Coastal Conversations 5/24/24: A Day at SEA

Producer/Host: Catherine Devine

Coastal Conversations: Conversations with people who live, work, and play on the Maine coast, hosted by the University of Maine Sea Grant Program.

This month:

In this episode, we shine a spotlight on Acadia National Park’s Schoodic Education Adventure (SEA) program, where learning meets the great outdoors. Join us as National Park Service education coordinator, Katie Petrie and ‘23-’24 Gero Fellow in Science Education, Zoe Kennedy share their insights into the inspiration behind the SEA program and the impact it has had on students.

Guest/s:
Katie Petrie, Education Coordinator at the National Parks Service.
Zoe Kennedy, 2023-2024 Cathy and Jim Gero Fellow in Science Education at Schoodic Institute.

About the hosts:

Natalie Springuel has hosted Coastal Conversation’s since 2015, with support from the University of Maine Sea Grant where she has served as a marine extension associate for 20 years. In 2019, Springuel received an award for Public Affairs programming from the Maine Association of Broadcasters for the Coastal Conversations show called “Portland’s Working Waterfront.” Springuel is passionate about translating science, sharing stories, and offering a platform for multiple voices to weigh in on complex coastal and ocean issues. She has recently enrolled in audio production training at Maine Media Workshop to dive deeper into making great community radio.

Catherine Devine is the recipient of the 2023-2024 Cathy and Jim Gero Acadia Early Career Fellowship in Science Communication at Schoodic Institute. She is the producer of season 2 of Schoodic’s Sea to Trees podcast and a graduate of New York University.

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Coastal Conversations 4/26/24: Managing Future Forests

Producer/Host: Catherine Devine

Coastal Conversations: Conversations with people who live, work, and play on the Maine coast, hosted by the University of Maine Sea Grant Program.

This month:

What happens to science when the science is done? And how does that inform how our forests are managed in the future?

To answer these questions, Catherine Devine from Schoodic Institute sat down with UMaine’s Nicole Rogers to talk about how a research project, Extreme Climate and Trees, will help inform land management strategies for Maine’s forests in the future.. 

As a Fellow in Science Communication at Schoodic Institute. Catherine explains how she came to this topic idea: “I’ve spent 10 months exploring ways to bridge the gap between science and the public. One of my recurring questions during my fellowship was what happens to the science when the science is done? Meaning how does science and research change our environment and our lives?” Catherine’s conversion with Rogers explores these questions and more as they relate to forestry management in Maine.

Guest/s:
Nicole Rogers, Assistant Professor of Silviculture at University of Maine.

About the hosts:

Natalie Springuel has hosted Coastal Conversation’s since 2015, with support from the University of Maine Sea Grant where she has served as a marine extension associate for 20 years. In 2019, Springuel received an award for Public Affairs programming from the Maine Association of Broadcasters for the Coastal Conversations show called “Portland’s Working Waterfront.” Springuel is passionate about translating science, sharing stories, and offering a platform for multiple voices to weigh in on complex coastal and ocean issues. She has recently enrolled in audio production training at Maine Media Workshop to dive deeper into making great community radio.

Catherine Devine is the recipient of the 2023-2024 Cathy and Jim Gero Acadia Early Career Fellowship in Science Communication at Schoodic Institute. She is the producer of season 2 of Schoodic’s Sea to Trees podcast and a graduate of New York University.

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Coastal Conversations 3/22/24: Changing Acadia

Producer/Host: Catherine Devine

Coastal Conversations: Conversations with people who live, work, and play on the Maine coast, hosted by the University of Maine Sea Grant Program.

This month:
Acadia is changing, and quickly. While its beauty endures, its forests, lakes and coasts are being altered by people through land uses, pollution, tourism, invasive species, and climate change. In this episode we’ll take an in depth look at two of the ways in which Acadia may change over the course of the next few decades. First we’ll talk to Caroline Kanaskie about her research on the southern pine beetle and how its northern progression threatens Acadia’s pitch pine trees. Then, we’ll talk to Jay Wason about how extreme heat might change the composition of Maine’s forests.

