Waterfront

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  Lobstermen say NOAA’s proposed whale rule won’t work, and conservationists agree

  February 26, 2021 by Anne Berleant on News, Waterfront

  “There’s clearly a disconnect” between the data and the proposed rule, said lobsterman Jack Merrell of Islesford, who said he also holds a degree in oceanography.

  Conservationists agreed on the lack of recent data but some, including ocean scientist and teacher Bill McWeeny of Brooksville, said that saying right whales are not in Maine is untrue — at least in 2004, when Maine gear was found on a dead right whale. And, with 87 percent of pot and trap gear on the East Coast, he said it’s “reasonable that Maine lobstermen entangle whales.”

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  Lobstermen’s buddy has a good deal going

  February 24, 2021 by Letitia Baldwin on News, Waterfront

  “If he hears them [fish] flapping in the trap, his eyes get big like a dog about to get a treat,” said Will Collins, the Rebecca B.’s sternman, who will toss live fish to the seal. He knows the behavior well, having a winsome dog named Jersey back home in Steuben.

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  Mills: Future of lobster industry is threatened

  February 24, 2021 by Cyndi Wood on News, Waterfront

  A draft federal biological opinion on the impact of fisheries on endangered North Atlantic right whales would “necessitate the complete reinvention of the Maine lobster fishery,” Governor Janet Mills wrote in a forceful Feb. 19 letter to NOAA Fisheries, citing “grave concern” and “inequities.”

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  Shorefront path sought on town-owned lot

  February 24, 2021 by Letitia Baldwin on News, Waterfront

  “Public access to the shore is diminishing,” Shellfish Committee Warden Mike Pinkham told selectmen at their Feb. 18 meeting. “When push comes to shove, there’s no access for the diggers.”

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  MMA hires MacArthur as training ship master

  February 23, 2021 by Guest on News, Waterfront

  With over 30 years of experience in the maritime field, MacArthur served most recently as a senior dynamic positioning officer for Diamond Offshore Drilling.

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  Lobster research explores ocean warming effects

  February 21, 2021 by Guest on Waterfront

  The results from the study indicate that changes in gene expression of post-larval lobster may act as a mechanism to accommodate rapid changes in the ocean environment.

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  Fish for free this week

  February 17, 2021 by Guest on News, Waterfront

  People who register may fish for free without a license on Maine’s waterways until this Sunday, Feb. 21. Governor Janet Mills this month signed an executive order creating Free Fishing License Week, which began this past Saturday.

• Local legislators float several fisheries bills

  February 17, 2021 by Anne Berleant on News, Waterfront

  State Rep. William “Billy Bob” Faulkingham’s bill would protect state waters from offshore windmills, he told The American. “Offshore wind is a terrible idea for Maine. Single windmills are not practical and must be set up in arrays of at least 12-15 per wind farm. This means that a single array will take up many square miles of ocean surface and bottom, essentially blockade miles of ocean from bird or whale travel patterns and be visible for over 100 miles in all directions.”

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  Program seeks to restore salmon

  February 10, 2021 by Rebecca Alley on News, Waterfront

  The project, implemented by the Downeast Salmon Federation, closely mimics the way juvenile salmon, known as parr, are raised in the wild. A decade of data shows that the project increases the survival rate of adult salmon, which in turn increases the fish’s chance of returning to the East Machias to spawn. The project was recently awarded a $770,000 grant to continue the work and expand it to the Narraguagus River.

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  Gouldsboro event center wins approval

  February 9, 2021 by Letitia Baldwin on News, Waterfront

  Tuesday’s storm, freezing drizzle and ice-encrusted roads did not keep the Planning Board from holding a public hearing and unanimously approving entrepreneur and conservationist Roxanne Quimby’s proposed Ocean Wood Event Center in Birch Harbor. The venue is located off East Schoodic Drive within the former Oceanwood at Schoodic Point property that Quimby acquired in 2016. 

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  Local fisherman tests the waters with oyster venture

  February 9, 2021 by Ninah Gile on News, Waterfront

  “I just got lucky with it,” said Kane. “When most people start out, they have something that happens like a big storm that takes them, or their farms are just too shallow that make it easy for ice to come in the right way and clear the whole thing.”

• Downeast Trout Unlimited meeting scheduled Feb. 17

  February 9, 2021 by Staff on News, Waterfront

  Downeast Trout Unlimited will present speakers from The Nature Conservancy in Maine at its online meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 17. A business meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m., followed by the speakers. At 5:45, Josh Royte will provide an overview of the conservancy’s projects in Maine. That will be followed at 6:15 by a talk by Ben Matthews, “River Restoration Techniques for Preserving Habitat.”