Our Celebration of Learning Project – Sea Level Rise Story Maps by 7th Grade, June 6, 2024

Our Middle Level Science tradition is to ground our science learning in our community. Sea Level Rise (SLR) is now a demonstrable problem, with complex decisions to be made by the town.  Our students love their community, its sense of togetherness as well as the places that have nurtured them and already given them lasting memories. We are sharing our project, a Story Map of our learning about SLR in St. George; its impacts and models of future water levels. You can hear from our youth why it matters to them and why they hope you stay informed and participate in decision-making to build resiliency as we face the future. 

We are proud to share our learning about Sea Level Rise in St. George.  We hope you enjoy our Story Maps! (click on “Story Maps”)

Kicking Off Our Sea Level Rise Podcasting Project

Seventh grade students have been learning about sea level rise (SLR) throughout the school year, learning lots of science concepts along the way!  Now is our time to become community-focused and blend our academic learning with this real and consequential community issue!

Dragonheart Volunteers Alex Brasili and Sonja Schmanska have stepped up to help students take their learning into the community and create a podcast that aims to be a voice of both students and adults learning about and reflecting on SLR impacts and potential solutions that fit St. George.

After kicking off our project with some serious brainstorming, we identified what content we might want in our podcast and made groups by interest.

We started to get familiar with community SLR concerns we knew about – all the roads and places that have flooded in the January storms and other memorable storms.  We located the road areas, then checked them out with the Flood Resiliency mapping tool.  We learned that our state has directed agencies to plan for an estimated 1.9 foot sea level rise by 2050, (which puts students in their late 30’s) and 3.9 feet by 2100 (when students are in their 80’s – still their lifetime!)

We invited Mr. Richard Bates and Mr. John Maltais, Chairpersons of the town’s Resiliency Committee and the Comprehensive Planning Committee to talk with us about the work being organized to respond to this problem.  We learned a lot!!

We enjoyed conversation about…

  • causes of global sea level rise
  • two main consequences of sea level rise
  • the three main “tools” or options for town planning (shown in this picture!)
  • how we can help reduce greenhouse gases
    • solar panels for the CTE Maker Space building
    • solar farm and heat pump discussions for electricity and heat at the school
  • ground elevations mapping by Sebago Technics using LIDAR scanning from a drone
  • how the LIDAR data can be used to create models for demonstrating impacts and proposed solutions

We are very excited to continue this project to reach out into the community and talk with others and share our own ideas about what we learn!

Our thanks go out to our guests, Mr. Richard Bates and Mr. John Maltais, as well as our Dragonheart Volunteers, Alex Brasili and Sonja Schmanska!

 

 

 

Historic Storm with Major Statewide Coastal Flooding, January 10th, 2024

A Timely Visit to Talk Weather

The day before our storm, Channel 8’s meteorlogist Ted McInerney visited our school and taught us about weather.  He shared the forecast for the very next day:  an intense storm starting with snow and changing over to rain, with over an inch of rain expected.  A major concern would be winds that could gust 60 or more miles per hour at the time of the high tide – one of the very highest of the month, coinciding with the new moon.  Warnings about potential power outages, high winds and coastal flooding along Maine’s entire coast were in effect. We wondered if we’d have a school day cancellation, but I don’t think any of us expected how wild the storm would be.

Rt 131, Martinsville Bridge (photo by Anne Cox)

Photo Credit Anne Cox

The road by along Drift Inn Beach (photo by Judi Maine)

Some Observations and Experiences

“The craziest thing was the Drift Inn Beach’s road being uprooted from the ground and being destroyed. Another thing I saw was a road on the way to Walmart underwater and cars stuck on it. This all amazed me because I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“(Our) power went out around five in the morning and didn’t come back until around one. A large portion of my backyard was completely flooded by the rain, and my pool was almost full again. My mom took me to my cousin’s house at around ten, and on our way there we saw plenty of damage to the roads, we saw a huge tree downed on a power line that had snapped from the midsection up and had fallen completely off, and we drove over a downed power line.”

