Coastal Outlook: Thoughts from MLCA President Patrice McCarron

Historically, Maine has been known as a natural resources state. Lumbermen went to the North Woods to mark, cut and transport trees, first by river and later by truck, to the state’s many paper and pulp mills. Aroostock farmers tilled sweeping fields of potatoes during the summer then the entire family helped harvest the spuds in the fall. Maine fishermen went to sea to capture the bounty of the Gulf of Maine for themselves and consumers throughout the world.

Today Maine’s fishermen still return to the ocean to make their livelihoods, although that process has become more encumbered with federal regulations and restrictions every year. A recent letter from four environmental organizations to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hints at even more regulation to come. In response to the unprecedented 16 deaths and five live entanglements of North Atlantic right whales primarily in the Gulf of St. Lawrence this summer and fall, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Humane Society of the United States and Whale and Dolphin Conservation North America informed NOAA in October that they intend to sue the agency for violations of two sections of the Endangered Species Act, which protects the endangered right whales. That action, combined with a recent downturn in the whales’ reproductive rate, could spell trouble for Maine’s lobstermen, as our lead article in this issue explores.

Meanwhile, in the tiny fishing village of Port Clyde, fishermen and residents have organized to prevent construction of electricity lines from the proposed Monhegan Island wind project through the town. PORT (Protect Our Remarkable Town) gained over 300 signatures from residents petitioning the Select Board to amend town zoning regulations to forestall the proposed development, citing the harm that the underwater cable line that will bring electricity from the off shore turbines to land could do to local fishermen. Proponents of the project argue that the cable will have no impact on fishermen.

Finding a point of collaboration on such large issues as these is never an easy task. However, for Paul Anderson, featured in our People of the Coast series this month, collaboration is the hallmark of his career. Anderson, a microbiologist by training, has moved smoothly from the hallways of the Department of Marine Resources (DMR), where he ran the agency’s public health office, to the academic world of the University of Maine, where he directed the state Sea Grant Program for 16 years. Now he has taken the helm from co-founder Robin Alden at the Center for Maine Coastal Fisheries (formerly Penobscot East Resource Center) in Stonington. For Anderson stepping into the nonprofit world is an exciting opportunity to once again collaborate across boundaries. An accomplished bluegrass musician, he is also resuming an earlier pleasure, that of being a bluegrass DJ at community radio station WERU.

In Landings this month we also hear from Maine Marine Patrol Bureau Chief Colonel Jon Cornish on the activities of his officers. Marine Patrol gained three new officers in the fall, assigned to serve in the Kittery, Tenants Harbor and Cobscook areas. In addition, the bureau has a new 26-foot boat nearly completed for use in the Stonington area and another, larger boat for off shore work ready to go to bid. Col. Cornish addresses recent cases brought against lobstermen under an Act to Improve the Enforcement of Maine’s Lobster Laws, which went into effect on June 14 this year and stiffened penalties for offenses such as fishing sunken trawls, fishing more than the allowed number of traps, or scrubbing female lobsters.

We also hear from the supervisors of this summer’s NOAA funded hydrographic survey of eastern Penobscot Bay. The survey continued eff orts begun several years ago to update the nautical charts of southern Maine and Penobscot Bay, some of which date to the early 20th century. Covering rough submerged ground in eastern Penobscot Bay proved challenging, as the article in Landings notes, but should yield valuable information about hazards to navigation in that area.

This month Landings introduces the MLA’s new health insurance Navigator, Bridget Thornton. Thornton holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of New England and was most recently employed by the Massachusetts Chapter of the ALS Association in Boston. Her family’s home is on Long Island in Casco Bay and she is excited to be working with lobstermen and others in the fishing industry. Since the enrollment period for those seeking health insurance is much shorter this year than in the past (November 1 to December 15), anyone concerned about enrolling or reenrolling is urged to call Thornton for assistance at 967-4555.

Landings continues its profiles of Maine Fishermen’s Forum scholarship recipients in an interview with Jasmine Waite of Southport Island. Currently Waite is studying biochemistry at the University of Maine Honors College and hopes ultimately to enter the medical profession. We also hear from Ann Backus from Harvard University’s School of Public Health about the effects opioids have on the human brain. The plague of opioids has hit Maine hard, with overdose deaths rising by the month. How do these synthetic chemicals affect the brain and why are they so addictive?

Finally, most of us dine on Maine lobster in one of two ways: boiled and served with butter or stuffed in a bun as a lobster roll. But for Nathaniel Adam, executive sous chef at the Boothbay Harbor Country Club and this year’s Lobster Chef of the Year, lobster takes on a whole new identity. Adam’s winning entry in this year’s contest was Lobster in Foliage, a medley of caramelized shallot, lobster agnolotti, lobster Newburg and hazelnut brown butter. Stephen Richards of the Fisherman’s Wharf Inn, also in Boothbay Harbor, was named the People’s Choice 2017 Lobster Chef of the Year for his dish, which involved smoked lobster and mascarpone-stuffed and tempura-battered zucchini blossom with truffled corn confit fondue, sticky cranberry, pumpkin seed granola and black trumpet powder. Congratulations to two imaginative chefs!

I hope you enjoy this issue of Landings and I welcome your feedback.