Category: In the news

Stonington, the state of Maine’s top fishing port in landed value, is facing seismic change. By mid-century, its lobster fishery could drop by 15 to 20 percent due to warming ocean waters, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute predicts.
Tethered to the mainland by a thin thread of causeway and an 80-year-old bridge, this small town also faces rising seas that threaten infrastructure — including the town pier and a waterfront fire station.

ISLESBORO — Marshall Cove Mussel Farm, owned by island residents Josh and Shey Conover, was the subject of a video released by the Maine Aquaculture Association Dec. 5, the second in a series of videos about its members the MAA is producing.
According to an MAA press release, “the videos tell the stories of aquatic farmers in Maine, underscoring how aquaculture complements existing marine industries and works to diversity and strengthen our coastal economy.”

A bipartisan measure to help protect working waterfronts against climate change and incompatible development pressures passed the U.S. House Tuesday by a vote of 262-151, with 34 Republicans voting in support.
The measure, introduced by Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, D-1st District, would provide $24 million in federal grants and loans to states, which could allocate funding to municipalities, nonprofits and fishing co-ops for projects that preserve or improve working waterfront infrastructure.

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine)’s bipartisan bill, H.R. 3596, the Keep America’s Waterfronts Working Act, today passed the House of Representatives on a 262-151 vote. “More than 30,000 Mainers rely on marine-related industries for their livelihoods. Yet out of five thousand miles of coastline, just 20 miles of workable waterfront remains in the state,” said Pingree. 

The Town of South Thomaston is pleased to announce that they were recently awarded a $10,000 ShoreUp Maine grant from the Island Institute. The grant will assist in the engineering of the Town’s Spruce Head Island Causeway road project. The project is intended to improve the road in ways that mitigate potential wash out during heavy weather events, effectively shutting down the island and our working waterfront.

The Island Institute, announced July 1 the launch of the Tom Glenn Community Impact Fund, a new catalyst fund that seeks to build a more diverse coastal economy by providing grants, loans and equity investments for small businesses and municipalities. The fund was made possible through a grant from The Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation to honor Tom Glenn II and his lifelong commitment to Maine’s island and coastal communities.

People who work the sea say Maine’s climate is changing, and the evidence is all around them. Mid-Atlantic species in Maine coastal waters is just one piece of the evidence that a changing climate, with warmer ocean waters, is already having an impact here. Cousens, the former president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, says he has been tracking sea surface temperatures in the waters of Penobscot Bay, just off his home in South Thomaston, for the past 40 years.

It was a sharp, windy March day, but the gray water of Casco Bay glimmered green in the sun. On his lobster boat, the Pull N’ Pray, Justin Papkee scanned the surface of the ocean, searching for his buoys. But he wasn’t looking for lobster traps. Mr. Papkee was farming, not fishing: His crop, clinging to ropes beneath the cold waves, was seaweed, thousands of pounds of brownish kelp undulating under the surface. Growing at a rate of 4 to 6 inches per day for the past six months, it was nearly ready to be harvested and sent to restaurants like Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Estela, Houseman, Saint Julivert Fisherie and Luke’s Lobster in New York, and Honey Paw, Chaval and the Purple House here in Maine.