be haunted by its former owner, Mrs. John T. Atterbury. In 1926, Mrs. Atterbury built the last major Islesboro summer cottage of the pre-Depression era, according to The Summer Cottages of Islesboro by Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr. She had an eclectic, stone, English-style house built, with a large cross gable dividing the main house from the service wing. The walls are constructed of on-site ledge stone, generated by blasting for the building’s foundation, which is where the cottage got the name “Rock Ledge.” A later owner, Mrs. Lillian S. Whitmarsh, donated Rock Ledge cottage to the town of Islesboro in 1952, to be remodeled and used as a consolidated school. On Dec. 26 of that year, island residents voted to accept this gift as “the most wonderful Christmas gift we ever had.” Anna Robins Atterbury was born in New York City in 1865 and married New York broker John Turner (her second husband) in 1903. He passed away in 1912, but Mrs. Atterbury remained a prominent figure in New York and Dark Harbor social circles until her death in 1939. According to Lisa Satshfield, whose daughter’s great grandmother, Maybelle Boardman, worked for Mrs. Atterbury as a laundress, A portrait of Mrs. Atterbury. COURTESY ISLESBORO CENTRAL SCHOOL Mrs. Atterbury was a kind and generous person, especially to children. Anna Robins’ father was one of Islesboro’s first summer to nervous belief. One teacher says it’s an interesting residents, and among her descendants were summer myth, but that he, personally, despite being there every residents the Ladds, the Gillies, and the Bradleys. Almost hour of the day and night, has never seen, heard, or as soon as Rock Ledge cottage began to be used as a felt anything in all the years he’s worked at the school. school, staff, students, and community members began Several other staff members, however, report actual to notice a resident Islesboro Central School ghost, sightings of Mrs. Atterbury in the “flesh.” There are many consistent features to these close reputed right from the start to be Mrs. Atterbury. Former students tell of paintings that were frequently encounters with Mrs. Atterbury. Almost all of moved around, footsteps heard in the attic, and lights them have occurred between the hours of 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. Personnel alone in the building at night turned on and off when no one was around. One alumna, a high school student during the frequently feel strongly that they’re not alone, accompanied by that “hair-standing-on1970s, recalls that her crowd end” feeling. would often return home from Footsteps can be heard in the dinner at the harbor hamburger attic and up the stairs, along with shop by way of a slight detour by isolated pockets of extreme cold, the school, just to scare each other. Former students tell banging, closing and opening of Although they never tried to enter of paintings that were doors, and lights being turned on the building, they would on occaand off by themselves in the school’s sion see dim lights moving from frequently moved hallways. The rattling of lockers is window to window. around, footsteps another common manifestation. Since no cars were visible in Less common occurrences include the parking lot at those times, the heard in the attic… a basketball mysteriously bouncing students would get thoroughly itself across the gymnasium floor, spooked, running as fast as they and a ghostly tap on the shoulder. could down the back slope of the Most everyone who enters the school to get away. On a particularly eerie night, they swear they saw building at night (later unlocking the door and a ghostly manifestation in the school’s French door punching in a code, as required by the school’s new window. Was it Mrs. Atterbury watching them, or just security system) sheepishly admits to talking to Mrs. Atterbury, reassuring her that they “Won’t be but a the reflection of night clouds in a full moon? Among present school personnel, opinions, experi- moment,” or “Just coming in to do a little work, you ences, and sightings run the gamut from skepticism don’t mind, do you?”

Apparently, Mrs. Atterbury sometimes likes to do a little research herself, on several occasions having turned on computers when no one else was there. Even with these appeals to Mrs. Atterbury for tolerance, people have been known to flee the building because they were just too “creeped out.” But for the most part, people just close their doors and get done what they have to do as quickly as possible. Those who have seen Mrs. Atterbury describe her as being dressed in an old-fashioned manner in a white, flowing sort of nightgown. She wears her white hair in a bun, carries a candle and sconce, and—there are discrepancies among the sightings—is either stout or tall and willowy. Almost without exception people who have actually encountered her in the “flesh” report having no fear, finding her presence to be a friendly one. Perhaps the brevity of their contact was a factor; since she was gone, literally, in the blink of an eye, they had hardly any time to react. What could Mrs. Atterbury be doing at that particular time of night? Several theories are offered— she’s patrolling the house before locking up for the evening; she’s checking for an intruder before going to bed; she’s looking for a wayward servant who hasn’t answered her call bell; or (my personal favorite) she’s searching for her lover, who’s supposed to occupy a room adjacent to her bedroom. Whatever the reason, let’s hope she remains the friendly, nurturing presence people have found her to be and—personally speaking—let’s hope she doesn’t take exception to anything in this article.

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

Finding the origins of the nation’s origin story Colin Woodard’s latest book explores American myth By Tom Groening

religions, and political and class values distinct from other regions. The regions “had no idea they were going to end ix months to the day after supporters of President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, up in the same [nation],” he said. “They wound up Colin Woodard stood on the grass of Camden together in a strange accident of history. They lacked Public Library’s amphitheater, looking over the a shared political heritage, and no shared story.” In researching for the book, Woodard was surprised harbor where the late afternoon sun bathed boats in to learn that it wasn’t the run-up to the Civil War that a golden glow. The idyllic scene was a long way from the chaos in revealed fissures in the nation, but that in the 1830s “the country was already starting to the capital, but the Jan. 6 attempted spin apart.” Those who came of age insurrection was on Woodard’s during the War of Independence mind during his July 6 talk about were no longer a force by that time, his latest book, Union: The Struggle he said. Earlier secession moveto Forge the Story of United States ments had emerged in the 1790s in Nationhood. For the new nation the Appalachian region, and in New In response to a comment from England in the early 1800s. someone in the audience, Woodard to inspire loyalty But that fractured beginning later ruefully joked that Jan. 6 “was good “requires a credible, was “papered over by a story that for the book,” which was published compelling story.” we had a common past.” For the in 2020, “but bad for the nation.” new nation to inspire loyalty to the Union explores how the U.S., a point of giving one’s life to defend it, collection of disparate regions that Woodard said, “requires a credible, coalesced around the struggle to end compelling story.” their colonial status, finally came Citizens of this new nation might to embrace a narrative about itself. That story, Woodard asserts, was powerful enough to get an origin story from a scholar or from a demagogue, “but get it they will.” Union gathers five biogstir pride and passions that blurred reality. The theme of the book builds from 2011’s raphies of those who created the American story. There’s George Bancroft, a historian from American Nations, in which Woodard delineates and describes 11 regions that fall roughly within the U.S. Worcester, Mass., who, at age 17, was sent to boundaries. Each region, he argues, had ethnicities, Germany to study. He observed that the regions of

Maine ENVIRONMENTAL Mysteries FOR READERS 8-88

“Funny, warmhearted, and involving, with a timely ecological message.” With only two owners since the late 1700’s, Sam Ball Farm has evolved over the years from the original 1790’s little ell to an 1845 cape added to that and now the barn and shed have been replaced with a new barn, master suite, and in-law apartment with kitchenette and full bath above the master. If you are looking for the perfect union of old and new, this is the property. The original ell is now a beautiful, completely renovated kitchen with lovely eating area opening to a four-season sun space. The original charming cape has three bedrooms with two full baths on the second floor and the first floor has a formal dining room, office and large living room with a wood burning fireplace and built-in book shelves. The master suite consists of a half bath, laundry, lots of closets, master bath, and master bedroom with a deck off it overlooking four acres of fields. The heated garage has three bays, a full second floor and a systems room with the new heat system which is radiant on the entire first floor and hot water, propane-fired on the second floor of the cape. This is a lovingly and tastefully restored historic farm. A mile to beaches, the dock, anchorage, and tennis courts. $695,000.