“Usually I can’t hear the wind too bad but during this storm I could hear the wind hitting the sides of my house. This made very loud banging noises. I could feel the house shake slightly from the wind and hear trees falling down in the woods. Nothing really flooded that I saw around me but when we left my house all the areas with water were just keeping the water from being on the road. Most culverts were filled to the top with water, I was thankful that the water wasn’t in the road. After the storm there were lots of trees fallen down on roads. A tree almost fell on our parked car and a building next to our house. It was luckily caught by other trees near by. It’s concerning due to the fact we live in the woods with trees surrounding our house. Knowing that is scary as any tree could fall down and hit our house or cars.”

“I saw that many docks were covered with water and a photo of a dock and the gas pumps that were normally on the dock were in the water and one of the sheds that was on the dock was just floating in the water. I woke up early in the morning because I wanted to see how bad the storm was and when I looked out my window it was insane how much water from the rain there was and the amount of wind was crazy. I also saw photos of the tar that was ripped off the road. I kind of know property owners that were affected because there is a road in Port Clyde that me and my dad mow the houses on and the houses are right next to the water and there was a ton of rocks at the houses and there was seaweed everywhere. The storm is kind of concerning because the amount of damage that was done and I wonder how much damage will be done tomorrow.”

“I first heard the storm while I was sleeping. I heard lots of rain and wind pushing up against my window. When I woke up, most of the snow was gone, which made me a little sad. My yard was flooded and looked like someone tried to build a pool. My flagpole had snapped in half and was rolling around on my driveway. My mom and stepdad had left to go check on the wharf  which was completely flooded. It was so flooded that the ocean water had gone over the electrical box. There were things floating in the water which people who go the wharf helped pick up. The float that holds the skiffs was higher than the cement  part that is attached to the float. While my mom and stepdad were gone I had to take the dog outside. While I was out there I was standing at the end of my driveway and I looked up and there were trees swaying almost completely sideways at 90 degrees. I took a video and just hoped none would fall, especially on any buildings in my yard. I only knew of one person that I’m close to that was affected. I think the owner of the wharf was pretty affected  after probably losing some things off the wharf and the electrical box being flooded with water. This storm was pretty concerning because we’re having (several) storms in almost one week. I think this is part of global warming and how its really affecting weather change and other things.”

“I woke up at night during the storm because the wind was howling. Outside my bedroom window there is a bunch of dead trees, this is concerning to me because I don’t want to wake up with a tree on top of me. The power went out at my house but CMP was surprisingly fast in getting the power back on. After the wind let up my mom and I went out to see the damage to wharves and roads. We went to Marshall Point and saw that the road washed out. As she was driving I could see many trees down, damage to the road and ocean water flooding wharves. This was a concerning storm because of the hurricane winds. These storms get their power from topical waters. This means that our oceans are getting warmer, this could be devastating for our economy that primarily relies on our oceans.”

“We lost power at 5:09 AM. About halfway through the day, my mom and dad went down our road to check on the other people and get trees out of the road so that the power company could come down and fix our wires. My parents also went to Marshall Point Road and the lighthouse to see the damage there. On the road to the lighthouse there are huge chunks of pavement every where.”

Spruce Head, Photo Credit Ryker Baum

Spruce Head, Photo Credit Ryker Baum

“On Clark Island the causeway got demolished. It’s impossible to drive a car on it and the people who live on the island cannot get off. The causeway is covered in rocks, seaweed, and other debris and it will probably have to get rebuilt.”

“One of my dad’s friend’s shop is GONE! It flooded it away.”

“When I woke up and looked out my window during the storm I saw the tops of the trees violently swaying and shaking. There wasn’t very much rain but there was a ton of wind which made the rain pound against my house. This made the sound of rain very loud when it bounced off my windows. When I went outside it wasn’t bone chilling cold but it was very uncomfortable with the wind and the rain slamming into my body. I went back inside and looked into my backyard and saw my pond overflowing almost completely submerging my dock. After the storm ended my parents informed me that the road in front of Drift Inn was destroyed and the bus could no longer come that way. So for the rest of the year I would have to walk down to the Black Harpoon as my new bus stop. This storm didn’t affect me directly but it affected my community, especially my wharf, greatly. I would think that it would lengthen the amount of time that it is going to take to rebuild The General Store. Overall, it was a very bad storm but we are a very resilient community so we will comeback from it quickly.”

