MDOT may use stimulus money to destroy Searsport's Long Cove Ledge and Sears Island fish nursery to help container ships,

The date was fitting. On Friday the 13th of March, the Legislature's Transportation Committee was given a plan by MDOT Commissioner Cole to use 10.5 million dollars of federal stimulus money to (1) destroy a third of the Wasumkeag Fish Nursery's juvenile cod habitat with dredging, and (2) use explosives to destroy a nearby ledge used by salmon and other fish during their brackish transitions between river and bay.

Here's a 7 minute excerpt Cole and Damon are going back and forth about using a chunk of MDOT $timulus money for dredging near Sears island (mp3 file) And about giving money to Montreal Maine Atlantic railroad, and about blowing up the Long Cove Ledge for easier shipping.

The attack on the estuary would come in two waves: dredging out the the northern most sheltered third of the Nursery shoal, and using explosives to destroy Long Cove Ledge - a shoaling ledge only 1 foot deep near its southern end, used by wild salmon during their Switchover from salt to fresh and vice versa.

Click here for the complete 20 minute recording of Cole and staff talking to the transportation committee about stimulus money for many projects, on March 13, 2009.