TACY RIDLON 207-266-7551

—KIRKUS REVIEWS

Available at fine Maine bookstores, gift shops And from www.raechalmers.com

www.workingwaterfront.com . September 2021

Colin Woodard signs copies of his latest book, Union, at the Camden Amphitheater on July 6.

that country had merged into a single nation, and he was “immersed in European ideas of nations.” Bancroft wrote a history of the U.S. in the 1830s. “It was an absolute sensation,” Woodard said, tracing history from Columbus to the Constitution. God

PHOTO: TOM GROENING

had chosen this new nation, Bancroft argued, and Woodard noted that “a reader of his book would later call this ‘Manifest Destiny.’” William Gilmore Simms, a best-selling novelist from South Carolina, countered that story, writing

that “No, Jefferson was wrong,” all humans were not equal. “Slavery is a good,” and America is a “classical” nation like Greece and Rome where it was acceptable to have a ruling class. And both earlier narratives were countered by a man born a slave who later became a gifted, persuasive speaker—Frederick Douglass. He accepted the lofty values Bancroft attributed to the nation but argued “We haven’t achieved them.” That understanding continues, Woodard said. “You hear it echoed in speeches to this day.” A fourth vision emerged through an early 20th century president. “Woodrow Wilson was deeply committed to the ideas of white supremacy,” Woodard said, and screened the racist revisionist film Birth of a Nation in the White House for his Cabinet and the chief justice of the Supreme Court. The film, released in 1915, “inspired a second wave of the KKK.” It was in this era that pride in the failed Confederacy bloomed; the statues being removed today were erected in those years, he said. Finally, Frederick Jackson Turner of Wisconsin argued that “The West and Midwest created America.” The crude and harsh environment of the frontier helped create true Americans, Turner wrote in the early decades of the 20th century, and he tried to use demographic data to support his “Frontier Thesis.” Woodard said he had reviewed Turner’s notes on census data that showed Turner trying to controvert facts that contradicted his thesis. Are we destined to achieve our ideals as a nation? No, Woodard concluded. “We have to do the hard work to get there.” A more accurate, less romanticized story competes with the myth of American exceptionalism, he said, and it’s “a battle over the soul of the nation that continues today.”

New era Gallery A fine arts gallery featuring work by more than seventy locally and nationally recognized artists on a beautiful island in Penobscot Bay Open May through December

CelebratiNG Our 20th year!

Clockwise from top: K. Wales Night Train, E.A. Crossman Hidden Pool, E.G. Eder Blue Harbor, D. Peterson Whale Tail

60 Main Street | Vinalhaven, Maine 04863 neweragallery.com | 207.863.9351

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

Book Review

The noise of life after war

PTSD given room to roam on Maine island Silence: A Novel By William Carpenter (Islandport Press, 2021)

Review by Tina Cohen

eading Silence: A Novel, by Maine author and College of the Atlantic professor William Carpenter, made me think of traversing the terrain of a Penobscot Bay rocky island—which is largely the setting for this story. One needs to stay constantly aware of the twists and turns of both landscape and story. There is a vigilance required, sometimes an exhausting demand. But while exploring an island can also include a bracing dip, beach combing, or a picnic—activities that refresh and recharge us—Silence provides no respite. There’s a good reason for that. The story has us in the throes of PTSD, vicariously experiencing flashbacks, anxiety, and depression. After combat duty, Nick Colonna—whose story this is, set in 2006—returns home from Iraq, having lost his hearing while under attack and haunted by the death of two soldiers he served with. He is told his deafness and PTSD could be helped—there’s cochlear implants, therapy, psychiatric medications.

Auto

Home

But it seems complicated by survivor guilt, a question of why and if he deserves to live. The story shows us all the ways Nick did stop living, did lose his life in that war. When he returns to his parents’ home to recover, a place Carpenter calls Ledgeport, Maine (a lot like the Rockland area), we see the best intentions of family and friends to help, as well as services available at the nearby Veterans Hospital (i.e. Togus). But Nick is unreachable, seeing danger and threats everywhere, and distrustful of everything. His hope for escape is to go to a small island off the coast, close enough to reach with a rowed dory. Privately owned, it was now home to feral sheep with rare visits by the family. He had camped on it one night long ago with a girlfriend, a romance he realizes has clearly ended. He was once happy there; could he be again? Carpenter offers us this: “He came to this island either to remember or forget.” Nick is able, ingeniously, to rebuild a derelict dwelling and make a bearable life for himself. He hunts, fishes, forages, and gets some home-cooked food and other supplies his father periodically delivers. He studies Henry David Thoreau’s classic, Walden; or Life in the Woods, finding inspiration in the author’s paean to self-reliance and individualism. Nick occasionally goes into town and on one trip, researches artifacts he has uncovered on the island, implements made by the Red Paint People, indigenous people in the area about 6,000 years ago.

Business

Marine

He also eventually meets family members, beginning with Julia, a young woman about Nick’s age, who is bitter that the rest of her family has approved plans to build a luxury house there, a kind of family residence/hotel resort with amenities like a helipad and tennis courts. (The island seems a mash-up of a variety of real ones, including Hurricane, adjacent to Vinalhaven.) Because the island will require major deforestation and bulldozing, Nick accepts a job initially running a chain saw. Later, he employs his finish carpentry and masonry skills in the house. He both destroys and creates—it’s a fundamental paradox the book highlights. Carpenter surely imagines war embodies that as well: in the name of peace, with the hope of creating something better, we instead wreak death and destruction. The book suggests many questions such as who fights in wars and why. As someone working as a therapist, I found it very effectively conveyed the impact and experience of PTSD and shows why it is so often misunderstood and under-treated. We watch heroic and idealistic Nick, having volunteered to serve and thinking he’d help avenge the 9/11 attacks on his beloved country, become a victim of violence as well. Carpenter seems to be saying there’s no winners in a war; rather it makes losers of us all. Tina Cohen is a therapist who lives seasonally on Vinalhaven.

Fine wines Local beer Specialty cheeses Creative gifts and gift baskets Shop anytime online

Insuring the Midcoast since 1898.

