Raw Folly

AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty

For anyone who has read previous media stories about RawFaith, today's sinking of the vessel off Nantucket will be recognized as the final chapter of the ship's tortuous history. If any vessel seemed doomed, this was the one - despite the determined optimism of its amateur builder and captain, George McKay.
McKay, initially with his family's help, built the 100-foot galleon on the shore of the Pleasant River in Addison with the goal of providing sailing experiences to wheelchair-bound children. Early media stories (like this one) focused on McKay's vision and devotion to the cause and on the boat's striking appearance.
But interest in the ship took a turn soon after the boat was floated into the water. The ship nearly sank on its maiden voyage in 2004, and two years later it again was seriously damaged at sea. It became a polarizing topic between some who admired McKay's dedication and others who felt the ship wasn't seaworthy and that McKay posed a threat to others who might sail away with him on the rickety vessel. The ship sat in Rockland and then in Portland as McKay dealt with occasional Coast Guard dictums about making improvements and also tried to raise funds for its repairs and operation.
Meanwhile, online yachting forums (such as this one) buzzed with criticism about McKay's seeming folly. Subsequent media coverage (for example) focused on how McKay was determined to press ahead regardless of the mounting criticism of the execution of his idea.
And such was the situation this past spring when Chris Busby of the Bollard wrote this incisive and prescient article on McKay's struggles over the past decade to bring the project to fruition. Busby's piece cuts to the bone, laying bare McKay's pain at seeing his daughter struggle with disease, first for survival and then acceptance; his unexpected inspiration to the build the boat; and the adversity he has faced in trying to make the ship and its mission a reality.
I cannot recount the bitter tale of RawFaith half as well as Busby does. The clear implication of the story and others like it is that, aside from his daughter's illness, McKay has brought many of his problems upon himself by failing to recognize that all the inspiration in the world sometimes cannot be a substitute for actual expertise and a practical outlook.
The only worse ending imaginable would be if RawFaith had taken McKay or anyone else down with her. If there is any evidence that the divine may have played a role in this saga, it could be that, amazingly, no one was seriously physically hurt as McKay tried to make his admirable but ultimately hopeless vision a reality.

Speaking for the Dead

The Bar Harbor Times has a good story about the Lawtons, the Seal Cove residents who died last week when their car rolled into the water by the Seal Cove boat landing on Mount Desert Island.
The Times reporter who wrote the story, Laurie Schreiber, interviewed their friends and family about the older couple.
Reporters sometimes are maligned "as ambulance chasers" for knocking on the doors of those who have suddenly lost neighbors or relatives in tragic, high-profile accidents such as the one in Seal Cove. But, as Schreiber's story demonstrates, often people in such situations want to talk, to tell their communities about the people they loved and held dear. Maybe it's therapeutic, or maybe they feel obliged to try to speak for the dead as the public suddenly tries to find out more about them.
Yes, some people in those situations will turn out their lights and lock their doors, wanting nothing to do with the media. But for reporters, often the only way to find out if someone wants to talk or not is to ask them, and that often means knocking on the door of a stranger's house, not knowing how they will be received.
The Bar Harbor Times is to be commended for reaching out to the Lawtons' relatives and friends and for helping the public learn more about the couple than just the facts and questions surrounding their tragic deaths.

Nervous Poli-tics

If you live in coastal eastern Maine and ran as a Democrat for Maine State Senate this fall, you lost. Pure and simple. But you would be hard pressed to say you got swept away in a deluge of Tea Party fervor.
True, The GOP took not only the Blaine House, but both the state Senate and House chambers, winning a clean sweep for the first time in a long time. And a big if not the biggest reason behind that seems to be a "time-for-someone-else" approach to which party wields the most power in Augusta.
But when you look at the Senate winners in eastern Maine, you're not going to find any Rand Pauls or Christine O'Donnells. The lot of them are moderate Republicans who may be tight with the purse strings but are not strict when it comes to, say, abstinence or on whether the Department of Education should be abolished.
The new Senate president, Kevin Raye of Perry, for years worked as an aide to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, who long as been viewed as a moderate in Congress. Brian Langley and Richard Rosen are cut from the same cloth. They'll likely be game for cutting budgets, but not for eliminating departments or diving into divisive social issues.
Further down the road, less moderate Republicans were elected in Lincoln County (David Trahan), and in Waldo County (Mike Thibodeau). Knox County's Chris Rector, an incumbent who ran unopposed this year, is viewed as fairly middle of the road. All three have multiple terms of experience in Augusta, and so are not outsiders. These men - including Raye, Rosen and Langley - hardly represent a horde of angry outsiders storming the State House barricades.
And in the House of Representatives, coastal eastern Maine definitely got a mixed bag. Washington County, being as it is, held out no hope for Democrats - this year or any other. But from Hancock County west it was a different story. Elsie Flemings, a young Democrat from MDI, ran unopposed in what was decidely a Republican year. Louis Luchini of Ellsworth won what under Langley had been a Republican seat, beating longtime Republican D.A. Michael Povich, whose late Democrat brother Eddie represented Ellsworth in Augusta for many years. With new candidates, Democrats also retained districts 36 (Deer Isle/Vinalhaven) and 37 (Blue Hill).
In Republican wins, Richard Malaby, replaying the matchup two years ago, this time defeated Democrat Rob Eaton in eastern Hancock Co., and incumbent Kim Rosen (Richard's wife) held off Marc LeBlanc in Bucksport & Orrington. James Gillway ousted Democrat Veronica Magnan of Stockton Springs, Peter Rioux kept Thibodeau's old seat for the GOP, and Republican Ryan Harmon captured the seat formerly held by John Piotti, who lost to Thibodeau in the Senate race.
But Democrats won two other House seats in Waldo County, three of four mainland House seats in Knox County, and even one of five in reliably Republican Lincoln County (representing Boothbay, of all places). So not a tide of anti-Democrat orthodoxy in the midcoast, either.
Still, the overall make-up of the Legislature is decidedly different, which is a blow to the Democrats. But until the economy improves, no political party is going to be able to convince voters they've accomplished something that's worth keeping them in office for.

State House photo courtesy of: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-photo/mefox13/1/1272572159/1_maine-state-house.jpg/tpod.html 

Fading Light

Cook's Lane and Leonard Lake/Union River off Shore Road in Ellsworth,
Nov 26, 2010.

Salmon science

I found this article while browsing around online this morning, and was a little surprised to see that this controversial practice is happening in Passamaquoddy Bay, which is split between the U.S. and Canada. I'm curious about what Maine's lobster industry might think of the use of pesticides, which many fishermen think is responsible for the 1990s die-off of lobster in Long Island Sound. That pesticide was used on land to combat mosquitos, and I honestly have no idea if it is similar to Alphamax or not. But I know some island communities have prohibited large, mosquito-oriented pesticide campaigns within their borders because of concerns of how it might affect local lobster populations.
Incidentally, the Nell Halse referred to in the CBC article (and pictured above) also is vice president of communications for Cooke Aquaculture. The Blacks Harbour, N.B.-based company is the parent company of seven firms in Maine that operate two dozen salmon aquaculture sites in Washington and Hancock counties. I do not know if any use the same pesticide on this side of the border, or if Alphamax is even legal in the U.S., but I am sure some lobstermen would be concerned if they did.

Hazy heron

A heron lurks in the morning mist Tuesday, Oct. 19 on Toddy Pond in Orland as the skies brighten a few minutes before sunrise.

