Downeast Maine

Grand Lake Stream Craft Festival ... a little spot of gentrification near hardscrabble backwoods Princeton Maine ...

Low Tide: lobster boat, pilot boat, trawler ... the black-hulled pilot boat was later sunk when the steel-framed earth-filled pier in the background collapsed on it (and an adjacent sailing schooner was damaged) (no injuries, but the night-time caretaker on the schooner was "shaken up") ... (the IP "View on Map" Imagery option shows the brand new concrete replacement pier) ...

Maine Lobstermen have to be warriors now -- under attack by: habitat degradation caused by global warming, and by Canadian lobster fishing regulations that favor Canadian fisheries, and by prime lobster fishing areas being reserved for windfarms with questionable value, and by new US gear regulations that are to protect Right Whales (regulations that individual lobstermen cannot meet; that only large corporate boats can meet) (and all gear-related Right Whale deaths have occurred in Canadian waters; so why is US implementing unnecessary regulations anyway?) ...

High tide at Eastport: Blue Tugs, blue collar work ... it is better when these tugs are out working, because the struggling economy in the far reaches of coastal Maine needs every boost it can get. (In the background, across Friars Passage, is Campobello Island, New Brunswick Canada.)

Aboard the "Young Guns" lobster fishing boat leaving Cutler Maine harbor. "Young Guns" alludes to the concept: "old guys better get out of the way; another generation of lobster fishermen is coming along". The "WA" emblem on the ballcap is for Washington Academy, a private secondary (high school) founded in 1792 in East Machias Maine.

... maybe it is a boathook of some kind ... and this is what happens if a person uses oil-based paint on damp cedar shingles ... and definitely a rural way to keep the door latched shut ...

Questionable maintenance and renovation skills; but a new window frame has been installed.

A little chapel behind Center Street Congregational Church which itself whitely dominates the skyline of Machias Maine. More than a religious building, the main church structure is a community center for a variety of functions, including The Downeast Blueberry Festival every August.

Reynolds Brook flows into Orange River, which is unseen along the forest edge in the background; all are part of The Orange River Conservation Area, one of 15 tracts protected by The Downeast Coastal Conservacy. The Orange River parcel includes a 6 mile (9.7 kilometer) easily navigated flat-water canoe trail. Further downstream toward where the Orange River drains into tidewater estuary are two almost 200-year-old dams which establish the water levels and really the whole ecosystem of the lower Orange River drainage. Like all dams in Maine, they are under attack by activists who want streams to be totally accessible to migrating alewives and salmon, even if it means destruction of viable existing ecosystems that have developed over the recent centuries.

(Suggest: view full-screen.)

(Suggest: Full Screen view) ... Milkweed Tussock Moth Caterpillars are poisonous, as evidenced by nature's characteristic warning colors. They become poisonous by eating milkweed leaves which contain a cardiac poison. So, nothing eats them. But the adult Tussock Moth is comparatively drab brown, and would be prey only to bats. It also is poisonous, but at night-time and without bright coloration, the adult moth has evolved an organ that warns away bats with an ultrasonic signal easily detected by bats. The signal warns the bats to avoid a noxious distasteful mouthful.

(Suggest: view Full Screen) ... "Bow" in English has many meanings -- tie a ribbon in a bow ... a performer takes a bow ... shoot an arrow with a bow ... OR ---> the pointy front end of a vessel ... (oh, and can you find the sentinel seagull?) ...

The open transoms on these lobster boats facilitates dumping lobster traps en masse ... all the lobster traps are tied together individually and to an anchor; the anchor is dropped and the boat keeps motoring along, pulling the traps out one-at-a-time in a long row. These boats are run by individuals (a captain and a sternman) and may be put out of business by government regulations aimed at protecting endangered Right Whales from line entanglement. But no Right Whales have died from entanglement in U.S. waters, only in Canadian waters; and the regulations favor large "factory" lobster boats ... so the local fishermen who have been doing this for generations are frustrated/angry.

Porter Library, Machias Maine; Romanesque Revival style in ashlar granite, completed 1893. Lack of funding a decade ago nearly caused it to be closed, and is still barely limping along.