Tag Archives: Robin Alden

Green Gold Rush: What happened to Maine’s once-robust sea urchin industry?

In the United States’ easternmost city, you’ll find Paul Cox and his crew working early on the water. In late winter, they’re after a spikey, green, and otherwise inedible sea creature (besides the gonads): the green sea urchin. Alone and in often murky water that requires a flashlight, he scoops hundreds of pounds of sea urchin into yellow nets. His crew, Paul and Jevin, sort the urchin above water. Cox said he started to dive for sea urchin in the ’90s, not long before the state cut off any new licenses to prospective fishermen. After the ’90s, no one could get a new sea urchin license. Now everyone who dives for urchin is in their 60s and 70s, with little hope on the horizon for new licenses seeing how the sea urchin has lost so much of its habitat because of climate change and invasive species.  Photos,Video, >click to read< 10:54

Fishermen and politicians pledge to battle for Maine’s lobster industry in Stonington

More than 200 lobstermen and supporters amassed in the state’s most valuable fishing port Sunday to say they will continue to fight any attempts to put new regulations on the industry. Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher, one of more than 20 speakers at the rally, said regulators need to get better data on whale migration patterns in the Gulf of Maine. Julie Eaton of Deer Isle, who fishes out of Stonington, said fishermen have repeatedly sacrificed for years, changing their gear to accommodate new regulations. >click to read< 08:31

‘90% reduction decimates this whole town’: Lobsterman’s rally held in Stonington – “If you’re not here fighting for this, there might not be another day,” said Richard Larrabee Jr. “A 90% reduction decimates this whole town, our children ‘s futures. If my son wants to go fishing, he doesn’t have that option.” Video, >click to read<

Maine institutions collaborating to build a greener lobster boat

Students at the Landing School have built nearly 400 boats since the school was founded in 1978. But nothing quite like the one the school is about to start on, a 21-foot, ocean-ready test model called a “proof of concept” for what the engineers call a “low-impact commercial trimaran” but which is known colloquially as a “green lobster boat.” “It’s like a skiff on top of a canoe, with two small canoes at the back of the skiff,” said Richard Schuhmann, the president of the Landing School. “It looks like a Batmobile in a way.” That’s the view from bow or stern. In the water and viewed from the side, it will look fairly similar to a classic lobster boat, a shape that conjures up Maine as neatly as a L.L. Bean hunting shoe and, the hope is, meets the desire expressed by many of the lobstermen consulted: that it be “pretty.” From design to materials, this boat is intended to have a smaller carbon footprint, burning less fuel than the busy lobster boats already working in Maine’s waters. click here to read the story, view 8 images 09:34

“Hero of the Seas” – Robin Alden wins more accolades

Robin Alden, Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries’ executive director, has been recognized as a “Hero of the Seas,” as a winner of the international Peter Benchley Ocean Awards. Alden was recognized for her career working at the grassroots, engaging fishermen’s knowledge and participation to build sustainable, healthy coastal fisheries and fishing communities. The awards ceremony took place at a gala on Thursday, May 11, at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. “It is just unbelievable to have international recognition for Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries’ basic approach: that the knowledge fishermen have about the ecology they work in every day is important to a healthy fisheries and our communities,” Alden said in a statement last Friday. Click here to read the story 10:16

Linda Bean once hoped to be to lobster what Perdue is to chicken. What happened?

Linda Lorraine Bean, the other L.L. Bean, has spent the last decade promoting her lobster empire, one that merged the cachet of her family name with the popularity of the state’s top crustacean.,, So what happened to the sprawling business venture that Bean hoped to make as synonymous with lobster as Frank Perdue’s empire is to chicken? Bean, now in her 70s, declined to comment despite repeated attempts to reach her and those connected to her. It’s been a quiet departure for a woman not known to shy away from the spotlight. Read the article here 11:13

Penobscot East Resource Center Founder Robin Alden to step down as fisheries organization director

Robin Alden, a one-time commissioner of the Department of Marine Resources under Governor John Mckernan and longtime editor and publisher of the regional trade publication Commercial Fisheries News, will step down as executive director of the Penobscot East Resource Center at the end of this year. The organization has begun a national search for her successor. Alden founded Penobscot East 13 years ago together with her husband, MacArthur Fellow Ted Ames, former Maine Sea Coast Mission pastor and fisheries advocate Ted Hoskins and Kristen and Paul Lewis. Started with only a few employees and a thin-as-a-shoestring budget in 2003, Penobscot East now has a dozen employees including fisheries scientists and marine policy experts. Under Alden’s stewardship, its operating budget has grown to $1.8 million. Read the story here 12:05

PERC’s Alden recognized as an innovator for fisheries sustainability work

Robin Alden is the recipient of the 2015 Innovator Award as part of the first SOURCE Maine Sustainability Awards. “Alden has made it her life’s work to help fishermen, scientists and fisheries managers understand each other before the goal of making local fisheries more sustainable for Maine’s coastal communities and future generations,” according to a statement accompanying the award. Read the rest here  11:59

Menakhem Ben-Yami interviews Robin Alden, Champion of small-scale fishermen

Ms Alden is also a former Maine Commissioner of Marine Resources and a public member of the New England Fishery Management Council. Located in Maine, USA, Penobscot East Resource Center was established in 2003 as non-profit NGO with a mission to secure a future for the fishing communities of eastern Maine, and promote the community-based approach to resource management. continued@worldfishingandaquaculture