15 Tillson Avenue Rockland, ME 04841

thewineseller.biz wine@midcoast.com 207.594.2621

(800) 898-4423

Boothbay

New Harbor

Vinalhaven

jedwardknight.com

Rockland

Bath

Wiscasset

In-store shopping Curbside pickup Delivery available

www.workingwaterfront.com . September 2021

World Ocean Observatory

Time for a new kind of leadership

Integrating ethics would change engineering, planning

BUSINESS FOR SALE

Ocean Explorer Mooring Services Set and build new moorings,and clean and inspect existing 500. All located in the St. George waters 36 ‘ Fiberglass Novi work boat,with a 3208 Cat engine. Will lift up to a 5000# mooring. For more info,call Mark at 207 372-8805 Or email to ocnexpl@myfairpoint.net

Factory Authorized Dealer

Parts & Service Diesel Engines Transmissions Warranty Repairs • Generators Re-Power Specialists

THOMASTON BOAT & ENGINE WORKS, INC. 2 Atlantic Highway, Thomaston, Maine 04861 Office: 207-354-0200 • Cellular: 207-542-2300 Email: pricci@mindspring.com

G ener al & Marine C ontr aCtor D reDGinG & D oCks 67 Front s treet, roCklanD, Maine 04841 www. proCkMarineCoMpany. CoM tel: (207) 594-9565

207.546.4232

Body Focused Solutions For You 43 N Main Street, Stonington 207 367 6555 owlfurniture.com

m o

ss pa

Summer Hours

Rose B oo k

TO EXECUTE transformative response to the challenges of the 21st century we are going to need a new style of leadership across the full spectrum of action —from governance to corporate consciousness to manufacturing to engineering and design to research and education to new moral standards and consequent behavior by individual change agents. I have discussed in the past many of the new financial tools required to realize change in forms that no longer exclude, or deny equity or foment economic disruption, or result in poverty and injustice. balances, an integrated design and impleEconomists have put forward macro-economic theo- mentation exercise that allows no single ries and best practices to offer a measure by which decision to betray or compromise another, to analyze and calculate financial impacts of change. no positive upstream action with negative But they too must look to a higher set of principles downstream effect, no single perspective to to assure their leadership does not compromise their blind all the others, no private benefit that ignores the larger public good. aspirations by inadequate application. What succeeds at the micro-social-economic And so we must look to the democratic definition of principles to determine that progress and change level must also succeed at the macro-ethical are truly novel and effective, and that the societal level, entailing risk, courage, empathy, responchange envisioned truly meets the goals intended. sibility, and collective action embodied in a The situation demands new leadership committed new generation of leaders. Think of it this way: If I were to come upon a to a new system of macro-ethics in which, in a rapidly changing, technological and political world, natural place where two rivers, one connecting the welfare of the global public is understood and into a large rich interior, the other connecting to a sound and protected coast, guaranteed. come together in a large shelAn economist friend suggested I tered harbor with a central look into this, and I found a particular island surrounded with fertile publication, authored by Dr. Daniel marshes and lowlands, and A. Vallero of Duke University, that I were to recognize its locaconsiders the relationship of macrotion potential and decide to ethics and leadership—specifically It may require a found there a settlement, a new in engineering and planning, design, and sustainable and environmentally new generation of community, a world city, what sound development. engineers trained would I build? Would I build New York as we know it today, This is not an easy endeavor, and it may require a new generation of engi- in this new context or would I build a very different place? How would I know? neers trained in this new context and and philosophy… What different skills would philosophy to make it so. I think of I need? How would I apply the the engineers for the Tennessee Valley technologies of today never Authority or the U.S. Army Corps of available before? How would Engineers whose designs, developed in it operate? Would I assure its different circumstance, built massive diversity, equality, equity, and interconnected dams and waterways justice to all who would live or re-purposed major rivers and there? Would it be protected coastal areas with best intent for their time, but which had serious, unforeseen consequence from climate conditions never envisioned? in extreme weather, drought, flood, and sea level rise. Would it be a great celebrant of culture and A new generation of engineers, trained with a civilization? What principles would I use? new ethos, will supplant the retiring veterans and How would I lead? Would anyone follow? will surely propose very different adaptations, miti- Would I even build there at all? gations, and replacements. Thus, the curriculum, the training and licensing, and the instructional Peter Neill is director of the World Ocean commitment to this future must not react to, but Observatory, which produces weekly radio rather conceive and drive new designers, builders, essays heard on WERU-FM, 89.9, on podcast and managers of this new approach to community at apple.com/us/podcast/world-oceandevelopment. The social scientists, public health radio/id425361249, and at http://www. specialists, lawyers, regulators, and administrators worldoceanobservatory.org/world-ocean-radio. must all join an integrated process of checks and He lives in Sedgwick.

By Peter Neill

May 28 - Oct 17 Seven Days 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

in e

M ai

(207) 326-5034 compassrosebookscastine.com

National Bank

D REAM FIRST

A Division of The First Bancorp • 800.564.3195 • TheFirst.com Member FDIC • Equal Housing Lender

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

Saltwater Cure

The richness of found fruit

A connection to the land invites reflection By Courtney Naliboff WHEN I WAS YOUNG, I had the privilege of growing up on 13 acres of secondary-growth forest in central Maine, between Farmington and Augusta. Our land had a stream and frog pond, a field full of wild strawberries, a thicket of blackberries, an apple tree whose fruit was always harder and tarter than we hoped, a Concord grape vine, and a high bush blueberry planted along the split rail fence separating us from the road. From April until October, we could roam at will, picking fiddleheads and fruit, imagining that we were sustaining ourselves from the land. Imagine my delight, then, when after a few years in our home on North Haven, many of the same foraging opportunities presented themselves in our yard. We have a few patches of strawberries, a raspberry thicket that I tolerate because every few years it produces enough berries for jam, two blackberry bushes, and most excitingly, a Sasketchewan serviceberry tree.

I had never heard of serviceberry (also known as shadbush, Saskatoonberry, and Juneberry) until two summers ago, when a friend pointed out an absolutely loaded tree at Birch Point State Park. Her two young daughters kindly picked handfuls of them for us. The next spring, I noticed a small serviceberry tree growing alongside our compost box, easily identifiable by its narrow-petaled white flowers. I kept an eager eye out for fruit, but sadly, caterpillars got in early. This year, the caterpillars didn’t get in the way of the little serviceberry tree becoming fully decked out in fruit. Penrose and I picked and ate a few before we left for the West Coast, and I regretted leaving the tree before most of the berries had turned from green to red to purple. When we returned, I was delighted to find that the tree was still ripening in stages. We went out the next day with a small bowl to see what we could harvest. We grabbed a few from the lower-hanging branches, but quickly realized that the majority were above our heads. I decided to make a bold move and climbed on top of the cedar

