Penobscot Bay podcast

Rockland Maine poet laureate emeritus Kendall Merriam reads from his recent and past works

On November 21, 2015, Rockland poet Kendall Merriam visited WRFR's studio and read three poems and the introduction to his 1980s work Medvedb's Journal The reading starts with the recenty written "Bear Dance" a poetic tribute to Merriam's long time friend the late Gunnar Hansen. This is followed by a reading of Hansens introduction to Merriam's book "Medvedb's Journal". It is entitled Medved dances. Next: "An open Poem to ISIS" written in Thomaston in 2015. Followed by "At the c...

Maine Task force answers questions about Norwegian floating windpower plan

On May 23rd the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held a two hour virtual meeting of the Maine Ocean Energy Task Force to discuss next steps for reviewing energy giant Statoil's plan to deploy four deepwater wind turbines 12+ miles off Brunswick, Maine. The meeting was followed at 3pm by this 25 minute public conference call in which BOEM officialo Aditi Mirani led a question and answer session about the meeting and about where the Statoil plan presently stands

Maine Windpower Forum Rockport Maine, May 20, 2010 Part 3

Part 3 of May 20, 2010 meeting at Rockport Opera House, Rockport Maine. 50 Minutes Long. Topics: Plan for windfarm on Camden Hills's Ragged Mountain, and a question and answer session, including Des Fitzgerald of Principle Power about his company's offshore windmill designs

Maine Windpower Forum Rockport Maine, May 20, 2010 Part 2

Maine Windpower Forum Rockport Maine May 20,. 2010 Part 1

The Emperor Lays an Egg - read by Kalen Darney.

Emperors are known for many things, but only an amazing emperor - the Emperor Penguin- lays eggs. Find out how and why in this fascinating book by Brenda Z. Guiberson, illustrated by Joan Paley. Read to you by Kalen Darney, on WRFR Community Radio's Penobscot Bay Report for September 3, 2009

Energy Ocean: Obama's Dept of Interior sets course for US wave & tidal energy

On June 15, 2009 Maureen Bornholdt of the federal Office of Offshore Alternative Energy Programs gave this 40 minute keynote speech to the participants of Energy Ocean 09, at the Samoset Resort in Rockport Maine. Bornholdt describes how her office (a branch of the US Interior Department) has been given the mandate of rationalizing the exploitation of alternative ocean energy in federal and US EEZ waters. To that end she and her staff have put together a Framework to guide the gran...

Weekend Roundtable - Maine state prison warden, officials under self-investigation

Today's 30 minute podcast reviews an recent article by Kim Lincoln of Village Soup's Rockland Herald Gazette on the interim results of an investigation by OPEGA, Maine's Office of Program Evaluation & Government Accountability, into the wrongdoings of Maine state prison officials, including Warden Jeffery Merrill and assistant corrections commissioner Denise Lord. Interlaced with a few choice excerpts of Jimi Hendrix music Regrettably, the Legislature voted a few days ago to termin...

Sears Island defenders loudly cry foul at Maine Governor's "environment award" ceremony.

In this week's 24 minute long edition of the weekend roundtable, I talk about, and play an excerpt of, our band of grassroots activists hectoring Big Green, Big Government and Big Trade outside the governor's mansion in Augusta, Maine. The latest skirmish in our fight to keep the western third of 940 acre wild Sears island from being turned into railyard and container port, and the estuary's nursery shoals from being blasted and dredged to let container ships come close to the island...

Prison Solitaire - the fight against torture in Maine.

This week's Weekend Roundtable features a caller commenting on Maine's continuing use of torture in its prisons. He describes his own experience being put in sensory deprivation conditions during his incarceration for a marijuana offense. He also describes how difficult it is to get training at vocational schools in Maine if you are an ex-con. He also mentioned the protest against torture that took place at the Maine state prison's gate See photo. Today's podcast is fifteen minutes ...

Groundfish - nearshore and inshore industry could restart

On May 13, 2009 Robin Alden, executive Director of Penobscot East, and Jeff Smith of The nature Conservancy gave a presentation of the Maine Legislture's Marine Resources Committee. First Jeff Smith of TNC describes a plan, endorsed by MidCoast Fishermen's Association, Penobscot East, Island Institute and others, to use philanthropists to purchase federal groundfish permits. The permits would be limited to use by downeast Maine part time groundfishermen and other small boat fishers...

Penobscot Bay Scallopers Part 2- the ecological ethic at work

Scallopers Michael Keating and Arthur Alley talk for 33 minutes with WRFR Community Radio's Ron Huber about their fishery in southwest Penobscot Bay, about the regulators who rule their fisheries and about the importance of keeping the complete ecosystem of the Bay and Gulf of Maine healthy.

Scallopers prognosis for bay

On April 23, 2009 scallopers Arthur Alley and Michael Keating visited the studio of WRFR Community Radio in Rockland,to talk about scallops and the state of Penobscot Bay.

Open Maine Rivers - Kerry Hardy tells legislators.

Legislature's Natural Resources Committee held a public hearing on LD 1282 "An Act To Protect and Enhance Maine Marine Fisheries." The bill would requires the owners of hydropower dams in Maine to enable safe and reliable passage over or around them for Maine's diadromous fishes. This recording is 14 minutes of testimony by Kerry Hardy of Rockland, who lays out the historic distribution of diadromous fishes in Maine, their management over the last century and a half, and urges the...

