Coastal Conversations 10/28/22: Eastport- Maine’s Easternmost Town

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 town of Eastport, Maine, has weathered many changes in the last decades, transitioning from empty sardine factories to a vibrant multi-use working waterfront positioned to respond and adapt to an uncertain future. This month we feature two stories from Maine’s easternmost town: “Eastport: Reinventing a Waterfront,” a recent episode on the From the Sea Up podcast, and “The Drama of Eastport Tides,” an older (2017) but timeless episode from the Salts and Water podcast.

Our first is called “Eastport: Reinventing a Waterfront.”
In the far eastern corner of Downeast Maine there’s a 3.7 square mile island. Connected to the mainland by a causeway and road that passes through the Pleasant Point Passamaquoddy Reservation, Sipayik, this island is home to the town of Eastport, population 1,300. Once the most prominent sardine canning village along the coast, Eastport’s last sardine factory closed in 1983. With that, a century-long industry was gone. In this episode we learn how Eastport has transitioned from a waterfront of empty factories to a vibrant multi-use working waterfront positioned to respond and adapt to a very uncertain 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 first in a working waterfront series we will keep sharing over the next few months.

People and organizations Featured in this story include: Tides Institute, Hugh French, Moose Island Marine, Dean Pike, Eastport Port Authority, and Chris Gardner.
This story is part of the podcast series From the Sea Up

A note from producer Galen Koch:
Thank you for listening to From the Sea up. This episode was written and produced by me, Galen Koch and assistant producer Olivia Jolley for the Island Institute. Nicole Wolf takes the beautiful photographs that accompany this episode. From the Sea Up’s Senior Editors are Isaac Kestenbaum and Josie Holtzman. Additional audio editing on this episode by Liz Joyce and Claudia Newall. Special thanks to Camden Hunt, Hugh French, Dean Pike, Chris Bartlett, and Chris Gardner for their help and participation. And thanks to the Salt Institute and Pamela Wood, Hugh French, and Lynn Kippax Jr, who together researched and wrote the 1983 journal publication, “Eastport: For Pride.” Most of the music in this episode is by Cue Shop. 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. Past episodes and more information are available here

Our second story Is called “The Drama of Eastport Tides”
The defining feature of the easternmost point of America is the dramatic tides of the Atlantic Ocean at the coast of Eastport, Maine. Learn why incredible natural feature exists and visit one of the largest confluences of whirlpools in the world. Hear from the Salts—people with deep connections to the sea, whose lives are shaped by this natural wonder.

This story was pulled out of the Coastal Conversations archives, from 2017, when well-known New England audio storyteller Rob Rosenthal partnered up with an initiative called Experience Maritime Maine to produce the Salts and Water podcast. Eastport is one of six towns covered in this series.

People and organizations featured in this story include: Butch Harris of Eastport Windjammers, harbor pilot Bob Peacock, photographer Lisa Tyson Ennis, some Eastport visitors, and of course, the tide.

This story is part of the podcast series SALTS & WATER: Stories from the Maine Coast

Experience Maritime Maine presents Salts & Water, a 6-part podcast series by award-winning producer Rob Rosenthal. These audio stories paint remarkable character portraits along the coast of Maine, through Eastport, Stonington, Searsport, Rockland, Bath, and Portland.
Meet the “women lobstermen” of Stonington, island-hop aboard a Windjammer in Penobscot Bay, and discover the salty fishmonger whose work on Portland’s piers is integral to Maine’s culture of seafood. Get to know meticulous boat builders, and learn how the dramatic tides shape life in Downeast Maine. Enjoy this podcast series.
Salts and Water is a project of Experience Maritime Maine, funded in part by the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation, Hamilton Marine, Maine’s MidCoast & Islands, and sponsored by Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors. To hear the other stories in the series, visit Salts and Water Podcast Series

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 9/23/22: Three Contemporary Maine Writers Inspired by the Coast

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:

Maine’s coastline has inspired writers and artists for generations. On today’s Coastal Conversations we are thrilled to feature three contemporary Maine writers who each have a special connection with the coast of Maine and coastlines around the world. We’ll hear their stories about the role of writing and art in their lives and what inspires their work today. Each author will share some of their recent work, including some poetry, haiku and prose.

Our featured writers today include Linda Buckmaster, writer, teacher, and self-described wanderer from Belfast, Maine; Valerie Lawson, poet, publisher and teacher from Robbinston, Maine; and Kristen Lindquist, writer, poet, and naturalist from Camden, Maine.

Guest/s:

Linda Buckmaster. Writer, teacher, wanderer. Belfast, Maine.
Linda’s most recent book, Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands, is available at bookstores from Blue Hill to Portland or from the author. Her work will be featured at the 17th annual Belfast Poetry Festival, October 15th 2022.