MDI's super-wealthy

The Forbes magazine annual list of 400 wealthiest Americans has been out for a few weeks now, and as expected the list includes five billionaires who own property on Mount Desert Island. The five were on the magazine's list last year, too.
The top such person is Edward Johnson of Fidelity Investments. Johnson, 80, owns a summer retreat near Somesville and, with an estimated net worth of $7.1 billion, is ranked 33rd. He lives in Boston and was tied for 30th in 2009.
Next highest on MDI is Charles Butt, 72, a San Antonio resident who owns a seasonal waterfront home on Northeast Harbor. Butt, whose family made its fortune with Texas-based HEB supermarkets, has an estimated net worth of $5.3 billion, which ranks him in 50th place - up from 65th in 2009. Butt is known around here for owning a large apple tree that was transported very slowly by flatbed truck from Ellsworth to MDI in June 2003, causing a massive traffic jam that made many people hours late to work. He later bought a newspaper ad to apologize for the snafu.
Robert Bass is tied for 74th on the list with four other billionaires, three of them with the last name of Ziff. Bass, who with his brothers inherited a family fortune made in oil, has an estimated worth of $4 billion and owns a house in Seal Harbor. Bass is 62, spends the winter in Forth Worth, Texas, and was ranked 65th in 2009.
The next MDI property owner on the list is Mitchell Rales, who is building a huge waterfront compound in Northeast Harbor where the home of deceased Washington socialite Susan Mary Alsop used to be. He bought the Peabody Drive property for $5.5 million in 2005 and - according to his local building permit - is spending $12.5 million on his new mansion, though some suggest it may be more than that.
Rales, 54, and his brother Stephen (ranked 159th) both live in Washington D.C. and co-own and control Danaher Corp., a manufacturing conglomerate you've probably never heard of. Mitchell Rales's estimated worth is $2.6 billion, which ranks him 135th. He was tied for 123rd on the 2009 list.
The last MDI billionaire on the list is the oldest in age and in family presence on the island. David Rockefeller Sr., 95, is ranked 153rd with an estimated fortune of $2.4 billion. The Rockefellers have owned land on MDI for a century or more. A resident of New York City, Rockefeller owns a waterfront home in Seal Harbor and was in a seven-way tie for 147th richest American in 2009.
There are many other extremely wealthy people who summer on MDI, but the cut-off point for making the Forbes list this year appears to be $1 billion. Maybe more MDI landowners will appear on the list one day. One or more already here could have their fortunes soar yet more, or like Rales someone already on the list might decide this is where they want to purchase a slice of the Maine coast. If they want to spend several million dollars to build gigantic house, too, local contractors won't mind.
Incidentally, Forbes (which seems to enjoy compiling lists of rankings) recently said Maine was the worse state in the nation for doing business, according to the BDN. Five billionaires buying food and fuel- and sometimes huge amount of building materials - on MDI isn't enough to save the state's economy, apparently.

Happy Trails

So the entire 85-mile length of the Down East Sunrise Trail is now open for use. The grand opening last week in Hancock drew cyclists, runners, and ATV users (see above) so they could speed away to check out the scenery. Other sections of the trail farther east in Washington County opened for public use last year.
Dale Henderson is still pursuing his lawsuits against the state (according to this BDN story), claiming they do not have legal access to the rail corridor, but he seems to be playing along, having removed the barricades he had set up where the corridor divides his land in Hancock and Steuben.
Many rail enthusiasts continue to object to the conversion of the old rail line into a trail, but state officials have defended the move saying that the old ties and rail would have to come up anyway (and then replaced) for rail service to resume on the track. Certainly, the corridor will get more use as a trail than it will anytime soon and a railway. The demand for passenger or freight rail service through Hancock and Washington counties just isn't there. Maybe it will be again one day, but state officials will have to cross that trestle when they come to it (sorry, couldn't resist).
Certainly, there is an economic opportunity here. As the BDN points out, some businesses along the corridor are clearing paths to the trail to attract customers off the trail, and some people are planning new businesses entirely, such as snowmobile lodges.
I, for one, have been eyeballing the corridor route in the Gazetteer, trying to figure out which sections will be the most scenic. I'm guessing that the Schoodic Bog, east of Franklin between routes 182 and 183, Cherryfield to Columbia Falls, and the Whitneyville-through-East Machias portions are the nicest, but if I have time to scout out the whole route I will try. It will be interesting to see how well those using self-propelled means (joggers, skiers, bikers) can co-exist with motorized trail users (snowsleds and ATVs). I plan to use my bike and skis in the coming months to find out.

Moonrise over Crowley Island, Addison, August 21, 2010.

Too Earl-y To Tell

For the past couple of days, government officials in North Carolina and Massachusetts - and to a lesser extent Maine - have been gearing up for the possible impact of Hurricane Earl.
As you can see from the map, the hurricane is expected to pass over Nova Scotia, with tropical storm winds in far eastern Maine, mainly Washington County.
Hurricanes rarely reach Maine intact. Those that do blow up the East Coast generally pass far out to sea or break down over land further southwest and are degraded to less powerful storms by the time their effects are felt Downeast.
Earl is expected to remain a hurricane as it passes Cape Cod, with winds between 74 and 95 miles an hour, but probably won't pose a truly catastrophic threat to Maine. Hurricane Bob in brought some havoc to the southern part of the state in 1991, where it blew over as a tropical storm, but nothing like what many southern states have seen and the hands of stronger hurricanes.
But it could get slightly exciting Downeast. Forecasters say there won't be much of a storm surge, and the leading edge of the storm is not expected to coincide with high tide as it reaches Maine's shores. But if there are sustained wind speeds of 40 mph or more, which would be consistent with a tropical storm, people surely will notice.
The lack of a significant storm surge would benefit people in Eastport, which at the far eastern edge of Maine is relatively close to the storm's projected path and is connected to Perry only by a winding causeway that runs between Cobscook and Passamaquoddy bays. A rise in water levels would have the potential to cut Eastport off from the mainland.
The lack of an alternate land route out of town was brought up a few years ago in conjunction with a proposal from Quoddy Bay LNG to build an LNG terminal on Passamaquoddy tribal land in Sipayik, directly next to Route 190. Any incident with the terminal could have shut down the road, which prompted the developer to suggest rebuilding a bridge just west of 190, between the local village of Quoddy and Old Eastport Road in Perry.
The Quoddy Bay proposal seems to be dead at this point, however, with the company having running out of investor funds and the energy industry now being focused on tapping into new types of oil and gas deposits in North America rather than importing it from overseas. A change in tribal leadership and questions about federal review of the project also don't help. But the Quoddy Bay proposal, and now Earl, have brought up a good point: should there be another road route out of Eastport? I am sure there are a lot of different, complicated answers to the question.