Guest/s:

Jay Wason III, Assistant Professor of Forest Ecosystem Physiology at UMaine

Caroline Kanaskie,  Natural Resources & Earth Systems Science Ph.D. Candidate at UNH

About the hosts:

Natalie Springuel has hosted Coastal Conversation’s since 2015, with support from the University of Maine Sea Grant where she has served as a marine extension associate for 20 years. In 2019, Springuel received an award for Public Affairs programming from the Maine Association of Broadcasters for the Coastal Conversations show called “Portland’s Working Waterfront.” Springuel is passionate about translating science, sharing stories, and offering a platform for multiple voices to weigh in on complex coastal and ocean issues. She has recently enrolled in audio production training at Maine Media Workshop to dive deeper into making great community radio.

Catherine Devine is the recipient of the 2023-2024 Cathy and Jim Gero Acadia Early Career Fellowship in Science Communication at Schoodic Institute. She is the producer of season 2 of Schoodic’s Sea to Trees podcast and a graduate of New York University.

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Coastal Conversations 2/23/24: From the Sea Up

Producer/Host: Galen Koch

Coastal Conversations: Conversations with people who live, work, and play on the Maine coast, hosted by the University of Maine Sea Grant Program.

This month:
This program features an episode of Island Institute’s podcast, From the Sea Up. We’ll travel to Southwest Harbor, a town of multiple maritime industries on the “quiet side” or Mount Desert Island. Southwest Harbor boasts a tradition of superior boatbuilding and, for the past two years, has emerged as one of the top ten highest grossing lobster ports in the state. With more than four million visitors at Acadia National Park in 2021, the pressures on this side of MDI are mounting. Increased summer visitorship means business is booming, but commuter traffic, dwindling resources, and a lack of a seasonal and year-round workforce incite questions about how to sustain and support this working town. 

In this episode, we examine the history of Southwest Harbor’s decision, as a community, to maintain and support its commercial fisheries through zoning and regulations. Visiting two iconic Southwest Harbor businesses, Hinckley Yachts and Beal’s Lobster Pier, we explore the push-and-pull of Maine’s seasonal economy, and the challenges and opportunities where commercial fishing, maritime industries, and recreation meet.

Guest/s:
Justin Snyder, Dock Manager, Beal’s Lobster Pier.
Kathleen Leyden, Director of the Maine Coastal Program.
Melissa Britsch, Senior Planner at the Maine Coastal Program.
Kirk Ritter, General Manager at Hinckley Yachts.

About the hosts:

Natalie Springuel has hosted Coastal Conversation’s since 2015, with support from the University of Maine Sea Grant where she has served as a marine extension associate for 20 years. In 2019, Springuel received an award for Public Affairs programming from the Maine Association of Broadcasters for the Coastal Conversations show called “Portland’s Working Waterfront.” Springuel is passionate about translating science, sharing stories, and offering a platform for multiple voices to weigh in on complex coastal and ocean issues. She has recently enrolled in audio production training at Maine Media Workshop to dive deeper into making great community radio.

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Coastal Conversations 1/26/24: Coastal Storm Impact

Producer/Host: Natalie Springuel

Coastal Conversations: Conversations with people who live, work, and play on the Maine coast, hosted by the University of Maine Sea Grant Program.

This month:
The January 10 and 13, 2024 storms, along with compounding record high tides, storm surge, and strong southeasterly winds, caused much damage throughout the Maine coast, including the loss of many piers and wharves, erosion of roadways, and destruction of private and municipal coastal access infrastructure.

On today’s show, we share portions of a January 16th information session about storm impact and response with leaders from the Departments of Marine Resources, Economic & Community Development, and Maine Emergency Management Agency. The online information session, hosted by the Island Institute just three days after the storm events, reflected the early nature of storm response.

One thing emphasized during the show is that the state needs everyone who experienced storm damage to report their losses. Whether you are a waterfront business owner or homeowner, your information will help ensure that the level of aid from FEMA and others is in line with the actual needs on the ground.  You can still report damages by dialing 2-1-1 or visiting the Department of Marine Resources website to fill out the forms online.

If you want to hear the complete information session (the show will only re-broadcast a portion of it), and access other storm related resources, please check out the Island Institute and find a link to “January 2024 Storms” on their home page. We are grateful to the Island Institute for sharing this important information with our listeners.

Guest/s:
Commissioner Pat Keliher, Maine Department of Marine Resources.
Commissioner Heather Johnson, Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.
Kim Hamilton, Director of the Island Institute.
Anne Fuchs, Director, Mitigation, Planning and Recovery, Maine Emergency Management Agency.