compost box. This had the potential for disaster, as I wasn’t sure the aging planks could hold a densely compact 40-year-old, but I cautiously hoisted myself atop the box, kneeling and then standing to reach the higher branches. Serviceberries resemble blueberries in a way, small and round with a pucker at one end. In flavor, they’re plummy and surprisingly complex. They’re tasty when they’re a deep mauve, and absolutely heavenly when they fully ripen and turn deep purple. I picked until I couldn’t see any more ripe berries, then just as cautiously heaved myself down. Pen and I took turns eating berries from the bowl, supplementing our harvest with a few early raspberries. We went back to the tree several times in July, each trip yielding just enough for a delicious snack, with raspberries and blueberries added to the mix as they ripened. Watching Penrose scour the yard for tasty treats, I couldn’t believe my luck—that she should enjoy the same privilege I had as a child. Privilege carries with it other connotations, though, and the willingness

of the land to offer us sweetness on a summer day—and other wild foods from dandelions to chanterelles— reminds me that North Haven has sustained people for much longer than its habitation by white settlers in the 1770s. The fact that I’m here to enjoy found fruit is inextricably bound to the fact that the original inhabitants and their descendants aren’t. My beautiful yard, which sustains my senses and feeds me on warm summer days, is part of unceded Penobscot land. Ending the column like this doesn’t feel like a conclusion, because it isn’t. Land acknowledgments are a beginning, just the part of the story where we admit that the fields and hedges and gardens and fruit trees are beautiful and beloved, but not ours. Courtney Naliboff teaches music, theater, and writing at the North Haven Community School and lives on the island with her husband and daughter.

Journal of an Island Kitchen

The magic of dishwashing… And going to the dump By Sandy Oliver WHEN MY SUMMER helper, Brynn, tackles the pile of dirty dishes that a household of four or five people can generate, I don’t think of it as particularly magical. But Brynn says, “There is magic in the mundane,” and there’s probably nothing quite as mundane as dishwashing. For Brynn, plunging her hands into hot soapy water starts an enjoyable, restful meditative process. No question that the process ends with undeniable results: the dishes will get dirty again but for now they are clean and the job is truly done. It feels like magic. This set off a kitchen conversation about what mundane activity might create magic. Sarah, my niece who lives here; Cris, another summer helper like Brynn; and Deanna, who like Brynn and Cris, first came as a World Wide Opportunity in Organic Farming volunteer; and I debated so energetically that I entirely forgot a pan of zucchini I had put into the oven which predictably turned into cinders. Mundane merely means “of the world,” usually secular, especially in its earliest uses centuries ago, and acquired its meaning of dull or uninteresting only

by the middle of the 1800s, a mere blink marvels magically. Going to the dump. in time. Magic is the art of “producing Like most town dumps around here, marvels using hidden natural forces.” I ours was capped off years ago to be suppose producing rest and meditative replaced by a transfer facility. We have moments in a dishpan might, by that a swop shop, too, where useful but merely unwanted items await adoption. definition, be magic. There are pans in my kitchen found Now, I know you have heard the saying, “Be careful what you ask for.” I at the dump, along with a coffee wouldn’t pester God with a request that maker, toaster, microwave, some handthe Lord send me a cat. I’d rather pray some soup plates, and lots of baskets. Recently, the swop shop for peace or healing for determined it would humankind. But I’ve no longer accept coffee “asked” the universe for a cat, having given Sarah and Cris went makers, so when the one I have now finally strays a home when they to the dump this blows, I might actually show up. week with a very have to spend money. Last fall, I sent a Once I called up longing for a cat out into mundane load of a friend who was an the world, though none recyclables and attendant there to say showed up. Sometimes, I find, the universe is a bona fide garbage… I needed a twin bed mattress and he declared little slow on the up-take, that two twin bedsteads or perhaps this time it with clean mattresses simply knew that the soft, loveable little fellow by the name had just been dropped off. Like magic. So Sarah and Cris went to the dump of Yandro who lives here now would lose his owner in the spring. There’s an this week with a very mundane load element of Yandro’s appearance being a of recyclables and bona fide garbage in Sarah’s pickup. Sometime during marvel produced by hidden forces. That leads us to another mundane the errand they talked about it maybe activity that our kitchen conversa- being time to acquire a riding lawn tionalists agreed sometimes produced mower (due to the advancing years

of the owner of this establishment, the amount of grass around the large gardens and fruit trees, and how many ticks can hide in it). Sort of a request sent into the universe. They left the dump, tooling around the head of the island, coming home the long way. Passing the end of a long driveway, they spotted a riding mower. A sign on it said “Free”! They hitched it to Sarah’s truck and Cris hopped on and rode the tow back to the house, Sarah turning it into a parade by beeping her horn and Cris exuberantly waving his arms as she pulled up into the driveway. With new mower blades, fresh oil, and a tank of gas, it seems to need a new battery, and maybe there is a new alternator in its future, but, shoot, it’s a thousand dollars’ worth of mower they picked up. A wish sent into the universe on a mundane errand turning into magic? Works for me. Sandy Oliver is a food historian who gardens, cooks, and writes on Islesboro.

www.workingwaterfront.com . September 2021

Guest Column

Animal welfare a victim in research Regeneration a worthy goal, but not with cruelty By Val Philbrick

he article “MDI lab gaining ground in tissue regeneration” in the August issue of The Working Waterfront raises concerns about this type of research. It has been going on for years with untold numbers of mice and giant axolotl salamanders, measuring up to a foot in length, having their limbs amputated. While the unique ability of the axolotl salamander to grow a new body part is remarkable and certainly worthy of research, it should be noted that the Animal Welfare Act is a federal law that addresses the standard of care animals receive at research facilities. This law excludes roughly 95 percent of the animals tested— such as rats, mice, birds, fish, and reptiles—and provides only minimal protections for the rest, nor are they counted in the annual USDA statistics on animal use in the U.S. The animals used annually for research in the U.S. are thought to number in the millions. Under the law, there is no requirement for humane treatment or pain relief for rodents, reptiles, amphibians, and birds, including sparrows, finches, and parakeets. Axolotl salamanders have long been experimented upon in many countries, dating back to the last century, due to its natural ability to regrow limbs and other body parts, including major organs and some less complex parts of the brain. Axolotls are unusual among amphibians in that they reach adulthood without undergoing metamorphosis or

changing body type. Adult axolotl salamanders, also studies, which occasionally results in tangible results. known as Mexican walking fish due to their country Yet they dangle a carrot in front of the public from of origin, remain aquatic and gilled. External gills are time to time to lead people to believe they’re on the usually lost when other salamander species mature verge of a great scientific breakthrough when the into adulthood, but the axolotl maintains this feature reality is that while some progress has been made, the making them more aquatic than other salamander ultimate goal is so unattainable, unrealistic, or far off in the future that the money is better spent elsewhere. species able to walk on land. The amount of money spent in the U.S. per year This neotenic trait or juvenilization of the adult on medical research is staggering and is axolotl salamander is thought to be documented by institution and award key to its unique ability to replace on the NIH website at www.nih.gov/ body parts and repair tissue without grants-funding. In a country with a developing inflammation or forming They dangle a looming federal deficit, the billions of scar tissue. Due to the axolotl’s popucarrot in front research money spent every year would larity as food, family pets, and research be better spent on rebuilding our infrasubjects in laboratories around the of the public to structure, feeding the food insecure, world, these salamanders are practilead people to dealing with climate change, improving cally extinct in the wild. While other believe they’re access to healthcare, making prescripreptiles and amphibians have some tion drugs more affordable, and paying ability to regenerate, the axolotl salaon the verge of down our national debt rather than mander has long been considered the a great scientific throwing good money after bad on champion of regeneration. It has been research to delay or even defeat death suggested, however, that lab axolotls breakthrough… as we supposedly grow new limbs and living in crowded aquariums today are clone ourselves into eternity, some more susceptible to disease and may would say obscurity. have lost key elements of regeneration We all ought to be contacting our federal elected unlike their wild counterparts in generations past representatives and demanding more protection for due to inbreeding while in captivity. Research facilities under the National Institutes of lab animals and better use of our tax dollars. Health spend vast sums of taxpayer money as a business model on medical research, including duplicate Val Philbrick lives in Old Orchard Beach.