Oceanfront Auction

Few things expose a private life as much as a public auction.
If it involves a house and its contents, anyone who shows for the event up is allowed to see the items, inspect the home and walk the premises. In almost any other type of situation, unless you had an invitation from the owner, such behavior would be called trespassing.
You can learn a lot about the former owner, maybe more than they would want you to know, by getting an up-close look at their stuff. Maybe, by chatting with others who attend, you can even find out why their stuff is being offered to the highest bidder.
Auctions can be held to sell off estates of the deceased, seized property (by the government) or foreclosed property (by a bank), so sometimes there is a story involving death, criminal behavior or financial ruin to go along with the bidding. Which can make for a fairly interesting afternoon, especially if someone who is owed money by the former owner happens to attend.
This past Saturday, an auction was held for a waterfront home and property in Jonesport. The 3.2-acre parcel, formerly owned by Robert and Marshia Brown, is next to Sandy River Beach and overlooks Roque Island. Leading up to the weekend, advertisements for the auction were printed in Down East and Maine magazines.
According to the July 2010 online newsletter of the local Port and Starboard Yacht Club, there is no scandal or tragedy behind the auction of the Browns' property. They simply are selling off most of their worldly items so they can move onto a 36-foot sailboat that Bob Brown has refurbished and then live on it while they sail around the eastern seaboard. So much for controversy.
They are divesting themselves of quite a bit. The auctioneer's list of items offered for bids, posted online by D.A. Folsom Auction Service, Inc., is extensive. There's a main house, a garage with studio, and a boat house, not to mention a backhoe, a GMC truck, a forklift, boats, machine shop equipment, assorted tools and a 1972 Mercedes Benz. Housewares, numerous paintings (several by Marshia Brown), a mink coat, household electronics, furniture, clothing - the list goes on. More than 400 items in all.
How much it all sold for I don't know. I haven't seen any reports about the outcome. Not all auctions result in acceptable bids but, given the economy, I bet someone got a nice piece of shorefront property - and a whole lot of other stuff- for a relatively decent price.

Feeling the Heat

A photo from the Mount Desert Islander of a July 29, 2008 fire in Northeast Harbor. This post is about the financial and legal problems of some of the town's seasonal residents, not the fire.

Summer is in full throttle in Northeast Harbor. The sidewalks are crowded, the boutiques are buzzing and there is barely a parking space to be found - but that doesn't mean that the legal troubles for a few members of the town's seasonal monied elite have been put on hold.

Frederic Bourke, co-founder of the Dooney & Bourke handbag company and owner of a cottage near Bracy Cove, is contesting his conviction last year of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Bourke, 64, allegedly turned a blind eye in the late 1990s when, in a failed $350 million oil deal, a Czech business partner tried to bribe Azerbaijani officials into rigging an auction of the former Soviet republic's state-owned oil company. He was ordered to pay a $1 million fine and to serve a year and a day in federal prison, but has yet to do time or pay the fine while pursuing the appeal.
Another well-heeled seasonal resident also was featured in the trial last summer. According to this Bloomberg article, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell - who owns a home in Seal Harbor - is a friend of Bourke's who invested $200,000 in the failed deal. Mitchell testified that he, like Bourke, was unaware of any bribes. Bourke did not testify.
Bourke's appellate attorneys are arguing in New York that the federal judge's instructions to the jury about the legal concept of conscious avoidance prejudiced Bourke's defense, according to this Main Justice article. On July 31, prosecutors filed an 80-page response with the 2nd Circuit federal appeals court, arguing that the trial judge's instructions to the jury were entirely proper, the article states.

Closer to home, alleged antique and clothing thief Dianna Brochendorff (at left) is being pursued for small financial claims. Brochendorff, 63, is facing a criminal larceny charge in Connecticut, where a former friend claims the Northeast Harbor consignment shop owner made off with nearly $200,000 worth of items Brochendorff had promised to keep in storage for her (which Brochendorff denies). In Maine, there is more than one person who claims they have been stiffed by Brochendorff with unpaid bills.
Brochendorff was in Ellsworth District Court on Monday, Aug. 2, to answer claims that she owes Bar Harbor Bank & Trust $23,415. The bank has been trying to get Brochendorff to repay the money for four years. At the end of Monday's financial closure hearing, she was given two weeks to come up with $20,000. If she does, that will settle the case. She also has been pursued by MCM Electric, which claimed she owed them $1,170 for two days of work they did last September. According to a hand written note in that court file, she paid the contractor $600 in May. That case was dismissed on Monday.
Since Brochendorff's financial woes became public, she has moved her consignment shop from Somesville to Main Street in Northeast Harbor and renamed it "Maine Coast Exchange," according to the Bangor Daily News.

On July 29, a state supreme court judge in New York refused to throw out the guilty verdict for Anthony Marshall (at right), who was convicted in October 2009 of stealing millions from his mother, the late philanthropist and New York society doyenne Brooke Astor. According to this New York Daily News article, Marshall, 86, argued the verdict should be dismissed because a juror was pressured by other jurors into finding him guilty.
Marshall, who now owns the Northeast Harbor estate where Astor summered for decades, remains free on $500,000 while considering other appeals. His wife, former local resident Charlene Marshall, has not been charged in the case but has been savaged by the New York media (here's just one example of many).

There doesn't seem to be much news lately about Donald Anthony Walker Young (at left), the former Tennis Club Road homeowner who is accused of stealing $25 million from investors in his Pennsylvania investment firm. As we pointed out in April, Philadelphia Business Journal reported that Young was indicted on April Fool's Day (believe it or not) with running a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme. Among Young's victims are other local wealthy seasonal residents, according to the Bangor Daily News.
The federal Securities and Exchange Commission seems to have sold Young's local home, which it seized and then put up for sale last year. According to the local assessor's online database, the house sold on Jan. 21 for $1.25 million, over half a million dollars more than what Young paid for it in 2001. Young, while awaiting his fate, now resides in Palm Beach, Fla., in a home not far from where Bernie Madoff used to live.

Tree Claw

Winter Harbor. Reminders of the importance of lobstering to the economy and culture of Maine, especially Downeast, seem to sprout up everywhere...

View of Dennys Bay from Pembroke, Sunday evening, July 25, 2010.

Obamas' Visit

The Obamas have come and gone from MDI, much to the relief of many local folks. Not that the Obamas weren't welcome - a lot of people genuinely seemed excited about their being here for two days - but summer is brief and residents here are glad to get back to their seasonal routine.
Some people were disappointed they didn't see more of the First Family. Hundreds of people who lined Route 3 through Salisbury Cove and Hulls Cove, hoping to see the motorcade as it made its way to the heavily guarded Regency hotel from the Trenton airport, were irritated when it took another route and evaded them completely. Two days later, many people went to Trenton to see them leave, knowing there was no other way to get off the island (not by presidential motorcade, anyway).
But some who wanted to see the president and his family during their visit lucked out. Many saw them from afar when the Obamas happened to appear nearby, and some of them even had close encounters by correctly guessing where they might be next.
Staff at Stewman's Downtown, the Bar Harbor Club, Havana, The Claremont Hotel and Mount Desert Island Ice Cream didn't have to guess. They saw the Obamas up close and personal when the First Family stopped in for meals or for other reasons - tennis at the club and cones at MDI Ice Cream.
Suddenly finding yourself with the president as your customer certainly would be a riveting/terrifying experience for the average store clerk or shop owner (even though the businesses did get a few minutes notice from the Secret Service), but according to this Portland Press Herald story, one waiter at Stewman's got the most important customers he'll ever have with only six days of experience of waiting tables. He might as well switch careers now, if you ask me, because his career as a waiter is going to be all downhill from here.
Unfortunately, some people see everything through the lens of partisan politics, and part of the Obamas' MDI visit got snared in this trap. I won't comment on what some of these hyper-partisan bloggers said, other than to say that local folks responded with a lot of wisecracks and head-scratching. The BDN had a story about what Linda Parker (the ice cream shop owner) thought about all the fuss.
The Obamas might be gone, but a lot of local hotel, eatery and shop owners are hoping their visit will draw business to MDI for a long time.

The POTUS Cometh

A book cover depicting the face of President Obama sits in the window of Sherman's Bookstore in downtown Bar Harbor on Wednesday evening.

