Category Archives: 610 Project

January 18th, 2017 FBRSC

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Frenchman Bay Regional Shellfish Committee Meeting

Lamoine Town Hall

January 18, 2017

The Department of Marine Resources (DMR) and the Community Environmental Health Laboratory presented watershed information at the monthly Frenchman Bay Regional Shellfish Committee meeting at the Lamoine Town Hall. The DMR reported on water quality in Frenchman Bay, focusing on Martin Cove, Lamoine Beach, and the Trenton Seaplane Ramp, which are all listed as pollution areas. The DMR completed a shoreline sanitary survey in 2016, which identified new problem areas and resulted in four new Prohibited areas. The Community Environmental Health Laboratory is working on developing a watershed survey for identifying the pollution source(s) in Martin Cove, an area identified by the Frenchman Bay Regional Shellfish Committee as a priority area for its shellfish resource. They brought a proposed timeline, map, and example survey forms to share with the committee.

Shellfish Focus Day at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum

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Rockland- Thursday, March 5, 2015 was Shellfish Day at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum. Dozens of people showed up to hear academics, government representatives, and fishermen speak about the shellfish industry. Topics in the morning included red tides, economic losses from wastewater treatment plant closures, using technical and applied marine science to support management decisions, and action planning. Afternoon topics focused on viral indicators and shellfish sanitation, clam projects in Freeport, and clam farming in Maine. Click to view the Frenchman Bay Partners presentation, Working Together to Get Things Done.

Conservation Action Planning Mudflat Progress

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The Frenchman Bay Partners (hereafter Partners) are a diverse group of people who help organizations in the watershed work together for ecosystem health and marine-based livelihoods. The Frenchman Bay Regional Shellfish Committee (hereafter Shellfish Committee) formed in 2009 in response to widespread red-tide closures to manage the intertidal mudflat resources in the 7 towns in the ordinance. The respective missions of two organizations address the long-term stewardship of the region’s resources.  The two groups have been working together since 2011.

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610 Project Update

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The 610 Project, coordinated by Bridie McGreavy, is a collaboration between the Frenchman Bay Partners, the Frenchman Bay Regional Shellfish Committee, the Department of Marine Resources (DMR), and the Hancock County Planning Commission to build capacity towards the goal of opening closed clam flats in Frenchman Bay. A grant awarded by the Maine Community Foundation in May, 2013, has lead to substantial progress.

First, an advisory board was assembled. A harvester who conducted an extensive scoping of the status of closed clam flats was hired, relationships with representatives from DMR to identify priority closure areas that might be targeted for opening were developed, and meetings with municipal staff such as town managers and licensed plumbing inspectors to follow up on the status of problem forms related to failing septics and overboard discharge were organized.

Second, regular updates and announcements about the 610 Project are provided at the monthly meetings of the shellfish committee. Through this forum, one of the harvesters was hired to create a website for the committee: http://frenchmanbay.wix.com/fbrs. The committee also has a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FrenchmanBayRegionalSHellfish.

Harvester liaison Paul Davis has conducted an extensive scoping and relationship  building effort that has improved the network among different types of managers who monitor water quality, survey clams, enforce water quality violations, and who make decision about opening and closing clam flats. Through this process, conducting a watershed survey of Weir Cove has been prioritized, a step that would likely result in the identification of a pollution source(s) which would improve the  ability of this group to open this important resource area . Furthermore, progress is being made on organizational capacity building. A second harvester was hired to work on the organizational infrastructure and, as mentioned above, the newly designed website will serve as an important source and repository of information for the shellfish committee. Further funding has been provided by the New England Sustainability Consortium, which will be used to hire two students to work with the advisory board and shellfish committee members to make progress on the Weir Cove watershed survey this summer, conducting preliminary scoping and initiating a plan to contact landowners.

 

Good news for mudflats: 610 Project receives funding, makes progress

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The 610 Project (pronounced six-ten) is a collaboration between the Partners, the Frenchman Bay Regional Shellfish Committee and the Hancock County Planning Commission to build capacity towards the goal of opening closed clam flats in Frenchman Bay. This project received its initial funding from the Maine Community Foundation’s Community Building Grant Program. Through a conservation action planning process, the Partners and shellfish committee have identified the five-year goal of opening all 610 acres of clam flats in Frenchman Bay in which harvesting is restricted due to unknown bacterial pollution sources. They will accomplish this by building capacity within the shellfish committee for watershed surveys and organizational development.

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