Wind turbines banned in state waters State’s priority is wind power in federal waters

ov. Janet Mills has signed into law LD 1619 which prohibits new offshore wind projects in state waters. The prohibition preserves state waters for recreation and fishing—where up to 75 percent of Maine’s commercial lobster harvesting occurs—and cements into law its priority of locating wind projects in federal waters in the Gulf of Maine. The new law comes after Mills last month signed into law another bill which advances the creation of the nation’s first research area for floating turbines in federal waters. Federal jurisdiction over ocean waters begins at three miles from state land. Mills said she was pleased with the bipartisan support from legislators in advancing the state’s potential to grow a global offshore wind industry which will: • create good-paying jobs for Maine people • support Maine’s transition to 100 percent renewable energy • and help fight climate change The new law also reflects the Mills administration’s approach to offshore wind, according to the governor’s office, and stems from extensive discussions among the Governor’s Energy Office and Department of Marine Resources, along with fishing, wildlife, and environmental organizations aiming at responsibly pursuing wind power in co-existence with Maine’s maritime heritage. The Gulf of Maine is home to some of the highest sustained wind speeds in the world. This makes offshore wind, a source of clean, renewable energy, a critical tool for cutting greenhouse gas emissions

by reducing Maine’s nation-leading dependence on Dan Burgess, director of Maine’s energy office, heating oil, aiding the expansion of clean transpor- said the talks among stakeholder groups “helped tation and clean heating solutions, and keeping at inform a responsible plan to harness the abundant home some of the more than $4 billion Maine people renewable energy available in the Gulf of Maine. spend annually to import fossil fuels, according to a Maine will need more sources of renewable energy press release on the governor’s office website. to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels that are Maine is prepared to create good-paying trades driving climate change.” and technology jobs in offshore wind by advancing Sen. Mark Lawrence, D-York, said the moratothe University of Maine’s innovative floating offshore rium on near-shore projects “will protect Maine’s wind technology; forging publicfisheries and coastal waters and private partnerships for research, maintain Maine’s status as a leader in development and workforce training; developing clean energy and fighting and investing in Maine’s deep-water Recent studies have climate change.” Lawrence, chairman ports, the governor’s office asserted. the legislature’s Energy, Utilities, indicated offshore of Recent studies have indicated offshore and Technology Committee, was the wind represents a wind represents a nearly $70 billion bill’s sponsor. opportunity over the next decade. Jeremy Payne, executive director nearly $70 billion These advancements come at a time of the Maine Renewable Energy opportunity over when national and regional activity in Association, said the law “conveys to offshore wind is increasing. In March, the marketplace we won’t place projthe next decade. the federal government announced ects anywhere and everywhere. We an aggressive target of 30 gigawatts of applaud Gov. Mills for leading these electricity from offshore wind by 2030 efforts and look forward to the signifiand its intention to open ocean leasing for commer- cant boost offshore wind will provide to Maine’s cial-scale offshore wind projects on the East Coast. burgeoning clean energy economy.” Around the same time, Gov. Charlie Baker of Dana Connors, president of the Maine State Massachusetts signed legislation that added 2,400 Chamber of Commerce, also supports the plan, saying megawatts of offshore wind energy to that state’s offshore wind is “an enormous opportunity for Maine’s existing renewable energy targets. With offshore wind energy and marine businesses to further strengthen estimated to become a $1 trillion global industry by the state’s economy. Maine’s companies are well posi2040, it carries the potential to create thousands of tioned to seize this opportunity and build expertise for new, good-paying jobs in clean energy, marine indus- the 21st century, and I applaud the governor and the tries, and skilled trades. legislature for making this a priority.”

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

Field Notes

Fellowship supports science Downeast Downeast Institute benefits from Island Fellow By Lisa Millette BLACK FLIES and ice cream cones. These are my first memories of Downeast Maine. My family took me to Lubec for the first time when I was eight years old. When black flies attacked the back of my neck, my mom cleaned me up and the bath water turned pink with black flecks. We went back and forth to Campobello Island for the cheap ice cream cones because the American dollar was much higher than the Canadian one. I also remember the feeling of summer in Maine. That summertime essence that we school-aged kids could soak up for three months of the year. People flowing in and out of the open shops and the other kids on the playground. This July, two co-workers and I drove north and east to Great Wass Island. The island is connected by a bridge to Beals Island, off of Jonesport, and is the home of the Downeast Institute. Once we left Ellsworth and the summer crowds bound for Acadia, Route 1 was quiet. Route 187 into Jonesport was even quieter, contrasted with the work chatter inside the car. As

we hit the dirt road on Great Wass, I felt that stirring of discovery, when you visit an area where few people go. I was excited to meet Hannah Greene, an Island Institute Fellow, and my mentee for the past year. Hannah lives on the island and supports the Downeast Institute’s education programs. Island Institute Fellows receive broad support, including an advisor from the organization at which they’re placed, Island Institute program staff, and a mentor. Up until that day, our entire mentoring relationship was virtual. I couldn’t wait to see where she spent her days. Visiting the Downeast Institute felt like a school field trip without the noisy bus ride. It had reopened to the public only two weeks before and summer camps and families were eager to visit. A group of middle schoolers jostled around the touch tank in the lobby, betting on the marine life underwater. Would the lobster eat the crab? Would the skate or the cod reach the other side first? Hannah guided us through the facility with detailed explanations about the classroom, labs, and hatchery while fielding our questions. Meanwhile, staff and interns bustled in and out of rooms, checking equipment and readings.