“On Tuesday night I opened my window because I love hearing the rain, and when I did the first thing I heard was an owl. It kept going for a long time until a tree broke and scared it off.  In the morning my brother woke me up to tell me the report of the storm. He told me that a tree was down that almost hit our house and then gave me pancakes.  On Thursday after school I went with my friends to check out the storm’s damage. We went to Marshall Point Lighthouse, the Dip-Net, and Drift Inn Beach. I think Drift Inn Beach was that worst because when we got there the tar was torn up and on top of other big pieces of tar.”

“Around 9 AM my mom, dad and I went to see how bad the damage was. When we got to Drift Inn Beach me and my dad waited for the perfect moment then we ran as hard as we could while the waves crashed against the rocks. When we stopped we saw the culvert and the road completely being flooded and being pounded on by wave after wave. There was so much sea-spray that when we got back in the car my pants were soaked through. When we came back after the storm had cleared up the pavement was in 8 foot chunks, either tilted on the road or off the road entirely. The face of Drift Inn Beach will probably never be the same again.”

“On Wednesday I woke up with no power and me and my mom were looking at FaceBook posts and we saw one of our favorite restaurant’s dry dock was flooded! And the tide was very very high. The guy that owns the dry dock had to get rescued from his restaurant. This storm scared me because I woke up and all I could hear was loud wind and loud rain sounds. I lost power so I had no heat and it got really cold. But then at the end of it I got to eat pancakes and cinnamon rolls, so I was happy the rest of the day!”

“During the storm my dad woke me up later than normal so I was concerned because I would have missed my bus. All I could hear was the sound of my window rattling and my door shaking dramatically. My mom had just got home and she was drenched with water. As soon as she changed she showed me some photos she took of Drift Inn and Marshall Point Lighthouse. Some of the erosion on the Drift Inn road was crazy, like there were literally pieces of the road taken out. You could see in the pictures of Marshall Point Lighthouse that the waves were towering over the walkways and the ground was all tore up. My mom’s really close friend was also affected by this storm because her dock was torn up and lots of traps fell off into the water. I just am wondering how bad Saturday’s storm is going to be because this wasn’t great.”

“This Wednesday during the storm my grandfather and I drove around town to check out the damage. First, we went to the town landing and saw water and seaweed over the concrete wall. After that we went to drive around Barter’s Point. We saw Art’s Lobster Wharf with water, logs and seaweed on it. We went to the next dock and saw the whole wood part gone. All that was left on the building was concrete and floats and oil in the water.”

“I woke up in the middle of the night to loud whistling and loud wind hitting the window in my room. When I woke up my mom had to go to a doctor’s appointment and when she came back she showed me a picture of a bridge near my house that was flooded and she showed me another picture of how high the water was in the ocean. I also had to go outside to take my dog out and before I went outside I didn’t realize how bad it was. When the storm had gotten really bad the power in my house kept on going on and off, over and over again. All day, all I heard was the loud whistling noise from the trees surrounding my house. Some of my questions are how bad did it get in other places near me and if it was worse in other places near me.  Overall this storm was really bad and I hope nothing this bad happens any time soon.”

“I stayed inside all day but when I was sleeping the wind was really loud. The basement water level went way up and it’s a good thing the freezer was raised out of the water or the water would have been electrified! The water at the edge of our house luckily did not rise because if it did we would have been completely flooded out.”

“This past Wednesday the storm damaged Tenants Harbor, losing docks and oil into the ocean. I did not see a lot but some of the people I talked to this morning told me this stuff and what I saw at the Atwood’s Co-Op was the main dock covered in water, crates and barrels in the ocean.”

Marshall Point Lighthouse (photo by Steve Cartwright)Photo Credit Steve CartwrightPortlands measurements of peak winds and record storm surge events

What will tomorrow’s storm bring?

Beautiful blue skies were overhead  two days later, with calm air and a near king tide and our own marsh in flood stage at the time of high tide (11:04 AM, Local Southern Island Hohonu Gauge observing 12.4 FT).

Tomorrow’s storm forecast is to be slightly less intense, but tomorrow’s tide will be this month’s king tide at 11:54 AM.

