Three long-time supporters of Maine fishermen and Maine fish pitched their plans for a community marine resource center in Stonington at a gathering in North Haven. It was the first of several such meetings in fishing communities from Penobscot Bay to Blue Hill Bay and into the eastern Gulf of Maine.
Robin Alden, Ted Ames and Ted Hoskins constitute a working committee organizing the Penobscot East Resource Center (PERC). PERC will serve fishermen in the Lobster Zone C area, including North Haven, Vinal-haven, Matinicus Island, Isle au Haut, Deer Isle and the Blue Hill peninsula.
The need for the center grew out of the trio’s experience with the Stonington Fisheries Alliance, a community alliance furthering community-based resource management.
Alden, former Commissioner of Marine Resources and a founder of Commercial Fisheries News, said that the Stonington Fisheries Alliance needed a center for meeting, working, planning and exchanging information – the same as other fishing communities. These small towns need basic capacity-building organizations that provide tools and resources.
With Stonington as a geographic and historic center for fishing in this area, the group looked to locate the resource center there. Currently they are investigating a building on the Stonington waterfront. The building is owned jointly by the towns of Stonington and Isle au Haut.
Alden, Ames and Hoskins looked to other examples of community resource centers for information. They traveled to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, near Digby, to study the center there. And they turned to two neighboring centers, the Cobscook Bay Resource Center in Eastport and the Downeast Institute (formerly Beals Island Regional Shellfish Hatchery) on Beals Island.
Both Will Hopkins, founder of the Cobscook center, and Dr. Brian Beal, founder of the Downeast Institute, were on hand to explain how these centers evolved and worked to aid local fishermen.
They emphasized the need for technical, organizational and administrative support that the centers provide.
Home-grown knowledge was an underlying theme of the meeting. Hopkins, a native of North Haven, arranged for the meeting at the gallery of his brother, artist Eric Hopkins. Refreshments included Maine smoked salmon, North Haven oysters and Maine goat cheeses.
The working committee is developing a feasibility study and business plan for renovating the building and working with the committee overseeing the property before presenting a plan to the selectmen of both towns.
The Sudbury Foundation through the Saltwater Network provided an initial grant of $35,000. The funding plan for the project includes a mix of bond funds, foundation support, collaborative research grants and private funding.
Funds to support any of these three centers may be sent to the Cobscook Bay Resource Center, 4 Favor Street, Eastport, Maine 04631.