CAPE ELIZABETH — This may come as a newsflash, but lobsters don’t live
long outside their natural environment.
Pluck one off the ocean’s bottom, set it down in the
noonday sun, and it’ll give up the ghost in as little as 10 or 15 minutes. For
those who make their living off the Cape Elizabeth coast, getting their catch
to market is often a race to beat the clock.
In as little time as possible, lobstermen have to
transfer their haul from boats moored in Kettle Cove onto a skiff, then land
the smaller boat and transfer their crates to a waiting truck. Any delay can
lead to crates full of dead lobsters, and a significant financial loss.
“You can try and keep them wet – we use soaked burlap,
soaked blankets, whatever we can – but you can still lose 10 or dozen,” said
Ernie Tweedie, at a forum held Monday at Cape Elizabeth Town Hall. “It gets
real frustrating, because, you know, that’s your livelihood.”
That’s why the lobstermen who work the waters off Kettle
Cove are asking the town and the state to unclog congestion on the one usable
boat landing in Two Lights State Park, located in a section adjacent to
Crescent Beach known alternately as Boat Cove, or Stump Cove, depending on who
you ask.
“A soft-shell lobster is incredibly vulnerable to heat,”
said Davis Harriman. “We go to come ashore and we have to wait because they’ve
got the access all gummed up.”
Like Tweedie, Harriman is one of about eight fishermen
who still earn all, or most, of their income in the waters of Kettle Cove.
Sometimes, he says, the roadblock to his daily dollar
might be a gaggle of canoes and kayaks, along with associated camping gear,
lined up waiting to launch. Other times, someone with no understanding of the
tides has tried to launch a pleasure boat at the wrong time, resulting in a
stuck truck.
“On a Saturday afternoon, when you’re coming in with a
couple of crates of lobsters, they just sit there,” said Tweedie. “They have no
concept of what you’re handling. So, you have to wait until they get their
canoe or whatever down there in the water, and then they have to make five more
trips to their car for their cooler, and firewood, and things like that.”
Dan Harriman, who instigated Monday’s public pow-wow,
says it’s a problem that’s been growing over the past 20 years or so.
He and his brother, Davis, belong to a family that lost
land in Kettle Cove about a century ago, when the Maine Legislature took the
shorefront by eminent domain to create the state park. At that time, he said,
Augusta guaranteed continued access for fisherman, as well as to the
public.
Things worked OK for several decades, thanks to the
number of access points, many built in the days of private ownership. But the
state has largely taken a non-interventionist policy to the shoreline. Where
man once controlled the cove, nature has been left to mold the area as it sees
fit. The result has been a steady deterioration of launching points – even the
seawall has been left to fend for itself during the past 40 years, to the point
where it’s reportedly begun to crumble in some sections. Today, only a couple
of access points remain, with Boat Cove the best of the lot. But even it can
become a hot mess at high tide.
“I don’t blame them [recreational users] for not going to
those other spots,” said Dan Harriman, pointing on a map to a ramp on the south
end of the cove, which now pitches at a 45-degree angle, as well as other spots
on Crescent Beach that often end up “knee deep in rotting seaweed.”
“Those places just suck,” he said.
“We don’t want to deny these guys access to the water,”
said Davis Harriman. “Most of us own jet skis and wind surfers and kayaks as
well as lobster boats. We use them in the cove, as well. We just don’t want to
end up in the situation any longer of coming in with two crates of soft-shelled
lobster in 95 degrees, and getting to Portland with two or three dozen dead
lobsters,” he said.
Monday’s forum touched on many topics. For instance, Town
Manager Michael McGovern fielded complaints about old moorings in the cove that
create a hazard for lobster boats, while lobstermen themselves were faulted for
abandoning traps, which pile up high enough to cost the site “one or two”
parking spaces each season.
Still, the primary focus on the meeting seemed to be
shared access.
“If we had a loading and unloading area for the
recreational users, people wouldn’t be so prone to come over to Boat Cove,”
said Harriman. “The problem is, you can’t ask people not to be in the
commercial access area if they have no other access.”
John Polackwich, from the Maine Bureau of Parks and
Lands, noted several times that he is merely “a foot soldier,” but added he
would talk to his “superiors” about creating a new public access point to the
cove, or else renovating one of the existing, little-used locations.
However, not everyone sees that as the best possible
solution.
“The homeowners in the area might have some concerns
about increased access,” said Chuck Redman. “Be careful about that. We don’t
want to deny anybody a living, but how much access is really necessary?”
Meanwhile, Tweedie said creating new access points would
do little to alleviate Boat Cove congestion unless those sites also come with
new parking areas.
“I don’t think it’s a lack of now access now,” he said.
“I think it’s parking. Those guys with kayaks, canoes and all that stuff, they
use Boat Cove because it’s the nearest parking. On-street parking is limited
and the shortest route for them to carry their gear from the lot is Boat Cove.”
McGovern pointed out that simply fixing up the Boat Cove
launch site also ranks low on the list of alternatives.
“The problem we’ve dealt with in the past is that if you
make it too attractive, then it becomes more of a destination attraction than
it already is,” he said.
Town CouncilorCaitlin Jordan said it would be “easy
enough” to pass an ordinance making people financially liable for losses
suffered by lobsterman due to dalliances on the boat launch.
But simply passing an ordinance, or lobbying the
Legislature to control who can use the ramp, and when, may prove unworkable.
“You can create all these laws and ordinances and stuff
like that,” said Police Chief Neil Williams, “but then you need people to be
able to enforce it. Who’s going to sit there day in and day out to look at
[parking] permits?”
Polackwich said he’s already sitting on two vacant
positions in the park.
“I’m not making excuses for Kettle Cove,” he said. “I’m
just saying, there’s nobody assigned there right now.”
Polackwich did promise to research whether cove access
has been codified anywhere, or if the commercial sites exist only because of a
“gentleman’s agreement.”
“We need to do some research,” he said. “Let’s be clear
on the rules before we start changing anything.”
Whatever the rules, if any, Polackwich did admit that he
gave up trying to chase off recreational users of the Boat Cove launch last
July. At that time, he said, a person whom he refused to name (other than to
describe as “a former fisherman, you might be surprised to know who”)
complained when denied access.
“My policy last year was, ‘No launching out of Boat
Cove,’” said Polackwich. “The fella, he called the commissioner, then the
commissioner called me and said, ‘Change the policy.’”
Although the push-pull between residential and commercial
users of Boat Cove started long before last July, many in the audience appeared
shocked to hear that Polackwich has given up even trying to separate the two
sides. This despite signs in the area restricting recreational access to after
5 p.m. and any time on Sunday.
“So, you’re hands are tied by somebody who knows
somebody, who knows somebody, who made the right phone call to the right
person, and now you have to change your policy?” asked Tweedie, incredulously.
“Exactly,” said Polackwich. “I’m just a foot soldier.”
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