Port Clyde Gets a Tide Gauge

On November 6th, the 8th Grade class was invited by Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) to meet in Port Clyde at the site of the relocated tide gauge that is an important part of our town’s planning for sea level rise resiliency for an introduction to the community sea level rise work that is going on.

The gauge was relocated from Tenants Harbor to one of the Coop piers to be more useful. The site was chosen for its line of sight out to the ocean as well as being part of a working waterfront.

One of GMRI’s lead Climate Center scientists, Dr. Hannah Baranes, spoke to students about the town’s effort to collect tide data and introduced students to three other colleagues with her that day who worked together to install the gauge.  They explained how the gauge uses ultrasound to sense the height of the water below the unit mounted on the side of the pier, and how their GPS staff “talked” to satellites to help establish the elevation of the gauge in its physical location and geographic surroundings to determine tide measurements.

 

 

In collecting tide heights, the gauge will help generate more accurate local tide predictions in the future, and give the town measurements which can then tell our community what properties and roads may be affected by specific forcasted tide heights. We talked about last year’s Christmas storm, the “Grinch” storm, which caused significant flooding at the Coop and sent bait barrels floating away, as well as waves that crashed over the roads along Drift Inn beach and the Martinsville bridge.

Some tape measures came out and students were tasked to measure the height from the high water mark up to the edge of the pavement on the pier to learn how much storm surge there had been last December.  Storm surges and other factors of flooding were mentioned and the amount of storm surge from the Grinch storm was indeed impressive.

Later this winter, students will be involved in observations that the town is interested in gathering from citizens that provide water level descriptions of vulnerable or impacted sights.  These observations can now be paired with accurate data from the tide gauge to define specific impacts as well as help inform how local tidal changes are unfolding along our shores.

A big shout out of thanks to Dr. Hannah Baranes and GMRI scientists and also to Mrs. Miller who shared her ELA class time so we could all make the trip together!

 

 

 

 

 

Taking Out the Salinity Probe – A Successful Trial

Mason and Phoebe took out the probe on Nov 6th. We took it out after the biggest tides of October occurred at the end of the month and as the lowest tides of November were occurring. When we got back to class Mr. Paul check the battery pack and we could see lights inside the tube, so that was a good sign that we recorded data.  Then he put the memory card in his computer and we could see the actual data. Over a thousand measurements were recorded over the three weeks!

 Before we put the probe in, Mr. Paul taught us how it was made. We learned there’s an arduino inside that is programmed with code for how often to log the data and some code that uses the conductivity measurement to calculate a salinity value. Time and temperature is also recorded. The final component is a data logger part that receives the data from the arduino and stores it on a memory card that we take out and read using a computer.

When we took a quick look at our data, we noticed it stopped logging the data two days earlier.  We wonder if the batteries didn’t last as long as we anticipated.  The probe uses 12 D cell batteries.  Phoebe and Mr. Paul configured the batteries before we put the probe out. Mason and Lexi are interested in working with Mr. Paul to create coding that would keep track of the battery voltage. That would help us know if readings stop being taken because of low batteries, and not some other reason.

Stay tuned for some conclusions about our data! 

 

Re-installing the Salinity Probe in the Marsh!

After a long absence, our Makerspace salinity probe is back in the marsh!

Violet wrote these passages for our Newsletter:

Re-Installing the Salinity Probe in the Marsh

By Violet Bedell

This year, our seventh grade class has been learning about two main things in our science class. The first of which is heat and heat transfer, molecules inside of different substances, and how those molecules move and react because of heat. But the other thing we have been studying sort of on the side is the marsh! If you didn’t know already, a marsh is a type of wetland, an area of land where water covers ground for long periods of time. Certain after school nature programs take trips down to the marsh and some classes are able to go down there in the winter to go on the ice, or do activities down there, and some people go to just enjoy the beauty of the natural landscape that St. George School is lucky enough to be right next to. But our class has been beginning to learn about the creatures that live in the marsh, and the types of heat and heat transfer that can be demonstrated in the marsh. (This part has connected to the other work we have been doing in class). In fact, just recently our class went down to the marsh to place a salinity probe in the water that will help us learn about the differences in the salinity in the marsh. What’s a probe, you may ask? That is what I am here to talk about. 