About the hosts:

Natalie Springuel has hosted Coastal Conversation’s since 2015, with support from the University of Maine Sea Grant where she has served as a marine extension associate for 20 years. In 2019, Springuel received an award for Public Affairs programming from the Maine Association of Broadcasters for the Coastal Conversations show called “Portland’s Working Waterfront.” Springuel is passionate about translating science, sharing stories, and offering a platform for multiple voices to weigh in on complex coastal and ocean issues. She has recently enrolled in audio production training at Maine Media Workshop to dive deeper into making great community radio.

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Coastal Conversations 2/24/23: On the Water in Belfast Harbor

Producer/Host: Natalie Springuel

Coastal Conversations: Conversations with people who live, work, and play on the Maine coast, hosted by the University of Maine Sea Grant Program.

This month:
High School students on a fishing boat deploying spat collectors, or mesh bags, into the water column to collect baby scallops. Science teachers and their students hauling line onto a work boat to examine the growth rate on their kelp farm. Locals learning from a seasoned Maine guide to row a traditional dory, emulating how generations of Maine fishermen and sailors have moved around the harbor. The composition of mariners in Belfast Bay may have been changing in the last few decades, but their passion for these waters is no less real.

Today, our show features four people who are involved in really cool work connected to our local seas, either as teachers, students, or guides. All four of our guests happen to be women, and each of them bring to their learning and their work a commitment to the protection of this place and its people.

Today we hear from the owner of DoryWoman Rowing, as well as a high school student, and two science teachers, who all use the local waters as their classroom, their workspace and their happy place.

Guest/s:
Nicolle Littrell, founder of DoryWoman Rowing, Open Water Rower, Licensed Maine Guide, Filmmaker and Photographer.

Lindsey Schortz, Science instructor and member of the team for the Belfast Marine Institute at Belfast Area High School (BAHS) and a teacher at BCOPE (Belfast Community Outreach Program in Education), an alternative high school program.

Genna Black, Science teacher with the Marine Institute at Belfast Area High School

Mia Fay, high school senior in the BCOPE program (Belfast Community Outreach Program in Education), Belfast Area High School’s alternative high school program.

Other credits:

About the host:

Natalie Springuel has hosted Coastal Conversation’s since 2015, with support from the University of Maine Sea Grant where she has served as a marine extension associate for 20 years. In 2019, Springuel received an award for Public Affairs programming from the Maine Association of Broadcasters for the Coastal Conversations show called “Portland’s Working Waterfront.” Springuel is passionate about translating science, sharing stories, and offering a platform for multiple voices to weigh in on complex coastal and ocean issues. She has recently enrolled in audio production training at Maine Media Workshop to dive deeper into making great community radio.

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Coastal Conversations 1/27/23: Gouldsboro, Maine

Producer/Host: Natalie Springuel

Coastal Conversations: Conversations with people who live, work, and play on the Maine coast, hosted by the University of Maine Sea Grant Program.

This month:
This episode features two distinct stories about Gouldsboro, Maine:

STORY 1: Gouldsboro, a working waterfront community at a crossroads
Today’s show features the second episode of this year’s From the Sea Up podcast series focused on Maine’s working waterfront towns. We’ll be headed to Gouldsboro, A historic fishing town with over 50 miles of coastline. In 2020, the Norwegian-backed company American Aquafarms proposed putting two closed-pen salmon farms, totaling 120-acres, in Frenchman Bay between Gouldsboro and Bar Harbor. Although American Aquafarm’s initial application for an aquaculture lease was terminated by the Maine Department of Marine Resources in the spring of 2022, a question about the future of Maine’s waters took hold in many rural coastal communities.
In this episode, From the Sea Up producers visit South Gouldsboro, a small and active working waterfront with stunning views of Cadillac Mountain and the proposed lease site. With perspectives from a seaweed farmer and cultivator, Sarah Redmond, as well as Jerry Potter, a longtime lobsterman, and Sebastian Belle from the Maine Aquaculture Association, this episode explores the identity and needs of one working waterfront community, and asks the question: What kind of working waterfront do people want to see here in the future? And what role does aquaculture play in that future?
This story is brought to you by our radio storytelling friend Galen Koch, whose podcast series, From the Sea Up, has been featured on Coastal Conversations before. Galen brings the past and present together to help us make sense of Maine’s complicated future. This is the second in a working waterfront series we will keep sharing over the next few months.