Scallopers & DMR talk closed areas at meeting in Rockland

On April 8, 2009 Maine DMR hosted a meeting at the Rockland Ferry terminal to discuss potential closed aras within the waters of Penobscot Bay and Muscongus Bay. Listen to a 37 minute meeting of several dozen scallopers, led by Togue Braun, DMR's scallop expert

Scalloper Michael Keating of Owls Head talks about stewarding the riches of Penobscot Bay's Mussel Ridge

The Mussel Ridge archipelago of islets and ledges in southwest Penobscot Bay is interlaced by swirling currents of water from both the Gulf of Maine and the Penobscot River, which each spring travels as a giant plume of snowmelt freshwater from the river's 8,500 square mile watershed all the way to the southwestern edges of Penobscot Bay, bringing an untold wealth of nutrients to the waiting bay ecosystems. Michael Keating fishes this complex waterbody for a living and involves him...

Eelgrass Workshop's grim findings for New England & Atlantic Canada

On February 24th & 25th the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment and a host of other NGOs held a workshop in Portland titled "Status, Trends and Conservation of Eelgrass in Atlantic Canada and the Northeastern United States." Keynote Speaker was Dr Frederick Short of the University of New Hampshire's Jackson Estuarine Lab. He also directs the SeagrassNet Global Monitoring Program, and is Vice President, World Seagrass Association Here is his 43 minute keynote address t...

Sears Island: Mitigating allows Mutilating the Penobscot river/bay interface

This is a shorter reposting of BayWatch talking by phone to Harlan McLaughlin, president of Fair Play for Sears Island. Harlan explains the mitigation process that the MDOT hopes to foist over Mainers with the help of the Army Corps of Engineers. We commiserate over what a mess the Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club has made of Sears Island by teaming up with the Maine Dept of Transportation. As always, the sounds of Penobscot Bay interweave...

Weekend Roundtable: Earth First! inmates, and an ex-inmate phones in to the show.

Enjoy a 40+ minute show that includes an overview of the state of corrections in Maine and elsewhere, and segues into a lengthy phone conversation with a retired inmate, or ex-con, who phoned in and promises to call again next week, with a guide to etiquette and survival for the incarcerated. All interlaced with Jimi Hendrix. This show aired over WRFR lpfm, community radio for coastal Knox County, Maine -Ron Huber, producer. See www.wrfr.org

Rockland Seafood : Jess' Market & the Lobster Crisis.

On December 17th, Penobscot Bay Report's Ron Huber spoke with Jamie Johnson of Jess'Market on South Main Street in Rockland, Maine, about how the trade in lobsters and other live and fresh Maine- and Gulf of Maine-caught seafood is going in this time of a devalued dollar and a contracting economy. Ten minutes. See www.jessmarket.com

Rockland Lobsterman in Winter 12/18/08

Rockland Maine lobsterman Artie Johnson talks with Penobscot Bay Report's Ron Huber about the state of Rockland's harbor. Lobster ecology and economy from a skiff lobsterman's point of view. 22 minutes 12/18/08. In photo, Artie is testifying at Rockland City Hall against proposed marina sprawl in harbor's lobster grounds. Developer lost!

Rockland's Harbormaster - The view from December '08

On December 10th, WRFR community radio reporter Ron Huber visits the waterfront office of the Rockland Harbormaster. Ed Glaser is Rockland's current, and many say, most conservation-minded Harbormaster. They discuss his oversight of a busy five miles of very diverse waterfronts, each "working" at its own pace. From ferries visiting three islands, to marinas, shipyards, two coast guard facilities, two herring fleets, windjamming schooners and private landowners. In the harbor waters...

Episode 4 Atlantica: a talk with Hillary Lister of Maine Indymedia

In this episode I have a discussion with Hillary Lister, environmental activist and producer at Maine Independent Media, about the proposed "Atlantica" free trade zone. The zone would include Maine New Hampshire Vermont and upstate new York, and the provinces of New Brunswick Nova Scotia Prince Edward Island, Labrador and New Foundland and Nothern quebec Atlantica promoters say that becuase this region has a common geography, ecology, and environment , it would act as a single e...

Penobscot Bay Report May 8, 2008

Today's podcast features an interview with Harlan McLaughlin, president of Fair Play for Sears Island. Sears Island has been defended people living nearby and from around the bay against efforts to build a nuclear power plant, a coal power plant, a woodchip port, an LNG port, and now, a container port. This latest gambit amazingly finds Maine Sierra Club on the side of the industrial port wannabes. Settling for half a loaf, the Maine chapter has conceded that big industry may bu...

Penobscot Bay: foghorns and boats off Owls Head

Twentyone minutes of the sounds of Rockland-bound fishing boats and ferries passing the Owls Head Lighthouse in heavy fog, while waves from the restless Gulf of Maine wash against the stony beach below.

Penobscot Bay Report - The Great Auk destroyed

This show takes a look at a shameful period in the European colonization of Newfoundland, the Northwest atlantic tip of Canada. Ron Huber reads a selection from "New Founde Land" by Canadian writer and naturalist Farley Mowat. The section of the book describes the relentless and cruel destruction of the Great Auk, a penguinlike bird that lived in vast rookeries on the rocky coasts and islands there, by the colonists of Atlantic Canada and New England for eggs, meat, feathers, even...