The salinity probe that we placed in the water a week or so ago will help us track how the tides flow into the marsh. Back in the 1980s, the marsh used to be completely freshwater. Now, tides from the ocean flow through the culvert and into the marsh, changing the salinity in the marsh. In fact, the marsh also used to four feet deeper than it is now, thanks to a beaver dam that sadly washed away in a storm in the mid 1990s. Now, thanks to the marsh being so much more shallow, we can wonder how the rising ocean and increasing number of tides flowing into the marsh will affect the surrounding plants and animals in the marsh. Using the salinity probe, we can see how much more salt is being carried into the marsh over time. We expect that this number should increase over the years due to climate change impacts of rising sea levels, and higher tides. 

Nadia and Nora had the honors to put in the post and mount the probe on the post via the canoe with Mr. Meinersmann while their classmates looked on.

Despite the clouds, we enjoyed getting outside for class and re-installing the probe to start collecting salinity data again!

Sampling the Environmental DNA of the Marsh

Our second year of 8th grade eDNA (environmental DNA) sampling on September 28th, in collaboration with Beth Campbell and the University of Maine, included a NEW site; the “upper marsh”, which is a very distinctly different water body than the “regular marsh”.  This upper marsh is the area above the beaver dam as you walk in from Watts Avenue.  This separation of the two areas of marsh represents a significant abiotic factor – a barrier between brackish water and freshwater complexes.

We are excited about this sampling location and wonder what species will be identified from the two different water bodies.

Here’s how we sampled.  We began by getting a control sample.  It’s purpose is to make sure that our results are from DNA in the water, and NOT from DNA in the air or DNA introduced from people.

We did this by holding a mini water bottle of pure water in the air to capture any DNA that might be in the air.  This was then poured into a sterile Nalgene bottle and sealed. We had to be super careful not to contaminate anything, so we wore gloves and couldn’t touch anything once we had our gloves on.

Next, we collected the water sample from the marsh by submerging a sterile Nalgene bottle and letting it fill.  We did this with two bottles.

The next thing we did was to filter our control bottle. This traps the DNA in a special filter, while forcing through the rest of the water onto the ground.  We pulled water  into the syringe from the Nalgene bottle, then attached a small glass tube with the filter inside, and pushed the water through the filter.

We all took turns filtering the whole bottle, then Ms. Campbell took the glass capsule with the filter off  the syringe, bagged it, and put it on ice for the car ride back to the University. Although we only had time to filter our control sample, the other two bottles with marsh water were filtered at the University.

When we see our results, we’ll know if there are any changes from the species identified from last year. Last spring, 11 fish species were identified from sampling at the outlet. Our results from the upper marsh at the beaver dam may show us very different animals. We are eager to see the results, and should find out in January.

Between now and then we’ll have a chance to zoom with the scientists in the lab and learn more about the process and how it’s used in different communities around Maine and elsewhere.  In the meantime, a little adventure and a lot of science is a good day in the field!

We’d like to give a special shout-out to Ms. Palmer who made this opportunity possible.

A Celebration of Learning!

As we close this school year, we highlighted our work focusing on a study of tides in St. George, from 1910-2022 and how our town is planning to adapt to rising sea levels, and the results of our environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling!

Here’s what we learned collectively from the data set of our local high tides:

In the words of one student…

“Sea level rise (SLR) is definitely not just a problem in the Gulf of Maine. All around the globe, the ocean is expanding (molecules are spreading farther apart) causing many problems such as the loss of keystone species, flooding and much more, similar to our struggle with SLR in St. George. Both global warming (the increase of greenhouse gasses) in general and then the melting of icecaps are major contributors to SLR. 

The reason SLR is so profound and noticeable in the Gulf of Maine is because the waters are warming so quickly. As the waters slowly rise, changing the currents, the Gulf Stream pushes more and more warm water north. Because of the way the topography beneath the Atlantic Ocean has formed, the warm water is forced into a channel leading into the Gulf of Maine and is trapped there. This is a real problem for us since our economy relies heavily on lobstering and fishing in general.