At the end of the workday last Friday, word got out that President Obama and his family - First Lady Michelle, daughters Sasha and Malia - were coming to Mount Desert Island for a little R&R. At first it was thought they were coming this past weekend (July 9, 10 & 11), but according to U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (whose district does not include MDI) the Obamas will be vacationing on MDI this coming weekend, July 16, 17, & 18).
MDI has long been known as a place where the rich & powerful like to escape in the summer, if only for a few days, but the presence of a sitting President of the United States on MDI hasn't happened in recent memory. According to Associated Press, three have visited the island, the most recent being William Howard Taft almost exactly 100 years ago. In 2008, Laura Bush, who was then First Lady, made a brief visit to MDI, including an informal meet and greet with Acadia National Park personnel, but "W" was not in tow.
The Obamas aren't planning to make any public appearances, according to reports, and there was heated speculation locally about where they might stay until word got out early this week that they'll stay at the Bar Harbor Regency hotel, a 278-room waterfront hotel owned by Ocean Properties Ltd., a private firm that owns more than 100 hotel and resort properties in North America.
The use of a hotel seems odd, given the number of huge, private and well-appointed private estates on the island. I've long heard rumors that David Letterman sometimes stays at the Balance Rock Inn in Bar Harbor, sequestering himself in a third floor, ocean-view room , venturing out only when leaving to return home.
Many local estates include those owned by people in high political positions. The late former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, whose family traces its seasonal roots on MDI back more than 100 years, owned a home overlooking Seal Harbor. Bush's former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley visits a home near Long Pond, and now-deceased former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger lived on Route 198 in Somesville. And don't forget former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, who owns a home in Seal Harbor.
Aside from those in political power, there are many with money and other types of influence, such as television producer Dick Wolf, Martha Stewart, and Susan Sarandon. The usual coterie of super-wealthy magnates who summer on MDI - outside the Rockefellers - nowadays also includes billionaires Edward "Ned" Johnson, Robert Bass, Charles Butt and Mitchell Rales, among others.
But up until the Regency revelation, many speculated that the Obamas might stay with Mitchell, whose shares the Obamas' political party affiliation and serves as s Obama's special envoy for peace in the Middle East. Aside from his political connections, according to Judy Harrison of the Bangor Daily News, Mitchell has two children of his own who are the same ages as the Obama girls, who are 9 and 12. Many thought this was a sure sign the Obamas would stay with the Mitchell family while in town.
But the list of politically connected people on the island also includes Ocean Properties' owner Tom Walsh, which may help explain why the Obamas are staying at his hotel. Sen. Mitchell partnered with Ocean Properties in the company's failed bid to redevelop the Maine State Pier in Portland. Walsh, a Bangor native, also is friends with Gov. Baldacci and partnered with the governor's brother Bob in the same unsuccessful Portland project.
So with the First Family's lodgings having been ferreted out, what they might do remains a secret that the White House and Secret Service aren't telling. A trip into Acadia National Park seems a sure bet. Aside from that, the only other likely concrete outcome of the visit is congested roads around Bar Harbor caused by crowds of curious Obama-seekers and the traffic restrictions that will be imposed around the hotel.
The excitement among local residents about the Obamas pending visit is palpable. Whether such enthusiasm might be enough to win out over the inevitable traffic complaints, we'll just have to wait to find out.

Schoodic lobster boat fatality

When cameras such as these suddenly show up in small town Maine, it often doesn't mean something good. That's been the case in Winter Harbor the past two days, as reporters have showed up to find out more about a fatal boat collision that happened Wednesday afternoon off Schoodic Point. Phil Torrey, captain of Master Simon, survived the collision but Frank Jordan, captain of Linda Diane, did not. Torrey, pictured above, told the media that he couldn't explain why, on a clear day, he didn't see the other boat and why Jordan apparently didn't see him. The BDN and Fenceviewer both have stories about it.
As anyone who has seen a fishermen's memorial (many of which can be found overlooking fishing harbors along the coast) should realize, fishing is a risky business. People can get into routines, focusing on their catch, and lose sight of the potential hazards they may face. Safety groups have raised concerns about people using cell phones or texting while they drive cars, but on the water fishermen often multi-task while they are under way. Whether they should or not is a worthwhile question to ask but, as Torrey said, the way he was operating his boat was "the same thing I've done for 20 years."
Jordan's passing is not a good thing but I am sure many fishermen and others were relieved to learn that the collision was an accident, and not a fishing confrontation gone wrong. Fishing confrontations - such as the shooting out on Matinicus last summer or what was depicted fictionally in the movie "Islander"(which was filmed on Vinalhaven) - happen up and down the coast and have happened in Winter Harbor, but many people believe the media often overplays such incidents and unfairly characterize fishermen as lawless goons.
This incident at least won't reinforce that stereotype. The fatal accident will be tough enough on the Schoodic Peninsula fishing community as it is, without its members having to fight that generalization, too.

MSC ya later?

The New York Times published an interesting article Wednesday by reporter David Jolly about controversy over the Marine Stewardship Council's decision to certify Norwegian firm Aker BioMarine's antarctic krill fishery as environmentally sustainable.
Apparently, some in the environmental science community are criticizing the certification, saying that MSC really doesn't have enough data to make that call. Questions about antarctic krill stocks, which are a major food source for many larger marine species, have led Whole Foods to drop krill oil supplements, regardless of whether they are certified as sustainably harvested by MSC, according to the article.
So what might this mean for Maine's lobster fishery, which is considering the same certification? Some industry officials have said that getting the fishery MSC certified should be a cinch, seeing as how Maine fishermen have long embraced practices such as throwing large lobsters and egg-bearing females back into the water. Moreover, such certification is crucial if the industry wants to expand its market to large national and international retailers such as Wal-Mart, which has said that by next year it plans to sell only MSC certified seafood, supporters say.
Opponents to the idea have said that Maine lobstermen shouldn't rely on a third party that later could decide to revoke such certification over issues such as whether fishing gear is seen as a threat to endangered whales. But whether the lobster industry should certify itself, or pay someone else to say it is sustainable, is part of the controversy over MSC certification that Jolly writes about.
Expanding the market for Maine lobster, to Wal-Mart or China (the possibility of which both the BDN and Associated Press recently reported on) certainly may help the industry, which has been suffering from a decline in demand since the economy tanked in 2008. And getting more people to recognize that Maine lobstermen have been good stewards of their fishery can't hurt. But shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire and then maintain the certification - a cost that has been borne so far by private supporters of the idea - arguably may not be seen as the best investment if MSC certification is going to get a mixed reaction in a fickle and currently frugal marketplace.

Sunset at the bar in Bar Harbor, Saturday May 15, 2010.

