The maritime heritage of Downeast Maine is celebrated and illustrated at forty-five locations in Hancock and Washington counties that are part of a new interpretive trail launched June 21.
The trail recognizes the importance of fishing to Maine’s coastal communities. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the proportion of Maine workers employed in commercial fishing industries is more than ten times the national percentage. Nowhere is this more true than in eastern Maine. Hancock and Washington counties employ more commercial fishermen and account for the majority of clams and lobsters landed in the state. Many of these same fishermen also harvest elvers, alewives, smelt, crabs, herring, shrimp, scallops, urchins, worms, and seaweed. Sea farmers raise Atlantic salmon, mussels, and oysters; and fish hatcheries in the region produce endangered sea-run salmon for restoration in Maine rivers.
Today’s fishermen continue a centuries-long tradition of obtaining sustenance from the sea. Signs of this heritage abound: from fishing weir designs passed down from native Wabanaki inhabitants, to the foundations of sardine canneries that once crowded the working waterfront, to fish houses, salt works and the wooden vessels that sailed into Downeast harbors loaded with cod from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
This contemporary and historic fisheries heritage was celebrated June 21 at the official “launch” of the Downeast Fisheries Trail at Cobscook Bay State Park. Partners unveiled a new interpretive sign at the public boat launch during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Two additional new signs were installed at Morong Cove in Lubec and Shackford Head State Park in Eastport. The Downeast Fisheries Trail includes locations from the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport to Campobello International Park in New Brunswick, Canada. In between are museums and historical societies, conservation areas, views of active fishing harbors, and points of historic interest: former flake yards for drying fish, shacks for mending nets, fly-fishing pools and alewife runs.
“The scale of changes facing fisheries in communities today is even greater than the decline of the sardine industry,” says project coordinator Natalie Springuel, a marine extension associate with Maine Sea Grant. “Groundfish like cod were a major fishery up until the 1980s, but that fishery is now virtually non-existent. As fisheries decline, these once-remote coastal communities face a loss of working waterfront. The rich fisheries heritage that defines this region and the quality of place that locals and visitors cherish is threatened on many fronts.”
Partners in Washington County initiated the Downeast Fisheries Trail in 2000. With support from the Maine Community Foundation and the Maine Office of Tourism, Maine Sea Grant worked with Sunrise County Economic Council, DownEast Resource Conservation & Development Council, the Lobster Institute, and others to expand the trail into Hancock County, with input from local communities.
Maps, photographs, and descriptions of all the sites can be found by clicking here. Printed maps of the trail can be obtained by calling Maine Sea Grant at 207.581.1435 or via email by clicking here.
Photos of New Trail Celebrates Maine’s Fisheries