Early this year, our class learned what forces cause and affect tides. It is one of those topics that you don’t give a second thought to but when you investigate becomes very complex. Anyway, when the moon is close to one side of the earth, its gravitational pull causes a high tide. On the sides of the Earth at 90 degrees to that high tide side, low tide is being experienced on earth’s surface. On the opposite side of the Earth, the high tide is another high tide. This is possible because of inertia which defeats the moon’s now weak gravity on the opposite side of the Earth. It sounds a bit confusing but we have two high tides (one with the moon out one with the sun out) a day and the same for low tides. Also, tides aren’t always the same height, due to weather and stages of the moon, and there are neap tides and spring tides (lowest and highest tides of the month). Exceptionally high tides happen on full and new moons.

It takes a while to unpack information about tides, SLR, climate change and other related subjects, but once it is, this information is valuable to learn even more about the past, present and future of our ocean and our community.  

The Saint George fishing community relies on the ocean, which is why global warming and sea level rise is such a concern. Tides that would have been considered exceptionally high in the past are beginning to become normal heights and on top of that, whenever there’s an intense snow or rain storm, the ocean spills over, flooding nearby docks and roads and ruining gear, bait and boats. In the scarily not-so-far-off future, roads such as Marshall Point, Drift Inn and parts of 131 may become impassable during storms and exceptional tides, raising the concern of emergency resources not being able to get through. The warming waters are also bringing in new, unwanted aquatic species and pushing out some of the old ones who need cold water to thrive. Fishermen are going to be forced to buy longer rope for traps in the future just so buoys stay afloat! That’s climate change right there.

In order to adapt to and combat these effects, our town is doing a few things: The town and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute have set up a tide gauge just off Southern Island to collect accurate, local data. The transfer station has installed solar panels on their roof and there are also new solar farms in Rockland and South Thomaston. The library is going to have an electric vehicle charging station this summer and the town office has already replaced old light bulbs with LEDs which are more energy efficient. In the future, we might start thinking about raising money for raising roads that are susceptible to flooding (like those mentioned earlier). For now, we are taking small steps in the right direction like energy efficient changes and even just taking pictures of flooding during high tides and storms to share with the community.”

Our eDNA Results:

Students collected water samples at the outlet of the marsh and at the town landing back in March.  

The Marsh…The third column of values represents the number of DNA strands present (and relative abundance.)

 

The Landing…The third column of values represents the number of DNA strands present (and relative abundance.)

A special thanks to Dr. Hannah Baranes for providing the data set of St. George Tides, 1910-2022, correlated between the Southern Island tide gauge and Portland tide gauge data going back to 1910.

Our thanks also to Beth Campbell, Education, Outreach and Diversity Program Manager of the EPSCoR program at the University of Maine at Orono and made our eDNA sampling possible. 

A Chance To Revisit Genetics As We Study Our Environment

Thanks to Ms. Palmer, we have a rare opportunity to work with the University of Maine to sample local waters and the genetic material left behind in the water from organisms living there, to learn what species may be present.  

We “zoomed” with UMaine PhD candidate Sharon Mann who shared a presentation about the “Maine-eDNA” program (‘eDNA’ referring to environmental DNA), a cooperative state-wide initiative that applies genetic technology as an information tool for resource managers. These state managers may be working to protect threatened or endangered species, like the sturgeon or Arctic char, or to fight invasive species in freshwater ponds/lakes that disrupt the local ecosystem. Sharon Mann’s own research involves learning about the water quality impacts of alewife restoration in freshwater systems.  The program represents a way to survey the frequency of organisms in their environment with minimal effort and without stressing or harming them.

During the presentation we learned that an organism’s genetic material is constantly shed in the process of living and dying.  It can be collected from water, land, or air, and the genetic material within the sample can be a whole microbe or algae in water, for example, or cells that are shed as reproductive cells, body cells, wastes or during the decay process.

We’ll be going “afield” in early April to collect a couple water samples that the University will process and later return results that will tell us the frequency of various vertebrate species are present in our sampling habitat.   It will be a good class discussion beforehand to frame a question that this applied genetics testing can potentially answer…and help us determine where to sample.  

What a great opportunity to see how genetics can be applied to our environmental studies!  Thank you to the University of Maine and to Ms. Palmer!

