The Island Institute works to sustain Maine's island and coastal communities through various program areas, including community and economic development, marine programs, education, and community energy. The document discusses how fish and lobster populations are shifting in Maine in response to climate change, with warming waters causing lobsters to thrive while groundfish populations decline. It also notes other observed impacts of climate change on Maine fishing communities and efforts underway to help communities adapt, including supporting sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, community energy efficiency projects, and education programs.

1. Smart Growth for Maine
Fisheries Communities
in the Face of Climate Change
GrowSmart Maine Summit 2014
Heather Deese, VP Strategic Development; Island Institute; hdeese@islandinstitute.org

2. The Island Institute works to sustain Maine’s island and
remote coastal communities, and exchanges ideas and
experiences to further the sustainability of communities
here and elsewhere.

3. Program Areas
Community
Development
Economic
Development
Marine
Programs
Education
Programs
Community
Energy
Media

4. Indopacific (Palau)
Caribbean
Gulf of Maine
… BUT while diversity is low,
BIOMASS was high
Credit – Bob Steneck, University of Maine

5. Monhegan
ca 1880
Muscongus Bay
ca 1980
Credit – Bob Steneck, University of Maine

6. Fish and lobster populations are shifting in response to fishing pressure and
changing environmental conditions (warming water). Maine’s lobster fishery is
benefiting now, while the fishery south of Cape Cod has disappeared.
• Insert - Graph
showing change in
population numbers
of lobster and
groundfish over time
• Insert – graph
showing trends in
water temperature

7. 2013 Commercial Maine Landings
By Live Pounds
Total: 302,607,782

8. 2013 Commercial Maine Landings
By Ex-vessel Value
$531,224,216
$367 M
4,200 active licenses
700 active licenses
1,700 active licenses
600 active licenses
<50 active licenses

9. Brickman, et al. 2013 – State of Scotian Shelf report, DFO

10. Deese, et al. in prep
Data : http://www.mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/ocean/database/data_query.html

11. River Water entering the Ocean – more and
different timing
“4 of the 8 wettest years of the last century occurred
between 2005 and 2010.” Balch et al, 2012

12. Image credit: Julia
Maine; Susie Arnold

13. “Cobia is a fish they catch in Florida with rod and reel, I heard of one
caught up here about 20 years ago, but we never saw them until now,
now guys catching several per week”
- Groundfish fishermen from Rhode Island talking about species shifts

14. The ‘typical’
“Fishery pretty much shuts down in the
fall after the first storm when snow
sticks on the beach”
– Climate Roundtable participant on
when lobster season wraps up in the fall
The ‘new normal’?
“The shed was earlier this year than
any year in my lifetime”
– Climate of Change 2013 workshop
participant describing 2012 season

16. Supporting Sustainable Fisheries
Businesses and Diversification
Aquaculture in
Shared Waters

17. Maine OA Commission Report to be delivered to legislature December 2014
Maine launches initiative to combat ocean acidification;
Pingree seeks similar federal effort
Posted By Bill Trotter On June 26, 2014 (2:48 pm) In Business,
Hancock, News, Politics, State
• Maine finding its place in global effort to combat acidification, a top
threat to fisheries
Posted By Mario Moretto On September 5, 2014 (4:08 pm) In News,
Outdoors, Politics, State
• AUGUSTA, Maine — A group of lawmakers, fishermen, scientists and
state officials are embarking on a gargantuan task: Develop a plan for
Maine — a state of fewer than 2 million people — to address the global
crisis of ocean acidification.

18. Other Policy Efforts:
• Washington State- Blue Ribbon Panel on OA sunsetted in Nov. 2012
-The Washington Marine Resources Advisory Council (MRAC), enabled by the 2013
Legislature, is charged with advancing the implementation of the BRP’s recommendations
-Under the direction of the WA State Legislature and Governor Inslee, the WA OA Center
was established at UW in July 2013, a recommendation of the BRP, and received $1.8
million in state funding for the first two years
• Alaska (Sept. 2013)- Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers were instrumental in convincing
Governor Parnell to allocate funds for the installation of a high-resolution carbonate
chemistry monitoring system at the Alutiiq Pride hatchery in Seward, Alaska, which
produces blue and red king crabs, oysters, razor clams and other animals
• Oregon and California (Summer 2013)- established the West Coast Ocean
Acidification and Hypoxia Science Panel to develop strategic recommendations for
research, monitoring, and mitigation
• Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy (October 2013)- governors of CA, OR,
WA, and BC Premier pledged to align policies on emissions and costs of carbon
pollution, including support for research on OA and action to combat it
• Maryland legislature passed a bill requiring the Maryland DoE to evaluate probable effects
of OA and make recommendations in a report in 2015
For more details on these efforts see the March 2014 OA Report put out by Global Ocean Health

19. Community Energy Efficiency &
Renewable Energy
Weatherization Weeks (2012 2014)
280 Homes & community buildings
$1.9 M savings
Networking, leadership & technical support
CIERA Samso trip
Community Energy Action Teams (U.S. EPA $100,000 grant)
Islanded grid network (with AK; U.S. DoE $450,000 grant)
Offshore Wind Energy
Information Exchange to inform coastal stakeholders about costs and benefits of offshore wind energy
development
Targeted support for impacted communities (Fisheries groups, Monhegan)

20. K-12 education
• A cutting-edge interactive online platform for
coastal communities to explore weather,
climate, storms, geomorphology,
oceanography, and more
• 5 communities & schools in Maine
• 1 community & 2 schools in Alaska
• Researchers, fishermen, students, teachers,
parents
• Daily weather collection
• Short-term participant-driven investigations

24. Smart Growth for Maine
Fisheries Communities
in the Face of Climate Change
GrowSmart Maine Summit 2014
Heather Deese, VP Strategic Development; Island Institute; hdeese@islandinstitute.org