Cruise Ships Return

And so it begins. There are 118 cruise ship visits scheduled for Bar Harbor between last Saturday (May 1) and the end of October this year. The Costa Atlantica - pictured above Saturday anchored off Bar Harbor's Grant Park in Frenchman Bay - was the first ship to visit and its expected to be the last one, too, on Oct. 29.
In all, 24 different ships, some of them multiple times and some of them just once, are expected to make stops in Bar Harbor during the 2010 tourist season. The ships range from less than 200 feet long to more than 1,000 feet long, and can carry as few as 49 passengers or more than 3,000. In addition, some of the larger ships carry more than 1,000 crew members. About 175,000 cruise ship passengers are expected in Bar Harbor this year. That's a lot for a town that has a year-round population of only 5,000 people - even if Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park get millions of visitors every summer.
The official list of scheduled cruise ship visits can be seen here.
Not surprisingly, there are mixed feelings about the ships. Some residents don't like them, saying they mar the natural view, their passengers and resulting bus tours congest the town, the ships run over lobster gear in the bay, etc.
Other people love them, saying that the ships bring tourists to town without increasing vehicular traffic or contributing to the town's seasonal parking woes. The ship's passengers also help bring business to local stores, and at times of the year (early spring, late fall) when the stores otherwise might not be able to stay open. And some people just like big boats.
CruiseMaine USA is a marketing group that has done much to promote the cruise ship business in Maine. They point out that, according to a Cruise Lines International Association study, the cruise ship industry contributed $29 million in direct spending and funded more than 500 jobs in Maine in 2008.
Which is why the number of cruise ship visits has been steadily increasing for the past 20 years. If all 118 scheduled visits do indeed occur (some visits usually get canceled due to bad weather) it would exceed Bar Harbor's previous single-year record by about 20 visits. By comparison, Portland, the largest city in Maine, is expected to get about 70 cruise ship visits and 75,000 total cruise ship passengers this year.
The number of such visits cannot increase forever, no matter how many ships might want to come. Bar Harbor wants to keep its small-town charm and has not expressed any interest in further developing its waterfront so it can accommodate more ships. But it has made an effort to get a decent amount of feedback from local residents and business owners, so if there seems to be a feeling that Bar Harbor has reached its limit, undoubtedly town officials will hear about it. Tune in later this year to find out what the reviews for the 2010 cruise ship season are.

Of Mice and Politicians

"Eeeek!"
I can't help but think that is a mild version of what Jackson Lab officials must be thinking at finding their biomedical research institution kicked around as a political football in Maine's gubernatorial campaign. (The photo is of one of the lab's research mice).
No one at the lab has said anything publicly about it, but there's simply no way they can be enthusiastic about the attention they've been getting lately in the campaign, thanks mainly to Republican candidate Les Otten. He was the first candidate to say that the lab's interest in expanding to Florida represents a failure by Maine's state government, but now others are chiming in.
Democrat Rosa Scarcelli (in this PPH op-ed) and Republican Paul LePage are echoing Otten's sentiments, saying that Maine needs to do more to try to get Jackson Lab to expand here instead. But Democrat John Richardson (who now has dropped out of the race for other reasons) and Republican Peter Mills have said that comparing Maine to Florida, in terms of the opportunities available to Jackson Lab in each state, is like comparing apples and oranges (according to this MPBN story).
Mills and Richardson have said Maine simply cannot match what Florida has to offer, in terms of state funding and potential research partners (the lab itself says the same thing in this press release). Republican candidate Matt Jacobson, in this blog post, also says that dangling $130 million to recruit 200 jobs would not be a good economic development strategy for Maine.
The issue of the lab's possible out-of-state expansion has become a hot one politically, and undoubtedly it is making lab officials uncomfortable. During a recent GOP debate in Bangor, Mills publicly rebuked Otten for characterizing the possible expansion as "a loss of 7,000 jobs" in Maine (that's the number of jobs projected to be created eventually in Florida by Jackson Lab and other possible partners). Mills called Otten's statement a "falsehood," and Otten replied by saying he was "appalled" by Mills' criticism (see the BDN story).
[As an aside: Mills' criticism of Otten's comments is not surprising. The Cornville Republican is friends with Jill Goldthwait, an independent who used to be Maine Senate president. Since leaving public office, Goldthwait has served as the lab's chief government relations officer - and she has endorsed Mills in the Republican primary.]
Jackson Lab certainly isn't used to seeing its name dragged into the mudpit of state politics. It long has received broad bipartisan support in Maine - from every governor in recent memory, from Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and from U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, a Democrat. Former Congressman Tom Allen, another Democrat, also took an interest in supporting the lab, even though it wasn’t in his district.
The lab's access to public funding, however, is another matter. If the lab's expansion becomes politicized, how much more money might it get from state bonds or federal allocations?
Scarcelli touches upon this very question in her op-ed piece (even though in the piece she says Maine's recent public investment in the lab has been "worthwhile"). Maine taxpayers, she writes, have given the lab more than $40 million over the past decade.
"But is it too much to expect that in return for this money, Maine should get first refusal on any new facility the company plans to create?" Scarcelli asks.
According to Jackson Lab’s web site, the lab’s operating revenue for the 2009 fiscal year includes more than $54 million in public support, which is nearly one-third of its operating budget. That public support includes both bonds approved directly by Maine voters and funding the lab has received from the federal National Institutes of Health.
What will happen with future public funding votes if Maine is viewed as getting the short end of the stick somehow in the Florida deal? How generous will Maine voters be with future bond issues if most of the lab's growth seems to be headed to Florida instead of Maine? How much can members of Maine’s congressional delegation advocate for continued federal funding for the lab if the lab is believed to be shipping jobs out of state? The perception being cast by the political debate could have adverse consequences on the lab's ability to raise money in Maine and with the help of Maine politicians in Washington.
In an April 26 press release, Jackson Lab CEO Rick Woychik seems to address this concern. Without making any reference to the gubernatorial campaign, he writes: "Job growth over the last decade has been accelerated by Maine's investments in our campus infrastructure, and we hope that our partnership with the state will continue."
Again, lab officials have not made any public reference to the gubernatorial campaign, so how they really feel about the lab becoming a campaign issue is anybody's guess. But whether the attention is fair or not, the lab certainly has ample reason to hope that the political scrutiny in Maine of its plans in Florida goes away as quickly as possible.

Impostor pastor?

Washington County residents were shocked this week to learn that a pastor and his wife who had been living in Jonesport for several months were arrested on kidnapping charges. The Washington County Sheriff's Office has said that Colin Haag, Jr., and Amanda Haag were hiding her two biological daughters, ages 7 and 12, from their biological father.
The tale, as told Wednesday by the Bangor Daily News, is fairly sordid. The couple has been accused of:

• Moving around the country to keep the girls away from their father, who lives in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
• Bringing the pastor's father, Colin Haag, Sr., with them on their itinerant travels, having him use an alias, and keeping him captive in the basement wherever they lived.
• Stealing items from churches in western Washington County
• Telling parishioners that Colin Haag, Jr., is an ordained minister, though he is not.
  
• Never getting divorced from other spouses they lived with previously.
  

The alleged web of misrepresentations and deceit came unraveled, according to the paper, when Haag Sr. went to police last weekend and told them the couple had left the girls at the Eagle's Lodge Motel in Ellsworth. Police found the girls there alone, and then arrested Haag Jr. and his wife. The girls since have been reunited with their biological father, police said.
According to the sheriff, the Haags were preparing to pack up for another distant destination when they were arrested. There also have been suggestions that Haag Jr. may have misrepresented his military background, according to the BDN.
But some of those allegations already are in dispute. Francis Cassidy, who represents Amanda Haag, told the paper Thursday that his client was not hiding her daughters from their father, whose name (according to Associated Press) is Randall Hodges. Cassidy acknowledged, however, that even if she wasn't trying to conceal the girls' location, Amanda Haag might not have had permission to move her daughters around the country. He said his client appears to still be legally married to the girls' father, though she's also married to Haag Jr.
Cassidy said Haag Jr. is a minister, though he did not specifically say that the claim that Haag never was ordained is not true. He did say it is not true the Haags were preparing to hit the road again. They simply were getting ready to move into another rental in Jonesport, he said.

So, is it a case of actual law-breaking, of perhaps more-than-inappropriate but not-quite-illegal behavior, or just an unfortunate series of misunderstandings and misassumptions? Whatever the final, official version turns out to be, the allegations are eye-popping, especially for a rural and fairly conservative area where scandals of this magnitude are unheard of.

