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Marine Uses

Commercial Fishing

The marine resources of the New Meadows River and the fisheries they support have played an important part in the regional economy since Thomas Purchase, Brunswick's first recorded resident, began trading his catches of sturgeon and salmon with Europe back in the mid-1600s. And despite the diverse economy that exists today, the fisheries continue to be an important part of the local economy, especially in the small communities of Harpswell and Phippsburg.

Although the stocks of sturgeon and salmon exploited by Purchase have all but disappeared, today's commercial fisheries are, for the most part, centered on marine species. According to the landings data collected by the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), lobstering is the most important of the inshore fisheries coast-wide, and this undoubtedly applies to the NMR as well. Other important inshore fisheries include soft-shell clams, European oysters, scallops, mussels, quahogs, crabs, sea urchins, and kelp; emerging fisheries include sea cucumbers, whelks, periwinkles, and, more recently, green crabs. Smelts and menhaden, also known as pogies, are also fished within the area when schools move inshore; however, neither species has been seen in any quantity within the past five years. Shrimp and offshore ground fish stocks, including haddock, cod, flounder, etc., are fished by a small offshore fleet based in Cundy's Harbor and Sebasco, but clearly these are well beyond the influence of the NMR.

Unfortunately, quantifying the magnitude and importance of the inshore fisheries to the New Meadows River area economy has proven nearly impossible. The DMR maintains complete records of all fishing licenses, including addresses, and it is therefore possible to count the number of licenses held for individual fisheries within any given town. In the case of Harpswell, for example, 65 lobster fishing licenses were issued to residents of the town in 2001. However, segregating out only those licensees who fish either in part or exclusively along the New Meadows River is nearly impossible. Few fishermen fish exclusively within the New Meadows River area, thus most catches represent resources from multiple areas. Consequently, it is impossible to determine a NMR-specific level of effort. Similarly, landings are reported by dealers, not individual fishermen, thus lobsters, for example, caught by a NMR fisherman who sells to a Portland dealer are reported as Portland landings, not NMR landings. This same dilemma applies to all of the other fisheries, with the exception of soft-shell clams.

Soft-shell clams

The soft-shell clam and alewife fisheries are the only inshore fisheries over which municipalities have been granted jurisdiction and management responsibility. The right to manage soft-shell clams was granted in 1963. Fishery management within each municipality is administered according to individually developed town shellfish ordinances, all of which are based on the Model Shellfish Ordinance developed by the Maine DMR. Each town has a Shellfish or Marine Resources Committee which is responsible for administering the ordinance and overseeing all activities associated with the management of the fishery, including licensing, municipal law enforcement, resource conservation efforts, etc., and periodically updating the ordinance.

All municipalities that have enacted local shellfish ordinances are required to provide the Maine DMR with annual reports on the status of their respective soft-shell clam resources and management programs. Table 9, on the following page, summarizes the data reported by the four towns for the year 2000, the most recent information currently available. The primary shellfish growing areas along the NMR over which municipal jurisdiction is applied are shown in Figure 18 on the next following page.

Table. 9 Annual Municipal Shellfish Program Review for 2000

Figure 18. New Meadows River major shellfish harvesting areas

All of the towns along the NMR limit the number of municipal commercial shellfish harvesting licenses they issue. Each town therefore conducts shellfish stock assessment surveys in all or a portion of its shellfish growing areas each year to ensure that stocks are not being excessively depleted and to support any increases or decreases in the number of licenses issued. As a result, unlike other fisheries, NMR-specific data are available for soft-shell clams that allow some estimation of the magnitude of the resource and the economic value it represents. Table 10, below, summarizes the most recent available data for the NMR shellfish growing areas; unfortunately, these data are incomplete and consequently do not represent the complete magnitude or total value of the resource.

Table 10. New Meadows River Shellfish Flat Productivity

State-wide production comparison

A recent change in Maine's laws requires that all commercially harvested shellfish be identified by tag as to the Town in which they were harvested so individual town production can therefore be determined. However, the reported landings for each town include shellfish harvested from all areas of the towns, not specific flats or areas, thus it is not possible to determine NMR-specific landings from these data alone. Nevertheless, to put the magnitude and value of the regionally-produced resource into proper perspective, Table 11, below, compares the individual and combined landings for all shellfish growing areas of the four NMR area towns to Maine's total landings.

Table 11a. Maine Soft-shell clam landings (reported as pounds of shellstock)

Table 11b. Maine Soft-shell clam landings (reported as bushels @ 50 lbs./bu)

Considering the relatively small amount of shellfish growing area represented by these towns compared to the total area along Maine's coast, 15.2% of total production is remarkably high and indicates the exceptional productivity of the flats in these eastern Casco Bay towns. Even if the incomplete NMR production of 16,735 bushels is used, this still represents 7.5% of Maine's total production.

With respect to economic value, the ex-vessel bushel price, or price paid to the harvester directly, varies seasonally depending on demand and out-of-state supplies, among other factors. During the peak summer demand the price paid per bushel can exceed $120, but during the winter when demand falls off the price may drop to $50 or less. Because the price is higher and weather conditions are considerably more favorable in summer, the majority of clams are harvested during the summer and hence at the higher price. Assuming an average annual price of $70-$80 per bushel, Table 12, shows the ex-vessel value of the NMR area production, based on the 16,735 estimated bushels harvested in 2001.

Table 12. Economic Value of estimated NMR area production for 2001

The economic benefit derived from a bushel of clams does not end with the harvester since additional economic benefits accrue from post-harvest handling and processing. A Casco Bay Estuary Project study in 1993-94 showed that the benefit accrued from post-harvest activities, such as shucking, transportation, and retail and restaurant sales, can result in a total local economic benefit 3.0-3.1 times greater than the ex-vessel value (Heinig, et al., 1994). Again, as Table 12 shows, the estimated $1.34 million ex-vessel value may therefore actually result in a total economic benefit to the area in the order of $3.3 to $4.0 million dollars.

Aquaculture

The sheltered conditions of the upper New Meadows River, particularly the lakes, combined with the high productivity of the area since the early 1970s when an experimental oyster farm was established in the Lower Lake. According the Maine DMR Aquaculture Lease Inventory, June 2001, there are six leaseholds in the area, including two long-term commercial or municipal sites and four short-term experimental sites. Table 13 provides some details on these current leaseholds.

Table 13. Aquaculture leaseholds within the New Meadows River

More recently, SUG, Inc. (Shrimp Under Glass), has constructed a greenhouse off the Hill Road in West Bath that houses a series of shore-based, recirculating culture tanks to grow the freshwater shrimp, Litopaneaus vannamei. Production is expected to begin in early 2002.

Boating and recreational fishing

Recreational boating, both sail and motor, and recreational fishing have long been important activities along the New Meadows River. The New Meadows Marina, at the head of the river, offers dock space and boating services, including waste holding tank pump-out facilities. Although expansion of dock space is limited, sales consistently increased over the past several years, particularly within the last two, indicating continually increasing usage of the area for recreational boating. Nevertheless, the New Meadows River does not current suffer from vessel congestion.

Several other sheltered mooring areas exist along the river, most notably the upper reaches of the New Meadows River, the area between Bombazine Island and the Gurnet Bridge, Mill Cove in West Bath, Winnegance Bay, Cundy's Harbor, and The Basin in Phippsburg. The latter, due to its exceptionally sheltered location, is used extensively by sailing vessels. The fact that some vessels often stay for extended periods has prompted concern over possible impacts to water quality in the area as a result of overboard waste discharge. This concern has led to the previously mentioned investigation of new pump-out facility locations in the lower section.

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