STONINGTON — Ted Ames wasn’t fazed when he got a
call from the MacArthur Foundation last Friday
evening.
He figured the caller wanted to ask him about
one of the outstanding scientists he has
encountered in his research of fisheries in the
Gulf of Maine.
But then the caller told Ames that he had been
chosen to be a MacArthur Fellow.
“You could’ve blown me away with a feather,”
Ames said Tuesday.
Ames, a fisherman, researcher and advocate for
better fisheries management, was one of 25
MacArthur Fellows named this week.
The award, known as a “genius grant,” carries a
$500,000 stipend paid over five years from the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
“I was completely surprised,” Ames said. “I’m
very proud of the work I’ve done and the
research I’ve done, but I never expected such an
honor.”
A native of Vinalhaven, Ames has fished most of
his life. He has 250 lobster traps off the
Stonington coast, but finds little time to tend
them.
Instead, he puts in long hours at the Penobscot
East Resource Center establishing a lobster
hatchery.
Ames and his wife, former Department of Marine
Resources Commissioner Robin Alden, started the
resource center. Lobstermen in Zone C have
backed the hatchery project, which is intended
to replenish lobster stock by introducing
juvenile lobsters to strategic lobstering areas.
Though he doesn’t know how he will spend the
windfall, Ames is sure some of it will be used
to further the hatchery project.
“I think it’s great,” he said of the award. “It
gives me a chance to work on projects I can’t
afford and couldn’t get grants to do. It solves
some sticky problems.”
One of those problems was raising money to
travel to the nine districts in Zone C. Ames
wants to enlist lobstermen to identify locations
for placing juvenile lobsters next year and to
get volunteers to distribute them.
“Having fishermen directly involved will make
the whole thing work,” said Ames.
Ames, 66, received a master’s degree in
biochemistry from the University of Maine in
1971.
Soon after that, he was badly injured in an
automobile accident, which prevented him from
fishing.
He moved to Mount Desert Island and taught
chemistry and ecology at the local high school,
as well as working one year at Jackson
Laboratory.
“When I healed up enough to go fishing, I
couldn’t resist,” he said.
He makes it clear that fishing is his true
calling.
Though he has been a Maine lobster and ground
fisherman for decades of his life, Ames has also
combined his roles as fisherman and applied
scientist to address increasing threats to the
fishery ecosystem in the Gulf of Maine.
He has completed detailed studies of spawning,
habitat and fishing patterns, often relying on
information from older fishermen to map
historical patterns.
He validated that anecdotal information by using
other scientific studies and data from the
National Marine Fisheries Service.
Ames is adamant that the future of Maine
fisheries depends on new management strategies
crafted jointly by fishermen, scientists and
government bureaucracies.
He believes those groups must work together in
small management areas.
“My work demonstrates the need for smaller
management areas,” he said.
To that end, Ames advocates ecological-based and
community–based management. He encourages
fishermen to increase their stewardship of
resources and to empower themselves in the
process of managing those resources.
“Either we hang together or we hang separately,”
he said. “After fishing through the collapse of
scallops, groundfish, urchins and other species,
I know one thing for sure: No fish, no
fishermen.”
Ames said that when he thought about spending
the $500,000 award, the first thing that came to
mind was an old joke about a fisherman who wins
$1 million in a lottery.
A reporter visits the fisherman and asks all the
standard questions: Will you pay off bills? Buy
a new boat? New house? New car? Take a vacation?
The fisherman answers “no” to each question.
Frustrated, the reporter asks: “What are you
going to do with all the money?”
“I think I’m gonna keep on fishing as always,
and when the money’s gone, I’ll figure out some
other way to go on fishing,” the fisherman
replies.
Ames feels the same way. “Life won’t change,” he
said.
The MacArthur Fellows Program awards fellowships
to talented individuals who have shown
extraordinary originality and dedication to
their creative pursuits, according to a release
from the foundation.
“I’m just tickled pink that they looked down on
the coast and saw the likes of us here,” said
Ames. |