Valerie Lawson. Poet, publisher and teacher. Robbinston, Maine.
Valerie’s poems about conserved lands at Reversing Falls in Pembroke were recently featured in the Writing the Land: Maine project. Her work will be featured at Poetry Express at University of Maine at Fort Kent on September 21, 22, 2022. Contact UMFK for more information. UMFK’s Acadian Archives to host Poetry Express Sept. 21-22 in Fiddlehead Focus/St. John Valley Times

Kristen Lindquist. Writer, poet, naturalist. Camden, Maine.
Kristen’s recent award-winning haiku e-chapbook It Always Comes Back Kristen’s Daily Haiku Blog

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 8/26/22: National Working Waterfront Network conference

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.

In mid-July 2022, nearly 200 people gathered in Boston for the sixth National Working Waterfront Network conference. Working waterfronts are where people who make their living on the sea can access the water. They include ports, harbors, piers, wharves, launch ramps, mudflats, boat yards and more. The National Working Waterfront Network meets every 2-3 years to swap stories and strategies for strengthening and protecting waterfront infrastructure and working access to the coast.

At the 2022 conference, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine’s 1st Congressional District, long a working waterfront champion in partnership with Maine’s full delegation, gave a closing address during which she highlighted the importance of keeping the spotlight on these complex and critical spaces for our national economy and local, coastal culture. Voices throughout the event echoed the Congresswoman’s message, and on today’s Coastal Conversations show, we bring you some of those voices.

Today, we feature portions of Representative Pingree’s address, along with stories and perspectives from people connected to working waterfronts in Maine, Louisiana, Oregon and California. All voices shared in today’s show were recorded at the National Working Waterfront Network Conference 2022.

Guest/s:
Afton Vigue, Maine Aquaculture Association
Dominique Seibert, Louisiana Sea Grant
Jamie Doyle, Oregon Sea Grant
Michael Nelson, Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara, California

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 7/22/22: Landscape of Change

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.

Today our show is about the Mount Desert Island-based project called a Landscape of Change. Landscape of Change is a collaborative project with the goal of compiling and publishing historical records of natural history observations on Mount Desert Island, dating back to the late 1800s, and comparing these with contemporary data to document change over time.
While the project focuses on the science of environmental change, it also explores how every-day people can collect meaningful scientific data, and how people might choose to respond to ecological change, as individuals, as artists, as natural resource managers, as activists or even as a society as a whole.

1. What are the historical records that provide the baseline from which your are able to document ecological change on Mount Desert Island?
2. What are the modern methods of data collection that citizens are involved in collecting?
3. What are the changes you have found in MDI’s natural environment in the past 100+ years
4. How can citizens and visitors become involved and learn more?

Guests:
Raney Bench, Executive Director of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society
Johanna Blackman, Executive Director of A Climate to Thrive
Jennifer Steen Booher, Artist-in-residence with MDI Historical Society.
Seth Benz, Director of Bird Ecology at Schoodic Institute at Acadia Nation Park
Catherine Schmitt, science writer with Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park
Kyle Lima, Data Analyst, also with the Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park

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 6/24/22: Pogies (Atlantic menhaden)

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 episode:

Most fishermen will tell you that the presence of Atlantic menhaden on the coast of Maine is cyclical. In the last few years, menhaden, or pogies as the small schooling fish are known locally, have returned in high enough numbers to trigger a commercial fishery that holds promise for many fishermen. Their presence is fortuitous. Pogies have filled a lobster bait void left behind by declining Atlantic herring stocks. Many lobstermen, scrambling for bait to feed their lobster traps, have settled on pogies.

There are many others in the Gulf of Maine who are happy to see the pogies return in great numbers – chief among them: the predators like tuna, striped bass, bald eagles and even humpback whales.

On our show today, we explore the world of pogies, the fishermen who harvest them and the species like tuna who eat them. We talk with two fishermen who describe how the fish are caught and why the fishery is increasingly important to Maine fishermen. And we’ll hear from a scientist about how his research on Atlantic Blue-fin tuna also reveals the increasing presence of pogies in Maine waters.

-Return of Pogies (AKA Menhaden) to Maine
-Fishermen’s stories about rigging up to purse seining for pogies.
-Pogies as lobster bait
-Pogies role in the Gulf of Maine food web

Guests:

Devyn Campbell, Boothbay Harbor fisherman (fishes for groundfish and in recent years pogies)

Dave Horner, Southwest Harbor fisherman (has fished for lobster, scallop, shrimp, groundfish and in recent years pogies)

Walt Golet, Assistant Professor at the University of Maine’s School of Marine Sciences and lead of the Pelagic Fisheries lab at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

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 5/27/22: Rainbow Smelt

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 episode:
Many people in Maine have heard of Atlantic Salmon and Alewives, but do you know about Rainbow Smelt? These migratory sea-run fish may be swimming up your backyard streams right now! And historically, these fish have all featured in the lives of Maine residents for sustenance, income, and recreation.

Smelt and tomcod populations are believed to have declined in recent decades. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the restoration of salmon and alewife habitat benefits all members of the sea-run fish family.