While the pandemic paused Hannah’s main project—growing the on-site programming for local schools—she jumped in to assist across the Institute. She wrote grant applications, peered through microscopes, counted over 1,000 clams, and created mobile kits and materials for students to explore ocean and shore ecosystems in their own classrooms. Now that the Institute is open, Hannah has ramped up for summer programs and prepped for school visits come September. Next up, Hannah led us into the conference room where she was running tech for the organization’s first ever climate change seminar. Downeast Institute’s research scientist, Dr. Robert Holmberg, and visiting researcher, Stony Brook University PhD candidate Ray Czaja, presented their findings on the effects of ocean acidification and rising temperatures on softshell clams. Half an hour earlier, we had visited Dr. Holmberg’s lab where research tech, Hannah Zuklie, described the experiments. We left the bustle of the institute for a quiet drive through Beals with Hannah. As she pointed out her home, the school, and other sites, she shared some

of the challenges of living in a remote community as a 20-something during a pandemic, including missing what we might take for granted elsewhere, like a social group our age or restaurants or food trucks to order takeout when you don’t feel like cooking. Hannah said she appreciates the other Island Institute Fellows who live in the Downeast region, who she sees occasionally and connects with on weekly Zoom calls. She also spoke about the kindness of community members, baking cookies and being there for each other. This fall, Hannah will start her second year as an Island Institute Fellow. I’m excited to see her shine. Visiting Hannah in Beals added new memories to my Downeast summer collection and I didn’t miss the black flies from my childhood. Lisa Millette is a community development officer with the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. She focuses on the marine economy, climate and energy, and small business.

Fathoming

It’s time for a working waterfront advocate New funding helps, but more commitment is needed By Merritt Carey AS A GIRL, I awoke each summer morning to the sound of fishing boats heading out of the harbor. My small room had a window facing the water, overlooking a small stand of spruce, giving me a peekaboo view of the harbor. But it was the sounds—diesel engines turning over, their low rumble growing louder, men’s voices, and classic rock radio—that were most vivid. Along with the salty sweet air of a Maine summer morning, this was my wake-up call. I didn’t know it then, but I was listening to the sound of the working waterfront. That was the mid-1970s, simpler times for fishing and shorefront access, when the cost of real estate was, if not affordable, at least reasonable. It was a time we may have taken our working waterfront for granted. I have spent a good part of my professional life working with fishermen. I helped found the Tenants Harbor Fisherman’s Co-op and worked to create Maine’s first aquaculture co-op. I ran a shoreside seafood lobster shack for Luke’s Lobster a couple of summers. An attorney by training, I bring a policy and strategy lens to all this work.

These experiences taught me two things: how vulnerable Maine’s fishing industry is to forces beyond its control, and how critical it is for our economy and identity. As demand for shorefront grows, driving up real estate values, the infrastructure behind the independent and iconic lobsterman, the burgeoning oyster grower, and the clammer delivering steamers to a local fish market is at risk. This infrastructure is not picturesque. It’s stacks of traps, piles of warp, freezers running, oyster cages, trucks, bait bins, hoists, and a radio still playing that classic rock. And occasionally, salty language. Most importantly, it’s access to the shore, the place where fishermen and farmers can load and unload, bait up, and fuel up. This infrastructure supports a substantial economic sector, measuring more than $500 million annually in landings alone. Considerable downstream economic impacts follow, with trucks, processing plants, and restaurants part of the mix. Maine’s Working Waterfront Access Protection Program is the most significant program we have to protect our working wharfs and access points. Funded through bond measures—and,

most recently, the state budget—the program buys development rights from willing owners, placing a restrictive easement on property to ensure it will remain working waterfront in perpetuity. Since 2006, $9 million has been spent on 27 covenants. An additional $4 million will be spent over the next four years, providing a fantastic opportunity for increased protection at a critical time. That is where the good news ends, however. When compared to funding for preserving open lands, the lack of institutional support for preserving Maine’s working waterfront is astonishing. Maine boasts 84 land trusts, with 62 in coastal counties, working to secure and protect land for recreational use. By comparison, there is not a single entity in Maine whose sole mission is to protect and retain working waterfront. A collective group of nonprofits including the Island Institute, CEI, Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, and Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries (among others) do heroic work to protect our working waterfronts as best they can, but none have a funding stream dedicated to this endeavor. It’s scattershot and catch as catch can. We cannot afford to lose more access or infrastructure. We cannot tout our

“blue economy” to outside investors and not protect and expand access to the blue part of that equation. Maine needs a mechanism to buy, preserve, and protect working waterfront and access points. It’s not complicated, it simply requires funding and an entity to hold and oversee it. With the challenges facing Maine’s fishing industry—right whale litigation, climate change, and offshore wind—protecting access to the shore is something we have control over and can act on. Doing so will be expensive, but failing to take action will cost us dearly in ways we cannot fathom— economically and culturally. Simply put, Maine is not Maine without a gritty working waterfront. Do we want to be a coastline of picture-perfect, million-dollar homes, or a coastline of activity, vibrance, and character? The choice is ours, and the time is now. Merritt Carey splits her time between Yarmouth and Tenants Harbor. A mother of three, she consults on all things fisheries and working waterfront related.

www.workingwaterfront.com . September 2021

Cranberry Report

Islesford’s outdoor market is booming More summer visitors means quick sales By Barbara Fernald LAST SUMMER’S Bar Road Market on Islesford was just what I needed to give me focus and a chance to safely see people during the odd year of 2020. It was a gathering in the style of a farmer’s market where anyone was welcome to set up a table at noon on Thursday to sell whatever they wanted to sell. Was it something I wanted to do again this year? I just wasn’t sure. I waited, figuring if others from our dynamic group of women showed interest, I’d want to be included. I just couldn’t find the energy to get the ball rolling. Jasmine, of the amazing banana bread, produce, and bouquets, sent a group text to see what we could pull together for a market this year. Lindsay, who makes soap and has a large garden, wanted to join us and offered to design a poster for Facebook and Instagram. Mary agreed to make sourdough bread again, I planned to bake English muffins and other assorted items like cookies and crackers, and Lauren wanted to be there with her Cranberry Oyster accessories and to take orders for future harvests. There were enough people to give it a go on the first day of July and we were

delighted to all be together again. We I never even saw her arrive and the didn’t know what to expect, so most of sandwiches were gone in five minutes! Bruce and I were busy selling: five us planned on a soft opening, thinking we would add more volume as more dozen donuts, 11 dozen English people arrived on the island. Everything muffins, two dozen large pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, was gone in 20 minutes. seven bags of parmesan We started with two fewer poppy seed crackers, a bakers than last year. dozen bags of frozen olive Joanne and Cathleen have cheese puffs, and 15 pieces daughters getting married, of Cindy’s blueberry olive one in July and one in August. They have enough We didn’t know oil cake. It was the most we had baked yet. details to keep track of what to expect, Bruce’s doughnuts without the added stress were sold and he was of creating tasty things for so most of us back inside having the market. planned on a lunch by 12:15. The rest Bruce was noncomof my table was empty mittal about making soft opening… by 12:25. Mary’s eight doughnuts this year. “I loaves of sourdough might do it if it’s not a day bread were gone in out.” So far he has made less than five minutes! doughnuts for two out At 12:30, Mary, Emma, of four market days. Last Lauren, Jasmine, Lindsay, year our motto was, “No two weeks the same!” and it still holds. and I looked at each other with brows Last week my niece, Emma, said she raised and saucer eyes. “Whoa, that would make sandwiches to sell. I was intense!” With fewer vendors and a fuller was psyched to buy lunch made by someone else, but I missed out. She summer population, this year’s market came home from fishing, whipped up takes place at a crazy pace. We don’t 14 sandwiches and brought them to the hold items and we don’t start selling market five minutes after we started. earlier than noon, but this has created