Incidentally, this is the second tragic tale in the area in the past week. On April 14, the body of one of two adult brothers was found floating off Bois Bubert Island in Milbridge, a few days after the two had gone out to the island for a weekend trip, according to an article in Fenceviewer. The body of the second brother, who also is believed to have drowned, has not been found.

The Final Can

The last can of sardines - a tin of Beech Cliff's Louisiana hot sauce flavor - rolled off the conveyor belt Thursday in Gouldsboro at the last remaining sardine cannery in the U.S. By the end of today, when employees finish boxing up the tins they packed, sealed and cooked on Thursday, there will be no more sardine canneries in the country.
The decline of the sardine business occurred long before today, but the symbolism of the Stinson Seafood cannery closing its doors is huge - and not just because of the already-bad state of the economy in eastern Maine, or the area's relative lack of non-natural resource based jobs. The social role sardine canneries used to play in Maine, by virtually employing entire towns, was tremendous. Canneries have been in Maine since the late 1800's, and thousands of them used to dot the shoreline on both the east and west coasts of the country. Canned sardines were a staple for most Americans in the first half of the 20th century, but now they've almost been discarded entirely by the consuming public.
What other kind of possible vanishing act, 100 years from now, would be comparable to the decline of sardines? The disappearance of pizza home delivery? Drive-through takeout windows? Hamburgers? In Maine, would the disappearance of lobster fishing compare? It's hard to fathom. These changes take place over decades, and by the time a dying industry takes its final breath it's usually largely forgotten.
This doesn't mean canned sardines are completely a thing of the past, but it seems highly doubtful they will ever be as remotely popular as they once were. There will continue to be imports, and perhaps someday some small-scale entrepreneur will restore production somewhere in the U.S. But I don't see any domestic producer cranking out 30 million cans a year, as the Stinson's plant did in 2009.
I did not eat sardines growing up, but I have bought several tins of Beech Cliff sardines since the cannery's closure was announced in February. In my opinion, they are an acquired taste. But I plan to keep trying to acquire it. It won't bring anything back, but it might help keep them from disappearing from American store shelves forever.

NOTES: In the above photo, Robert Hill of Gouldsboro poses beneath the Beech Cliff Sardines sign in the village of Prospect Harbor while Gerald Humphries of Gouldsboro (behind bush) takes his photograph on April 15, 2010. The Stinson Seafood cannery, where Beech Cliff sardines were being made, is on the other side of the hill. Both men worked at the plant and were taking the photos on their final day of work . . . As seagulls swarmed and cried while flying above the cannery, Humphries said "They're crying because they're not going to get any more food." . . . On the last day of canning, Bill Thayer, a Gouldsboro selectmen and local organic farmer, picked up a large tote worth of sardine parts from the plant to use as compost on his fields. The gulls helped themselves to a few morsels from the back of his pickup truck as he slowly drove away. . . On Thursday, the sign in front of the Prospect Harbor United Methodist Church said "God bless the Stinsons employees" . . . State officials say they have helped cannery owner Bumble Bee narrow down the list of potential plant buyers to one - an unnamed company that has signed what Gov. Baldacci's office calls a "non-binding letter of intent." If the sale goes through, the name of the firm is expected to be made public in mid-May, if it doesn't leak out before then. Whichever company it might be, it likely will process mostly lobster, but state officials have said it could employ more than 100 people. The sardine cannery operation employed 128 people at the end.

Bell View

A view of upper Penobscot Bay from Fort Point State Park in Stockton Springs on April 10, 2010.

Another Money Scandal

Well, make that three members of Northeast Harbor's wealthy summer community that is in trouble with the law over money. Some might suggest the economy may have hastened their woes, but I don't know that the economy can be blamed.

Dianna Brochendorff (at right), the latest to join the list, has a history of bouncing checks on and around Mount Desert Island, according to local police, though she hasn't faced any local charges. I've been told by one area business owner that they now have what they call "The Brochendorff Rule," which means that all the orders they receive are paid for in full before they ship out. This rule was implemented well before the economy went south. Now, she's accused of stealing nearly $200,000 worth of antiques and designer clothing from a former friend in Connecticut, where she's facing a charge of first degree larceny, according to this article in that state's Register Citizen newspaper. Local police say she has been living in a Main Street apartment in Northeast Harbor and is believed to have sold some of these items out of her consignment shop in Somesville on MDI. Nan Lincoln wrote in a Bar Harbor Times story that Brochendorff denies the allegations and is pressing on with her shop.

The predicament of Anthony Marshall (near left) does not seem economy-related as much as a question of whether he had a right to manage his mother's money the way he did. In a much publicized trial in NYC, he was found guilty of stealing millions from his late mother, former New York society doyenne Brooke Astor, but his lawyers are trying to have the conviction vacated. They are arguing that one juror caved in to pressure though she did not believe he was guilty, according to the New York Daily News. Astor summered in Northeast Harbor for decades, and Marshall is married to former local resident Charlene Marshall (far left). Tony Marshall is listed in the town's official assessor database as the owner of Astor's former local summer estate, Cove End.

Donald Anthony Walker Young's situation, like that of Bernie Madoff, probably is more economy related in that people stopped investing in his brokerage firm and began asking for money back as their investments began to tank. According to investigators, Young couldn't give back the money because he spent $25 million of it on himself and his family. News about the allegations became public a year ago (see the SEC's initial press release), and earlier this month he was indicted federal prosecutors, according to this article in the Philadelphia Business Journal. Much of Young's assets have been seized and sold by investigators, but the town of Mount Desert assessor's database still lists him as the owner of record for his former summer home on Tennis Club Road.

If Marshall and Young are having money problems (Young certainly is), the sale of their local homes surely would help them with their cash-flow issues. But who's going to buy a seasonal luxury home in this economy? Someone might - the Barretts were able to sell their oceanfron mansion in Bar Harbor in January (see this earlier post) - but I'm willing to bet that there are a lot more sellers than buyers right now, especially at that end of the market.

Flotsam? Or jetsam?

There is more than one fish in the sea.....

....or even all of the fish. All this was piled on top of a float in a parking lot near the municipal pier in Bar Harbor recently. I have no idea how it got there.

Blaine House Derby

The deadline for official party-affiliated gubernatorial candidates has passed, which has whittled down the field (!) of would-be governors to 21.
That’s five more than there are counties in the state, but not surprisingly not all counties are represented in the race, if you go by the towns or cities the candidates call home.
The state Ethics Commission has a list of all the candidates (and then some; it includes inactive candidates and some who did not get enough signatures to run in the party primaries), but the addresses listed there are for the campaigns, not necessarily the candidates themselves. The Maine Secretary of State's official list of all the primary candidates correctly lists the official municipality of residence for each one.
There are two Hancock County candidates still in the race, even after Green candidate Lynne Williams of Bar Harbor failed to get enough signatures to get on the June ballot. Bill Beardsley, former president of Husson College, is an Ellsworth resident and running as a Republican. J. Martin Vachon, an unenrolled candidate (though he calls himself a Republican on his Web site), lives in the nearby town of Mariaville. If either is elected, he would be the first Maine governor to call Hancock County home.
Washington County has never had one of its sons (or daughters, for that matter) elected to the highest office in the state, and isn't offering any candidates this time around. Neither is Aroostook County, which has been home to three Maine governors (according to the state's official historic list).
Besides Beardsley, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have anyone in the governor's race who lives east or north of Waterville. Among Republicans, Les Otten lives in Greenwood, Peter Mills in Cornville, and Bruce Poliquin in Georgetown. None of these towns could be accused of being among Maine's bigger or more centrally located municipalities, but none can be confused with eastern or northern Maine, either. No Democrat in the race lives further north or east than Vassalboro.
Outside of Hancock County, what other eastern or northern Maine candidates are there? Only three more independents: Alex Hammer and Augusta Edgerton, both of Bangor, and Christopher Cambron of Greenbush, which is on the Penobscot River north of Old Town.
None of this is to say that geography is more important than ideology when it comes to electing a governor. But it is interesting sometimes to see how well some candidates from one of "the two Maines" connect with residents from the other.