Our show today features a compendium of smelt stories plus a few about tomcod and other sea-run fish, from interviews conducted over the course of the last year in an effort to document the traditional ecological knowledge of people who harvest, interact with, and observe sea-run fish.
So make a note to tune in Friday afternoon, May 27, 2022, from 4-5 OM, when this month’s Coastal Conversation features stories and voices talking about seasons of change for Maine’s sea-run fish. Only on WERU community radio, 89.9 FM in Blue Hill and online at WERU.org.

Key Discussion Points:
-The seasonality of migrating fish
-Stories and memories from people who have fished and observed smelt, tom cod and other searun fish since the 1970’s.
-The ecology and biology of changing fisheries in Maine’s rivers, streams and estuaries

Guests:

Chris Johnson, ecology manager with the Passamaquoddy Tribe Sipayak Environmental Department
Danielle Frechette, a marine resource scientist with Maine Department of Marine Resource’s bureau of sea-run fisheries and habitat
Sean Beauregard, a student at the University of Maine and Smelt interview project intern
John Melquist Sr., smelt fisherman, South Thomaston
Kurt Soneson, a retired Marine Patrol Officer
Sharon Morrill, wildlife watcher from Damariscotta Mills
Dick and Max Grimm, a father and son fishermen from Yarmouth
Lawrence Moffet, retired commercial lobsterman and recreational tomcod fisherman

Special appreciation for support in producing this show goes to: Sean Beauregard, University of Maine student and intern; Justin Stevens, Maine Sea Grant sea-run fish ecosystem project coordinator; and Danielle Frechette, marine resource scientist with Maine Department of Marine Resources bureau of sea-run fisheries and habitat.

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 4/22/22: Earth Day and Seaweed

Producer/Host: Natalie Springuel

Today, April 22, 2022, is Earth Day! And what better way to celebrate Earth Day than to explore the realm of one of the earth’s most interesting group of species: Seaweed.

Seaweed has seen a surge in interest in Maine in the last few years, with a growing number of people paying attention to seaweed – from consumers to nutrition experts, from harvesters to farmers, from restoration ecologists to beauticians. And Maine finds itself at the center of it all.

This week, just in time for Earth Day, Maine is celebrating Maine Seaweed Week – multiple days full of activities and opportunities to taste and learn about this incredible seafood. Maine Seaweed Week was founded four years ago by one of our interviewees on today’s show, Josh Rogers of Heritage Seaweed and Cup of Sea teas. Our second interviewee, Jaclyn Robidoux of Maine Sea Grant, has also been very involved with organizing this week’s special seaweed events. We turn to both of them to learn about the various seaweeds found on the Maine coast, how it can be used, and how you, our listeners, can join in on the seaweed celebrations happening up and down our shores through May 1st 2022.

-Earth Day
-Maine Seaweed Week 2022
-Maine seaweed species and products

Jaclyn Robidoux, marine extension associate at Maine Sea Grant
Josh Rogers, Founder of Heritage Seaweed, Cup of Sea teas, and Maine Seaweed Week

Other credits: Thanks to Ellie White, our radio production assistant for this show, for all of her production help, her interviews with our guests and her vision for how we could celebrate Earth Day today by taking a deep dive into seaweed. Ellie is a senior at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor where she has been studying storytelling, audio production and human ecology. Thanks also to Galen Koch of The First Coast, who helps train our radio production assistants.

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 3/25/22: Rare Steller’s sea-eagle sparks attention and imagination

Producer/Host: Natalie Springuel

Maine coastal and ocean issues: Rare Steller’s sea-eagle sparks attention and imagination

Since late December 2021, a rare Steller’s sea eagle has been repeatedly sighted by hundreds of people on the Maine coast. This raptor is significantly bigger than our own beloved Bald Eagle. Its home range is very far away in coastal Siberia, around the Sea of Okhotsk and the Kamchatka Peninsula, down to Northern Japan and as far as the Korean Peninsula.

There are reportedly only around 4000 Steller’s sea-eagles on the planet, and they are listed as a vulnerable species on The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.

Starting back in August of 2020, birders noticed its presence in Alaska. A few months later in March of 2021, a raptor presumed to be this same eagle was sighted in Texas. And then in June multiple confirmed sightings were reported all the way east, in Québec’s Gaspé Peninsula. November in the Canadian Maritimes, December was Massachusetts, and then, December 30, 2021, it landed in Maine and continued to be sighted in the Georgetown to Boothbay region until March 5th.

Why has this Steller’s Sea Eagle been wandering the northern hemisphere? What do we know about its ecology and conservation? And how has its presence captured the imagination of seasoned birders, coastal residents, and a growing cadre of community scientists? These are the topics for today’s episode of Coastal Conversations.

Guests:
Doug Hitchcox, Staff Naturalist at Maine Audubon
Jeff Wells, Vice President for Boreal Conservation at National Audubon
Brent Pease, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor of wildlife conservation and management at Southern Illinois University

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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