STORY 2: Gouldsboro: a legacy of sardines
You heard the narrator in our first story talk about American Aquafarms’ purchase of the Maine Fair Trade lobster processing facility in the Gouldsboro village of Prospect Harbor. While American Aquafarms’ intention is to someday convert the lobster processing operation into a salmon processing facility and hatchery, this plant was in the business of packing sardines for nearly 100 years. As the era of Maine’s sardine industry was coming to an end in the later part of the 20th century, and sardine packing plants were closing one by one up and down the Maine coast, the Stinson’s Sardine Cannery was the very last hold out. It’s final owner, Bumble Bee Foods, shuttered the sardine operation for good in 2010, making it not only the last sardine cannery in Maine, but the very last sardine cannery in the whole of the United States.

In 2011, the year after the sardine plant closed, oral historians from “Oral History and Folklife Research, Inc” sought to honor and document the Stinson Sardine Factory legacy by interviewing a number of former employees. In our second story today, we share some clips from two of these interviews with women who worked as sardine packers.

Guest/s:

STORY 1
Sarah Redmond, Springtide Seaweed
Jerry Potter, lobsterman
Sebastian Belle, Maine Aquaculture Association

STORY 2
We’ll hear a short clip from the interview with Arlene Hartford, followed by a slightly longer clip from the interview with Lela Anderson. Both women were interviewed by Keith Ludden in 2011 and the full collection is available here

Other credits:
STORY 1
From the Sea Up is made possible by the Fund for Maine Islands through a partnership between Island Institute, College of the Atlantic, Maine Sea Grant, and the First Coast. Click here to hear past episodes and for more information

STORY 2
Thanks to the folks at “Oral History and Folklife Research, Inc” for permission to air these clips. You can access their full collections here. And thanks also to production assistant Camden Hunt, for helping edit the audio clips for this segment of today’s show. If you want to hear more about sardines, check out the Coastal Conversations for our August 28, 2020 episode called “Stories of the Sardine Industry” which features these clips and many more

About the host:

Natalie Springuel has hosted Coastal Conversation’s since 2015, with support from the University of Maine Sea Grant where she has served as a marine extension associate for 20 years. In 2019, Springuel received an award for Public Affairs programming from the Maine Association of Broadcasters for the Coastal Conversations show called “Portland’s Working Waterfront.” Springuel is passionate about translating science, sharing stories, and offering a platform for multiple voices to weigh in on complex coastal and ocean issues. She has recently enrolled in audio production training at Maine Media Workshop to dive deeper into making great community radio.

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Coastal Conversations 12/23/22: Maine Holiday Seafood Celebrations, Past and Present

Producer/Host: Natalie Springuel

Coastal Conversations: Conversations with people who live, work, and play on the Maine coast, hosted by the University of Maine Sea Grant Program.

This month:
In honor of the holiday season, our show features “Maine holiday seafood celebrations, past and present.” We are excited to talk with three women from coastal Maine who write about food and history, about Maine and nature, about travel and much more.

Our guests will share ideas for seafood recipes to treat your family and friends over the holidays. They will help us explore how the perceptions of seafood in Maine have changed over the decades and centuries, from the Wabanaki to the New England Colonists, from the mid- 1900’s to the present. From their perspectives as cook and authors, our guests will explore modern day issues such as wild fisheries and aquaculture. And most of all, they will get you excited to experiment with seafood in the kitchen this holiday season.

-Seafood recipes and cooking tips
-New Englander’s changing thoughts about and appreciation for seafood
-Three cooks perspectives on fisheries and aquaculture in Maine

Guest/s:

Sandy Oliver, food historian, food writer and columnist, from Islesboro in Penobscot Bay
Marnie Reed Crowell: conservationist, natural history writer, poet and scallop cookbook author from Sunset on Deer Isle
Nancy Harmon Jenkins: writer, historian, cook, traveler, and storyteller from Camden

About the host:

Natalie Springuel has hosted Coastal Conversation’s since 2015, with support from the University of Maine Sea Grant where she has served as a marine extension associate for 20 years. In 2019, Springuel received an award for Public Affairs programming from the Maine Association of Broadcasters for the Coastal Conversations show called “Portland’s Working Waterfront.” Springuel is passionate about translating science, sharing stories, and offering a platform for multiple voices to weigh in on complex coastal and ocean issues. She has recently enrolled in audio production training at Maine Media Workshop to dive deeper into making great community radio.

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