By Sarah Osorio, Sierra Club Maine Volunteer
Sierra Club Maine held its annual celebration on November 5th. Kelsey Halliday Johnson, Sierra Club Maine volunteer leader and executive committee member, facilitated the virtual event, which featured five panelists and three local films focused on the Gulf of Maine. The event kicked off with a look back at the many impressive Sierra Club Maine accomplishments in 2021, including:
- Stopping the Midcoast fracked gas line
- Passing 52 ambitious environmental bills in Augusta
- Passing legislation to start a green bank
- Filing a lawsuit to stop the CMP corridor
- Educating over 1,000 Mainers on various environmental and social justice topics
- Creating an Equity, Inclusion, and Justice team and a plan to better support Black, Indigenous, and the broader spectrum of people of color
- Empowering over 100 volunteers through advocacy training
Jonathan Fulford presented the volunteer awards beginning with the Volunteer of the Year, which was awarded to Patricia Rubert-Nason for her extraordinary testimony in quality and quantity. The Outstanding Volunteer award was given to David Gibson for his work on the employee divestment in the State of Maine and the Green Bank. Two Public Service for the Environment Awards were presented to Representative Maggie O’Neil for her work on divestment of PERS, and Representative Stanley Zeigler for his work with the Green Bank.
The program for the evening focused on how climate change is affecting the Gulf of Maine and the people who are witnessing this shift first hand. Throughout the program attendees heard stories from the working waterfront, people changing industries, researchers, and activists. Riley Stevenson, one such activist and panelist shared her film, “Changing Seas, Reflections on the Future of the Fishing Industry.” The film highlighted Maine youth reliant on the coastal fisheries, which are being significantly affected by climate change.
The screening of “The Gilded Trap,” a short and powerful documentary by Ashley Siana, profiled Jamien Hallowell, a young Maine lobster fisherman, and Dr. Richard Wahle, a marine biologist studying the changing lobster population within the Gulf of Maine. The film concluded with the following statement, “Over the past three decades climate change has led to the collapse of southern New England’s lobster fishery, but has also driven the historic lobster boom to the north in the Gulf of Maine, making lobster the most valuable single fishery in the United States. In turn, the boom has led fishermen to a perilous dependency on one fishery. How long Maine’s lobster boom will last remains uncertain.”
Today, Maine is singularly dependent on one fishery, and that is lobster. With the Gulf of Maine warming faster than 99% of oceans worldwide, the future of this fishery is in jeopardy. But people like Bri Warner, President and CEO of Atlantic Sea Farms, and her colleague Bob Baines, a lobsterman and kelp farmer, are determined to find an alternative solution for the people of Maine whose livelihoods depend on Maine fisheries. Bri and Bob explained how kelp farming and aquaculture are helping to diversify income streams in the face of climate change.
In “The Sea Farmers,” a short documentary by Tidal 9 Fisheries, a father and daughter, who make their living fishing and lobstering on the coast of Maine, were profiled. Recently, they have started kelp farming to help supplement and diversify their income.
Throughout the night panelists shared their stories of climate commitment and the important work they are doing to better understand climate change in Maine.
Michèle LaVigne, faculty of earth and oceanographic department at Bowdoin, discussed her research on the geologic record of ocean change under past climate transitions. Currently, she is examining the chemical signatures preserved in clams and coral and algae to gather past temperature and PH data in the Gulf of Maine with the hope that this research can be used to address gaps in policy.
Dr. Jason Goldstein, Research Director at Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, shared some insight into the many stewardship, education, and research projects they are involved with, and discussed their work measuring short term variability and long term change in coastal systems.
To conclude the evening, panelists each shared their hope for Maine and the cherished Maine communities we call home. You can view the event recording here.