Port Clyde Co-Op History with 7th Generation Fisherman, Gerry Cushman

An Invitation

We asked Mr. Cushman to speak to our class, thinking of the recent flooding of the Co-Op and wondering about his experiences fishing for many years and how he observes changes that are happening because of climate change.  The following is a re-telling of the information he shared with the class.

The Port Clyde Co-Op

Gerry Cushman is a 7th generation, Port Clyde fisherman.  The Co-Op was founded by 14 fishermen, 7 of whom were Cushmans, and started with rented property in the 1960’s.  The fishermen were concerned about having continued access to the working waterfront and being able to command a better price for their lobsters.  How the Co-Op works is that the members use the property while they fish, and when they retire from fishing, it is passed on to the next generation.  You don’t have to be a family member to join.  Today, a share of the Co-Op is $5,800. When the Co-Op was formed, they didn’t worry about flooding, or climate change.  

The Co-op provided fishermen with access to the water along the sardine factory site (Factory Hill) and where Linda Bean’s wharf is.  Then, the property that is the Co-Op today, which is opposite the Port Clyde Post Office, was purchased for $160,000 in the 1980’s.  The dock and the property needed a lot of work, and the members continued to make improvements.  When hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 and caused devastating flooding federal legislation was passed and where properties in flood zones had mortgages, they now required flood insurance.  The Co-Op’s flood insurance cost $42,000 each year.   Plans were made to pay off the mortgage by raising the cost of individual shares so that the flood insurance could be dropped .

After the mortgage was paid off, the Co-Op applied and received nearly half of million dollars of grant money ($460K) and built a brand new dock in 2008, which they opened to the public.  At this time, the wiring and hydraulics of the buildings were raised four feet, with future flooding in mind.  The December flooding (Dec. 23, 2022) was about two feet and because of the foresight of elevating the wiring and hydraulics, thousands of dollars of damage has been avoided. However, there is undermining happening, and with recent underwater cameras to survey the condition of the property, there are holes underneath the bait shed.

Changing Fisheries

Mr. Cushman commented how change over the years had been happening at a relatively slow pace, but has since accelerated, and today he feels that things are now changing even faster. 

When he was a kid (he’s 52 years old), ground fishing was “king”.  There were 28 different boats from Port Clyde ground fishing.  Now there are two: Randy Cushman and Buzz Libby.  Shrimping was one of his favorite times of the year in Port Clyde.  He described the activity as “its own city in the winter”.  Peddler trucks would arrive and buy trays of shrimp to sell on the sides of the road somewhere else in Maine as well as out of state.  Two to three million pounds of shrimp were caught by Port Clyde boats and at a dollar a pound, that was two to three million dollars in our community.  Scalloping used to be a big fishery here too.  Although its coming back, for twenty-five to thirty years it had been in decline from disease and “gray meat”.  Urchins were another local fishery.  Over a million pounds of urchins were landed here.  Today, our fisheries are all in “one basket”;  lobstering.  

To share some immediate concerns about the future of lobster, he mentioned regulations to protect the Right Whales. To rig a trap for rope-less fishing costs $800 a line. This year, a six year pause in the requirement for rope-less traps has been passed by the US Congress because of lobbying by well-educated lobstermen.  Gerry made a point to advocate for all to get a good education; to learn how to speak and to learn how legislation is passed because lobbying for the fishing industry is something he has had to do for nearly 30 years. He has travelled to Washington, D.C. and is personally known by Maine’s Senators.  He also  made a point to say that bullying and being rude is not a way to bring about change.  You will get more accomplished in the long run by being respectful, not by bullying. 

He explained fishermen’s concerns about offshore wind plans.  The best fishing grounds are also the areas where the best locations for wind power.  The size of our gym is about the size of a platform for one turbine.  If that turbine were located in 100 fathoms, then the anchor chains, which would come from each of the four corners of the platform would need to extend three times that depth, or from about here (at school) to Wildcat.  Each chain link is the size of a Volkswagen.  Despite claims that fishing can occur around the platforms, he states that wind power companies and the companies that insure them would not allow fishing in those areas. 

