June 1st the state of Penobscot Bay - a teach-in on dredging, fishing, lobstering, tourism and governance.

On Saturday June First, from 2  to 4pm, join the Friends of Penobscot Bay   several bay area legislators and many others at an information gathering event on the Sears Island causeway, to consider the state of Penobscot Bay's shipping, lobstering, recreational fishing, tourism, and other bay-dependent businesses, and the health of the bay's environment.  

Whether you can stay a few minutes or for hours,  (or even by speakerphone: 207-593-9242 after 2pm on the first)  your insights and suggestions will make a difference

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TOPICS INCLUDE

SHIPPING. Searsport hosts a bulk products and petroleum.  Rockland sends cement to greater New England by barge. Modular industrial machinery comes down from Orrington,  Forest products from Bucksport.  Every summer hundreds of sailboats ply the bay.  What sort of additional commercial industrial and recreational vessels do we want to attract to  our bay's many harbors and ports? 

FISHING. Is the bay producing more fish & shellfish or less? Where did the mussels go?  Is global change bringing southern species like blue crabs up to Penobscot Bay? Will century-old sediments buried in the bay floor be lieverated into the water column by the Searsport Harbor expansion plan, taintinjg the bay's seafood with methyl mercury? 

TOURISM: Are the bay's scenic vistas  by land and by sea being conserved?  How clear are the state's  processes for protecting unspoiled scenic views that attract tourists and their dollars?

AGENCIES: How well are environmental and fishery agencies conserving Penobscot Bay resources? Are they careful or are they  rubber stamping to placate?

LEGISLATURE: What has the legislature passed  this year that affects Penobscot Bay?  For good or ill?

NGOs: What is their scorecard on protecting and conserving Penobscot Bay natural resources?  Island Institute,  NRCM. Sierra Club etc.

CRYSTAL BALL  What can the scallopers of Stonington,  the mills of Bucksport, the energy businesses and tourism resorts of Searsport, the windjammers of Camden, the lobstermen  of Port Clyde  and all the rest of those who depend on Penobscot Bay look forward to in the next five years? The next fifty years?

Please attend on June 1st event on the Sears Island causeway  (even by speakerphone: call 207-593-9242)

Maine's biggest bay depends on it!