P.S. - When possible, I've tried to link candidate names with their corresponding campaign Web sites. Those with such sites whose names do not appear above are:

• Steve Abbott of Portland.
• Samme Bailey of Gorham.
• Eliot Cutler of Cape Elizabeth.
• Matthew Jacobson of Cumberland.
• Paul LePage of Waterville.
• Patrick McGowan of Hallowell.
• Elizabeth Mitchell of Vassalboro.
• John Richardson of Brunswick.
• Steve Rowe of Portland.
• Rosa Scarcelli of Portland.
  
• Kevin Scott of Andover.
• John Whitcomb of Sidney.

Dominika Greisgraber's sculpture "Transitory" overlooks the Narraguagus River in Milbridge in the fading light of Saturday, March 13. The piece was created during the 2007 Schoodic Sculpture Symposium at the Schoodic Education and Research Center in Acadia National Park.

Sardineland

Seeing this comic book, one might assume the Maine Sardine Council (which produced it in 1995) was concerned about the declining popularity of sardines and so wanted to try to get children to become interested in sardines, and in eating them, too.
Considering the state of Maine's sardine industry 15 years later, one might also assume the gambit didn't work.
The sardine cannery in Prospect Harbor, which is the last such cannery in the United States, is still slated for permanent closure next month. Bumble Bee, which has owned the facility since 2005, plans to move production of its Beech Cliff sardine products to New Brunswick. When it does, the only remnant of "Sardineland" left in Maine will be the boxes of this comic that the company likely will leave behind in Prospect Harbor. The comic tells a story about the history of herring fishing and sardine processing in Maine, so it won't be applicable to Bumble Bee's operations north of the border.
Surely the firm also will leave behind the 30-plus foot tall fisherman sign pictured on the comic cover, which now sits outside the Prospect Harbor cannery. The fisherman sign used to greet motorists in Kittery as they drove across the Piscataqua River from New Hampshire, but was moved north in the 1980s, according to local officials. I am sure there are many people in Maine who hope the sign doesn't move north with the Beech Cliff canning operation.
If the efforts now being made by many people to convert the cannery in a lobster-and-more processing facility pan out, it certainly would be appropriate to keep the iconic sign in Prospect Harbor, even if it continues to say "Beech Cliff Sardines."
But maybe the sign would be changed.
"Lobsterland," anyone?

Forum Revisited

The 2010 Maine Fishermen's Forum has come and gone, and to me it seemed more sedate than the 2009 version. The likeliest reason for this is the lack of impending federal rope rules hanging over the lobster industry. The rules were about to go into effect at last year's forum, which had a lot of Maine's fishermen feeling sour about their industry.
Of course, things aren't great this year. Fishermen are dealing with significant scallop closures imposed by the state because of declining scallop stocks. They are concerned about the sharp reduction in the federal herring quota, which has been cited by Bumble Bee Foods as the reason it plans next month to shut down the sardine cannery in Prospect Harbor, where 128 people are expected to lose their jobs. It's the last remaining sardine cannery in the United States.
Lobster fishermen also are concerned about the availability and price of fresh herring, which is their preferred choice of bait for their traps. Another concern for lobstermen is the average annual boat price (what they are paid for their catch), which last year fell below $3 for the first time since 1998. But that's a reflection of the market, not of any direct government regulation on the lobster industry.
The list goes on. New groundfish regulations are set to go into effect in May. The prospects of wind, wave and tidal energy being developed on Maine's coast means fishermen will have less room in which to ply their trade. And there is mounting evidence that the oceans are becoming more acidic, which isn't good for most living things.
But, as I said, the mood seemed lighter this year than last. Despite the low price of lobster, the recorded landings in Maine for the tasty crustacean were higher in 2009 than they ever have been, which is a good sign for the health of the resource and for the future, whenever the price picks up again. Shrimp landings are on pace to hit their highest level in the past 13 years (see DMR's historical data) and the price is higher this winter than it has been in about half a dozen years. These aren't necessarily reasons for celebration - given the likelihood that no Maine fisherman makes his or her living solely off of shrimp - but they help to undercut lingering pessimism about the economy.
Maybe the lighter mood was a reflection of 12 certain people who were at the forum on Friday morning. They all seem to think they have a chance of being Maine's next governor, so they have to have some sort of confidence about the future. Not surprisingly, they all pledged to help support Maine's commercial fishing industry but, because there were so many of them, they weren't able to work much else into the session's two-hour time limit.
Anyway, everyone at the forum has to be a little hopeful about the future, or they probably wouldn't be there.
NOTES: Which gubernatorial candidates were there? In alphabetical order: Steve Abbott, Eliot Cutler, Matt Jacobson, Paul LePage, Peter Mills, Libby Mitchell, Les Otten, John Richardson, Steve Rowe, Rosa Scarcelli and Lynne Williams - and that's only half the number running. Other political notables past and present at the forum included Linda Bean, Legislature members Leila Percy, Dennis Damon, Hannah Pingree, Ed Mazurek, and all four members of Maine's congressional delegation (Sen. Susan Collins, U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, Sen. Olympia Snowe). . . People in the know remain relatively upbeat that the Bumble Bee cannery in Prospect Harbor will be reborn and a lobster processor with other species capabilities. Who the new owner might be, and whether they plan to do it solo or with Bumble Bee's help, is being kept under wraps. Some suggest there could be news to report as early as next week. . . Supermarkets continue to focus on making sure their foods are sustainably cultivated, including seafood. A Hannaford executive told a group at the forum that the Maine-based grocery firm plans to have independent sources verify the sustainability of their seafood, but the word "verify" connotes something slightly different than "certify," which is the word people tend to use when they refer to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Wal-Mart has said it plans to sell only MSC-certified seafood, a label some in Maine's lobster industry want for themselves. But not everyone in Maine's lobster fishery likes the idea. . . Attendees say one of the most popular items at the forum's Friday night auction was a reusable Hannaford shopping bag with a photo of a lobsterman on one side (and a cow on the other). The lobsterman depicted is Steve Train of Long Island, who is on the forum's board of directors. Hannaford brought at least a few boxes of the bag, so many people got the chance to take one home without having to bid on it. But the auction raises money for scholarships, so whoever bid highest for the bag (see below) did so for a good cause.