a market situation that is new this year—the line. It’s a strange feeling to see people lining up 20 minutes before we start. We put things out at the last minute to avoid awkwardly facing people for 15 minutes of inactivity. The irony of Bar Road Market is that most of the sellers tend to be introverted. As Mary put it, “None of us would bother to stay if we saw a line like this. We would turn around and say, ‘No thanks, I’ll bake my own cake.’” I put out a little plea on Facebook for more vendors for the fifth week and several people responded with sandwiches, macaroons, blondies, and more produce. It felt more festive to have a larger group of sellers and the market actually lasted until 12:45. I even had a few butterscotch squares left over to throw in the freezer for a future treat. Who knows what next week will bring? Just like life, no two weeks are the same. Barbara Fernald lives on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island).

Observer

The almost commencement speech Sage and snarky advice from an island graduate By Phil Crossman THIS MIGHT HAVE been this year’s commencement address, had there been a commencement: “You and I and many of the others gathered here have a great deal in common. We each finished high school in Vinalhaven and we each have the rest of our lives ahead of us. I hope you’re looking forward to the rest of yours as much as I’m looking forward to the rest of mine. “Sixty years ago I stood, symbolically, where you are today. I say symbolically because this auditorium was not here. This wonderful new school wasn’t here. None of these teachers were here. Your parents weren’t here or, if they were, they were of little significance. “For years, beginning around the time I was in school, the town adopted a defensive posture toward many of its young people, and with good reason. We were troublesome, not all of us by any means, but enough to have an impact. “Our aim was mischief to begin with but that morphed for a few of us into more serious trouble and as time went by the bar kept getting raised or

perhaps lowered is a better term, so that enthusiasm for the achievements of a in the ’80s and ’90s it wasn’t enough for fellow student, or to the other parts of some to begin a high school career just the world to better understand the true breadth of our humanity, burning a little rubber. or onto the stage for an “Of course, trouble unbridled performance, or here kind of pales when into an outrageous demoncompared with trouble If anyone had stration of acrobatics in the here and there around town parking lot, or into a the world but it was real called me and ball game, or impromptu enough for people who my buddies concert on Main Street. Or were trying to make a home for themselves and wholesome we’d it simply carried you for the last dozen years to this if anyone had called me have gone to special day. and my buddies whole“I believe it’s customary some we’d have gone to great lengths to to end a commencement great lengths to prove prove otherwise. address with some sage otherwise. advice. Mine is twofold. “All of you, an enorFirst, continue to set the mously diverse and bar high for yourselves and interesting bunch, have breathed new life into our community, for those admiring youngsters who, full being positive and full of promise. It’s of admiration for each of you, are so very fun having you among us and it’s been plainly following in your footsteps. Set it a long time since that observation was high for us too. We, the adults, need to be reminded of our own potential. made so freely. “Second, try not use ‘like’ as a “Today we are happily riding the wave of passion and excitement that has conjunctive adverb. Like is a quanticarried you down over the Net Factory fier and qualifier. It diminishes what Hill in a rambunctious knot, or into the you have to say, making it seem you auditorium to express your unqualified are unsure of yourself, that you may

not know what you are talking about, or that you lack conviction, are on the fence, or wishy washy. “At some point down the road you are going to be presented with an opportunity to voice your affection for someone. When that time comes tell him or her ‘I love you,’ not ‘I, like, love you.’ ‘Like’ will dampen the moment and leave your intended wondering how much less than love it is you are trying to imply. “And while I won’t be remotely surprised if one of you has this opportunity, it will not do to one day hear you respond to the chief justice, ‘I, like, ya know, solemnly swear that I will, like, faithfully execute the office of president of the United States.’ I for one would be, like, bummed to hear that. Like totally.” Phil Crossman lives on Vinalhaven where he waits by the phone for an invitation to give a commencement address.

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

Letters to the Editor

Most recently, 26 lobstermen and women Our family began vacationing in Scarborough over submitted a petition to the Bar Harbor Town 30 years ago, driving up to our house each spring. Council opposing the American Aquafarms project Some years we made the roundtrip drive two, three, in Frenchman Bay. or four times. Thankfully, I can get 550 miles on one To the editor: Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation does tank of gas. That means I can arrive from our home Being a long-time admirer of Phil Crossman’s, I almost croaked with surprise and, ultimately, believe in aquaculture in the small owner/operator in the mid-Atlantic without stopping—for gas or uproarious laughter at reading his Observer column model that has been successful along the Maine recharging—anywhere. An easily found refill at a gas station would take me in the July issue (“Remembering that first kiss”). This coast. But we also believe there has been a lack of man is priceless. I do hope that he will be able to planning that includes all stakeholder groups. Our about ten or so minutes, while a charge for an electric share other stories of his precious past. He is like a group will continue to do the work around the car today would take 30-45 minutes, if you can find 1,000 acres issue as well as siting alternatives, lease a convenient station. And if I was going Downeast or fine bottle of wine. terms that can be held for 20 years, and the ability to to an interior camp, two charges would be needed. transfer those leases without a public hearing. Heaven help that guy. John K. Cowperthwaite, Jr. The coast is a public trust and deserves a stateIt’s time to sharpen your pencil. This transition Tenants Harbor wide conversation for the future. Those conver- from gas to electric bodes poorly for Maine and its sations cannot be in an exclusive setting, with top industry, tourism, unless battery technology and taxpayer dollars paying for it and with only the infrastructure are improved considerably. people who have lobbied for aquaculture at any cost I would task Sarah with focusing an article Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors Magazine at the expense of small aquaculturists, lobstermen, on what is being done and what needs to tourism, and those who have always recreated on be done to accommodate the vision. The the water. infrastructure and technical lifts are huge. To the editor: Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation wants Crystal Canney John Hawkins to respondchecking to an assertion made for by Sebastian very carefully, especially spelling,Belle, grammatical, and factual errors. Please pay close attention to Executive Director director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, in and to all the details in physical, e-mail, and web site addresses. Please note that any colors shown are merely the May issue of The Working Waterfront. In response Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation d on paper. makeabout everyopposition effort to to be aquaculture 100% errorbyfree. However, we cannot be held responsible for errors once to a We question box below, sign, and return to: the fishing Belle said: “There’s beenappropriate a very ave approved thisindustry, printout. Please check the intentional strategy to scare people to say, ‘One Boats, person Homes Harbors, South Main St., Ste. 300, P.O. Box 566, Rockland, ME 04841 can& own up to 1,000Inc., acres.218 ’ It’s just not true. ” The Working Waterfront welcomes letters to The fact is any 207-594-8622 individual, business,• or corporation the editor, which should be about 300 words Fax: 207-593-0026 can lease up to 1,000 acres for exclusive use. See the and sent to editor Tom Groening at tgroening@ Department of Marine Resources website and section To the editor: islandinstitute.org. Longer opinion pieces of 2.12 of the regulations. about 650 words also are accepted but should be I enjoyed reading the August issue of The Working Lobstermen have spoken loudly about the threat of Waterfront. The “Leaving gas vehicles in the rearcleared first with the editor. losing bottom, potential environmental degradation view mirror” op-ed on gas vs. electric vehicles was around farm-raised salmon, the growing number of eye-opening. The writer, Sarah Miller, conveyed a lot leases, and the lack of a statewide plan. of useful info in few words. Well done.