Thinking back to the fishing history of Port Clyde, he described that the past 30 years were “like Tom Brady’s playbook”.  You could just follow the playbook.  The fisheries were constant and every year was like the previous year.  Now, there are shedders (soft-shell lobsters) year round (instead of only in the warmer months.) Lobsters are about the only fishery that has shown amazing growth.  When Mr. Cushman started lobstering, perhaps 40-50 million pounds were landed in the state.  Today, 100 million pounds are landed in Maine!  However, more lobsters are moving offshore.  Twenty years ago, maybe 40% of the catch was offshore, and 60% from inshore.  Today it’s flipped; 40% are caught inshore and 60% offshore.  To catch offshore there are more winds and fuel costs.

When asked if he could imagine new fisheries emerging in the future, he spoke how pogies are now an important fishery, how the scallops are coming back and that Stellwagen Bank can be fished by Mainers, and how black sea bass are now being caught in Portland.  In the future, perhaps black sea bass may become a fishery.  He said how opportunity is out there.  He mentioned how all these resources are controlled by quotas and from time to time, the Maine Coast Fisherman’s Association (founded by Port Clyde fishermen in 2006) buys quota so that the opportunity for future fishing of those species is preserved.  He emphatically stated that the resource is the most important thing.  You have to protect the resource and the resource needs to be put first.  He went on to make the point that maybe these students could lobster today, but to be educated and do something else as well and perhaps do lobstering on the side, in case it won’t be there in the future. 

When asked about the conservation of alewives and their successful runs providing a source of spring bait, Gerry lit up and said how alewives were his favorite bait, and how springtime was his favorite time of year.  He described spring and return of alewives as “bringing life”, since so many birds and animals depend on the fish.  He told us how the alewives were a wiped out fisheries until dams were removed and the harvests regulated to allow fish to breed.  At its worst, he would wait seven days for as few as three trays of bait.  He stated the alewives have experienced a “fantastic recovery” and are a great story.  

He reminisced that he went to school where the town offices are now.  At Christmas break, they had just finished building our school (our current building) and when they came back from vacation, they were the first students to be in our school that we have now.  He remembered how the Shop and Home Ec classes were in the buildings along the shore (past the town office) and when the alewives arrived that spring, Mr. Philbrook, the shop teacher and Mrs. Garrett, the Home Ec teacher allowed kids outside to see and watch.  He said that was the first time he really had any awareness of the alewives. Mr. Cushman remembers watching the fish move up Ripley Creek with a wake behind them, just like a boat’s wake, and how the fish flipped themselves into the marsh and all the osprey and seagulls followed making it that much more exciting.

As our time ended, we gathered around him for a picture; with much to think about and grateful for his time and caring to help teach this next generation about their heritage and both the opportunity and the challenges for Port Clyde fisheries in the future.  Thank you, Mr. Cushman!

STUDENT REFLECTIONS

A main theme he focused on was how the local fisherman have overcome the past challenges they have faced. From finding a way to pay off their mortgage, to finding a way to prevent major flood damage. I believe the Cushmans and other big families in the area have helped our community greatly and we might not have such a successful fishing community like we now if it weren’t for all the families’ hard work.

I would ask him what would be the one thing you want to pass down to younger generations?

He…talked about the future of his hometown and the effects of flooding. I learned that the Co-Op is built to withstand flooding by raising the buildings and making sure electronics were out of the way of flooding. I also learned that there were many different types of fishing happening in Port Clyde in the past. Now there are  only a couple like lobstering  and scalloping. Another thing that surprised me was that lobstering is going downhill and lobstering is one of the main sources keeping Port Clyde alive.

Would you have chosen lobstering as your first job if you knew it would turn out like this?

He really emphasized the differences between today and when he was a kid…how the business has changed.

I didn’t realize that the government had so much control over fishing communities. Sure they don’t have complete reign but they can tell fishermen to use rope-less traps. I knew alewives were an important part of our town’s history but it is really amazing to hear the stories of kids going down to the marsh to watch the run. I was surprised by how many other fish and shellfish species used to be caught on our peninsula. Now it’s mainly lobsters that are caught mostly because other creatures have moved to colder waters. Soon lobster will follow. Things need to change in order for the fishing community to survive. 

It was surprising to think about how big a part fishing really is for our community  and that without it the community might not even be around…sea level rise is an important topic we need to address it and that it really does effect our community in different ways.