ELLSWORTH — The Maine Department of Marine Resources will hold a public hearing Thursday, Jan. 24 at 5 p.m. at Ellsworth City Hall on proposed changes to aquaculture leasing regulations. This proposed rule would make a number of changes to clarify the aquaculture leasing regulations, including the elimination of redundant language. It would also make …
SORRENTO — The Maine Department of Marine Resources gave Acadia Aqua Farms an early present the week before Christmas when Commissioner Patrick Keliher approved a renewal of the Trenton-based company’s lease for the bottom culture of mussels on a 14.3-acre site off Waukeag Neck in Flanders Bay. Acadia acquired the lease, originally issued in September …
ELLSWORTH — For many devotees of high school sailing, it doesn’t seem all that long ago that Will Welles was a star skipper the Mount Desert Island High School sailing team, racing fiercely against George Stevens Academy in Southwest Harbor or Castine. In fact, it has been a long time and the 1993 MDIHS graduate …
CRANBERRY ISLES — This school year, Ashley Bryan School students are doing some of their history and math in a boatbuilding shop. The independent nonprofit Islesford Boatworks has been leading summer boatbuilding programs for more than a decade. Last fall, Tony Archino, former executive director of Boatworks, led the first school-year program. The students began …
BAR HARBOR — Maine lobstermen and their representatives, along with state fisheries regulators, continue to debate how much the Maine lobster fishery is implicated in the decline of the North Atlantic Right Whale. Ongoing efforts to protect the whales from entanglement with fishing gear may result in two different new sets of regulations, Sarah Cotnoir, …
ELLSWORTH — Georges River Trout Unlimited will host a Downeast Chapter meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 5 p.m. at Pat’s Pizza. Brett Ciccotelli, a fisheries biologist for Downeast Salmon Federation, will give a presentation titled “Restoring and Understanding Eastern Maine’s Native Fisheries” at 7 p.m. The Downeast Salmon Federation’s mission is to conserve wild …
By Stephen Rappaport ELLSWORTH — In the past two weeks, Governor Janet Mills has nominated new commissioners to head most of the state’s administrative agencies, replacing appointees of former Governor Paul LePage. One agency that will not get a new chief is the Department of Marine Resources. Last Thursday, on her first full day on …
PORTLAND — Bay Ferries is momentarily without a U.S. port, as one lease has expired and another is not ready to be signed. Bay Ferries’ lease with the city of Portland expired on Dec. 31, according to The Vanguard newspaper of New Brunswick. Bay Ferries President and CEO Mark MacDonald said in an interview with …
By Penelope Overton Portland Press Herald PORTLAND — A state-funded marketing council is expanding its new-shell lobster crusade to focus on courting the fishmongers who sell seafood, not just the chefs who cook it. The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative plans to appoint a celebrity spokesman, submit a trademark application and create a seasonal calendar …
SOUTHWEST HARBOR — Coast Guard stations throughout New England and the rest of the country are continuing to operate during the partial government shutdown even though funding is limited or unavailable. “The Coast Guard, as a whole, is still working,” said Petty Officer Third Class Zachary Hupp out of the First District External Affairs Office …