Priceless Phil

Lease size clarification

rch/April 2021 • Issue 169 • AD PROOF

Gas or electric

Linkel Construction, Inc. Locally owned and operated; in business for over twenty-five years.

•

Cele

22 Ybrating In B ears usin e ss!

• •

•

Specializing in slope stabilization and seawalls. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) certified. Experienced, insured and bondable. Free site evaluation and estimate. One of the most important investments you will make to your shorefront property. We have the skills and equipment to handle your largest, most challenging project.

For more information: www.linkelconstruction.com 207.725.1438

BROOKS TRAP MILL Hundreds of benches, tables, and chairs in stock! You can pay more but you can’t get better quality teak garden furniture. Guaranteed for a lifetime! Check out our NEW 4500 sq. ft. showroom filled with exotic LIVE EDGE SLABS made into dining and coffee tables, side tables, and consoles. Unique home decor, too.

681 Bath Rd. (U.S. Route 1) Wiscasset • 207-882-7225 and 38 Sea St. Boothbay Harbor • 207-633-9899 Open April 15-October 15 Daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. www.islandteakcompany.blogspot.com

& MARINE SUPPLIES

A large selection of traps and trap kits

GET HAULIN’

Stop by for all your fishing and commercial boating needs

Enter to win a $100 gift certificate by visiting our website or “Like” us on Facebook. Jonesboro, ME (207) 434-5791

Portland, ME (800) 244-8727

BROOKSTRAPMILL.COM Thomaston, ME (800) 426-4526

West Bath, ME (855) 848-6027

www.workingwaterfront.com . September 2021

Brennan to retire from MMA

Board praises ‘minds-on, hands-on’ education WILLIAM J. BRENNAN, president of Maine stewarded MMA’s reputation as a leader in maritime Maritime Academy, has announced his decision to education,” Cianchette wrote. “He has positioned us retire after the upcoming school year, capping off 12 well for continued success. It is our collective responyears of dedicated service to the institution. sibility to be sure that we select a president who “It is an exciting moment for me, but I really do continues to maintain our tradition of excellence and have mixed emotions about the our commitment to ‘minds-on, announcement,” Brennan said. hands-on’ education.” “This is truly the best job I have ever The board is working to estabhad. MMA’s mission, our students, lish a search committee which and our staff and faculty—they all will include individuals from mean the world to me. Still, I feel across MMA’s diverse commuthis is the right decision for me nity and include members of “This is truly and for the academy.” the board of trustees, faculty, the best job In a letter announcing his decistudents, and Castine residents. sion to Earle Cianchette, chairman In the coming weeks, the I have ever had.” of MMA’s board of trustees, contracted search firm will host Brennan articulated his love of the several listening sessions with school and reflected on his tenure community stakeholders in the as the college’s 14th president. hopes of engaging the MMA “There have been no shortages community as it creates a new of challenges,” he wrote. “But vision for the future. together we have worked to strengthen the quality, More information about the sessions, and the tranappeal, and ongoing integrity of our programs; to sition process in general, can be found on the MMA strengthen our relationship with the community in website. The college expects to announce a new presiwhich we reside; and to embed national best prac- dent in January 2022. tices of college administration into all aspects of the MMA is a co-educational public college on the daily work of the academy.” coast of Maine offering programs of study in engiThe announcement of Brennan’s decision initiated neering, management, science, and transportation. a formal transition process stewarded by trustees. The college serves approximately 950 undergrad“President Brennan has proudly and steadfastly uate and graduate students in career-oriented served the mission of this institution and carefully degree programs.

William J. Brennan

The annual job placement rate for MMA graduates is approximately 90 percent within 90 days of graduation. The college is consistently recognized for providing a high-value education by organizations such as the Brookings Institution, U.S. News and World Report, and Money magazine.

Allen_Islesboro_Insurance4.75x3.5_092720_B.qxp_Layout 1 9/27/20 12:30 PM Page 1

Charting a course for what comes next? That’s where we come in. Ask Allen. (207) 236-4311 AllenIF.com/team Offices in Rockland, Camden, Belfast, Southwest Harbor and Waterville.

6 6 5 R o o s e v e l t Tr a i l , W i n d h a m , M E 0 4 0 6 2 207.289.4303

www.fivestargolfcars.com

S AL E S

NEW

USED PA R T S M O B I L E S E RV I C E

R E N TA L S

S P ECIAL FINANCING AVAILABLE

The Working Waterfront . September 2021

Do You Love Boats & Boating Or Have An Interest?

JOIN OUR CREW!

OUR BUSINESS IS TO LEND YOU MONEY. OUR MISSION IS TO GROW YOUR SUCCESS.

We are looking for candidates to join our crew in a hardworking but casual, family-oriented atmosphere who have a positive attitude and a strong commitment to teamwork and service.

CHECK OUT OUR

CUSTOMER REFERRAL PROGRAM!

UP TO $ 500 FOR YOU! Refer A New Crew Member, Get A Gift Card!

For open positions, job application and more info about the customer referral program go to

HAMILTONMARINE.COM/CAREERS Nobody finances commercial fishing like Farm Credit East.

800-639-2715 hamiltonmarine.com

Like agriculture, the fishing industry has its own unique credit needs. And we’re proud to serve them both.

KITTERY PORTLAND ROCKLAND SEARSPORT SW HARBOR JONESPORT

Financing For: Boats & Trucks Real Estate Permits Bait Storage Facilities

No other lender offers more expertise, specialized financial products, or dedicated services to achieve your goals.

Wharves

farmcrediteast.com | 800.831.4230

Operating Lines

Equipment Haul Out & Repair

11530_FISHING_Made in Ag_Our Business_4.9x7.35.indd 1

10/8/19 1:03 PM

Become a Member of the Springtide Society

Monthly giving is an easy and effective way to help build a more resilient Maine coast. This reliable support makes a variety of communitydriven projects possible including our climate action, equitable broadband access, marine economy, and small business initiatives.

Become a SPRINGTIDE MEMBER for as little as $10/month and receive: A subscription to The Working Waterfront Newspaper The annual Island Journal publication Exclusive Springtide member apparel Invitations to Island Institute events designed just for members

Join the Springtide Society today by visiting: GIVING.ISLANDINSTITUTE.ORG