2009 Lobster Numbers

DMR has released its preliminary numbers for 2009 lobster landings, and it turns out it was a record year - for reported landings at least.
Maine lobstermen brought ashore nearly 75.6 million pounds of lobster last year, or about 5.7 million pounds more than the nearly 69.9 million pounds harvested in Maine in 2008.
But it was not a record year for the value. Last years' gross revenue for harvesters is estimated to be $221,661,390, or about $23 million less than the value of the 2008 harvest, which is estimated to be $244, 851,977.
Divide the total value by the total volume, and you get a pretty telling figure. The average statewide boat price last year - what fishermen get for their catch - was $2.93 per pound, the lowest it has been since 1998. In 2008, it was $3.50, and for four years before that, it stayed above $4 per pound. (For more info, check out the official DMR stats here.)
Of course, expenses for fishermen have not returned to 1998 levels, and probably the best example of that is fuel. Most fishermen run their boats with diesel, the cost of which in 1998 ranged from $1.15 to $0.97 per gallon. Last year, diesel prices ranged from ranged from $2 to $2.80 per gallon, at least twice as much as they did 12 years ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Not all fishermen fish the same way, or rely on lobster as their sole source of income, so not all lobstermen caught more in 2009 than they did in 2008. For those that did, the higher landings volume helped take some of the bite out of the lower prices, but likely not a whole lot. For those that might have caught less lobster last year than in 2008, the lower price will sting that much more.
The previous high for recorded landings was in 2006, when 75.3 million pounds of lobster were brought ashore. But dealers weren't required to report landings to the state until 2004, so stats from prior to that year are not believed to represent the actual amount that fishermen brought ashore in Maine. DMR scientists think the year with the highest landings volume was in 2002, when they estimate that 88 million pound of lobster was caught in Maine.
As for total value, the best year for Maine fishermen was 2005. That year, they caught 68.7 million pounds of lobster worth nearly $318 million dollars. The resulting annual average statewide boat price of $4.63 per pound that year also stands as record.
For Downeast fishermen, 2009 represents a record year for them as a group in terms of landings. Hancock County surpassed Knox County as the highest producing lobster county in Maine, catching 22.4 million pounds. That's 3.1 million pounds more than what they caught in 2008. Knox County's 2009 total of nearly 20.3 million pounds is only 80,000 pounds more than it was the previous year, and it is not as high as it was in 2004, '05 or '06, according to DMR's historical county breakdown.
Washington County's volume for 2009 was 12.7 million pounds, or more than 1.7 million pounds more than the nearly 11 million pounds they caught in 2008. The volume totals for Hancock and Washington counties are the highest they have ever been. That's a good sign for the health of the resource. Now if the price can just pick back up, even just a little bit, it will be good sign for fishermen and the coastal communities they live in, too.
If you want to see the stats released by DMR earlier today, you can check them out for yourself here.

Fishermen's Forum

The Maine Fishermen's Forum is coming up at the Samoset Resort in Rockport next weekend. I'm planning to go, because it is the event in Maine to go to if you want to find out what is happening with commercial fisheries in the state. There's been plenty of changes (some might say 'upheaval') in Maine's fisheries this past year - lobster, herring and scallops are just a few examples (see earlier posts) - and all will be discussed at the forum. There also will be seminars on ocean energy, aquaculture, groundfish, shrimp, and many things lobster. Maine Lobstermen's Association has flown in a group of lobstermen from around the world to talk to Maine fishermen about what they do back home and to compare notes. You can check out the forum Web site if you want to see what's on the schedule.
Here's a press release from forum organizers, for those of you that are interested:

"The Maine Fishermen’s Forum, which takes place at the Samoset Resort in Rockport on March 4, 5 and 6 this year will have a vastly mixed offering in both seminar subjects and trade show exhibitors this year. From the introduction of Eric Schwaab, the newly appointed Assistant Administrator of NOAA Fisheries to a well rounded Gubernatorial Candidate Forum featuring a number of the political contenders, the Forum has multiple options. Seminar offerings will include a discussion of an Experimental Summer Shrimp Fishery, Atlantic Herring and River Herring seminars, Permit Buyout information, and Sectors and the Common Pool, among others.
On Thursday, March 4th, there is a comprehensive Clam Day seminar addressing issues from Red Tide, Pollution Abatement, Conditional Classifications of Shellfish and Shellfish Management. Also, there is a rare opportunity for Maine fishermen to meet lobstermen from around the world including New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and Puerto Rico.
The annual Scholarship Benefit Auction will take place on Friday, March 5; all proceeds will go to students from Maine families involved in the seafood industry. A huge assortment of items are to be auctioned from lobster traps, transducers, and paintings to Samoset gift certificates and DeLorme Gazetteers! Participation is free and highly encouraged!
The Maine Fishermen’s Forum is free to attend, as is the Trade Show and the Auction. For more information, please check the website at www.mainefishermensforum.org or contact Forum Coordinator Chilloa Young at (207) 442-7700."

If you can't make it, keep an eye on Downeast Denizen to get a glimpse of some of the forum's happenings. As always, it should be interesting.

The harbor of Corea in Gouldsboro on Feb. 23, 2010.

Where'd the Snow Go?

Scenes like this one have been few and far between this winter. I'm not a meteorologist, nor have I ever studied weather patterns, but I do know it is a weird winter when Washington D.C. gets socked with snow and Maine gets little to none. We have had some snow this winter but nothing of substance since Jan. 20, when eight inches fell at Bangor International Airport, according to stats from Vantage Point Network. Today being Feb. 21, that means we've gone a whole month without any snow, except for a few isolated dustings. In that same period of time, the nation's capital has gotten three feet of snow. Even Atlanta has gotten three inches of snow, all on Feb. 12.
Since New Year's Day, the snowshoes, x-c skis, and skates have sat in the garage unused. I don't miss not having to shovel the driveway, and the weather has been nice (no rain) but it wouldn't be so bad to have something to do outside other than just going for a quick walk before it gets dark. If there's not going to be decent snow cover on the ground, I'd rather it be 70 degrees out. But it's still February, and there's plenty time for Old Man Winter to return. As long as it's not in April, I'll be okay with it.

Canned

Dark times in Prospect Harbor? Well, it doesn't exactly create a bright outlook when the largest local employer announces they're eliminating 130 local jobs and leaving town. In this case, they are leaving the country, too. The Stinson's Seafood sardine cannery is the last of its kind in the United States. Bumble Bee announced last week that it plans to close the plant down for good on April 18.
Some employees at the cannery - which was first acquired by the Stinson family in 1927, more than 70 years before it was purchased by Canada's Connors Bros. and then by San Diego-based Bumble Bee - think it could be rehabilitated into a multi-species processing facility, incuding lobster. And some Maine lobster industry officials have said there should be more lobster processors in the state, because so much of what is caught here ends up being processed in Canada. Keeping the product in Maine for processing would boost the value of the lobster industry to the state's economy.
The lousy global economy, however, would seem to be a big hurdle to investing millions of dollars in a significant renovation at the plant. Especially when the global demand for lobster has fallen off (see previous post). But I've also heard it said in the past week that many businesses that are established during recessions succeed. I don't know if that is true or not.
In any event, the cannery's closure will mean a profound change for the people who work there, and a profound change for the Schoodic Peninsula if nothing can be found to take its place.
NOTES: The cannery has been there for at least 100 years, according to local residents. The big yellow fishermen sign (above photo) hasn't been there as long, but long enough to become a local icon. Dana Rice, Gouldsboro's first selectman, said the sign is a little over 30 feet tall and has been there since the 1980s sometime. Before that, it was in Kittery, where it had been erected by the Maine Sardine Council to greet people as they drove over the Piscataqua River from New Hampshire. There's a photo of the sign trimmed with Christmas lights and with a huge Santa Claus hat on the fisherman's head in the Gouldsboro town office just down the road from the cannery. In the selectmen's meeting room of the same building, the sign is depicted along with other locally prominent structures on a blanket hanging on the wall. Outside, town employees have posted a sympathetic message on the town office sign: "Our hearts are with you Stinson's employees."