Lobster traps stacked 10 feet tall on the wharf, with as many colorful buoys stashed neatly inside each one. Peapods and dories floating nearby, with lines attached to a cleat on the edge of the dock. Fishing boats tied snug in the harbor’s mooring field further out, bows all pointed in the same direction, into the wind.
It is an iconic image of Maine’s working waterfront, and it tells a timeless story of communities whose economy, culture, and character are intertwined with the sea.
Hauling traps, mending nets, digging clams, raking worms, wrinkling, dip netting, seining… you can see all these activities in Downeast, Maine, where men and women make their living from the sea. Folks in Downeast Maine rely on the sea, and are fierce protectors of its bounty. Not only do they fish here, but people also seed clams to restore the flats, grow salmon for release in native brooks, and truck alewives around dams to help them get them to their spawning habitat.
Downeast, you can witness resource harvest and resource conservation hand in hand, and that’s pretty unique!
