Tag Archives: Penobscot Bay
Weatherbeaten Maine Seeks More Resilient Infrastructure
Stonington, Maine, is an island town in Penobscot Bay with a year-round population of just over 1,000 people. Its lobster fishing port is the biggest in the state, supplying about 11 percent of all the Maine lobster that gets shipped to food markets around the world. In January, a winter storm caused a surge that flooded out a string of privately owned wharves that support the lobster industry and washed over a publicly owned commercial pier, knocking out all of its electronics. “We basically got hit by a wall of water,” says Linda Nelson, Stonington’s director of economic development. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 10:10
More alewives swim up the restored Bagaduce watershed
More than two years after the completion of multiple fish passage projects in western Hancock County, the effort appears to be paying off as alewives swim in greater numbers up the Bagaduce River watershed each spring. Those and other projects have contributed to a resurgence in the upstream migration of alewives, which are a key food supply for bigger wildlife, as well as a growing source of income for Maine fishermen who sell them as food or springtime lobster bait. From 2017 through 2021, the towns of Penobscot, Sedgwick and Brooksville worked with conservation groups to remove barriers that prevented fish from migrating between the tidal Bagaduce River and five ponds in its watershed. The idea was to help restore runs for fish, especially alewives, that travel upstream from Penobscot Bay and reproduce in the ponds more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 14:55
Scallop season is underway
The scallop fishing season got underway in eastern Maine earlier this month and is already making news. In the waters between eastern Penobscot Bay and Cobscook Bay, the season for the handful of licensed scallop divers began Nov. 18 but the draggers couldn’t go to work until Dec. 2. In Cobscook Bay, the season for draggers also began Dec. 2 but divers had to wait until Dec. 5 to brave the chilly, turbulent waters way Downeast. >click to read< 20:14
Can scallops be farmed in Penobscot Bay?
Everybody knows that the waters off Stonington are a rich source of wild scallops. Could they also be a good place to farm them? Robert Brewer of Deer Isle hopes to find out. Brewer recently applied to the for a 3.8-acre experimental aquaculture lease in East Penobscot Bay, where he plans to grow scallops on suspended ropes using the ear-hanging method developed in Japan. The technique calls for drilling a tiny hole through the flat “ear” at the base of the scallop shell and inserting a plastic pin with a small line attached. The scallops are hung in pairs along ropes called “droppers” that hang vertically beneath the surface.,,, DMR has opened a 30-day comment period for Brewer’s application. Click here to read the story 13:12
Proposed Dredging of Searsport Harbor Threatens Maine Lobster Industry
With nearly half of all Maine lobster catches coming from the Penobscot Bay, dredging will have a huge impact on the lobster industry. If the dredging doesn’t cause irreparable, long-term harm to lobster populations, the associated mercury contamination could tarnish the reputation of Maine lobster. Read more here 07:59
“This meeting is a sham and a shame,” ‘You are going to bury [the lobster industry]’: Skeptical crowd rips Searsport dredging project
BELFAST, Maine — The conference room at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast was standing-room only on Tuesday afternoon as more than 200 people came to a public information meeting about a controversial Searsport Harbor dredging project. Read more here 21:23
