Penobscot Bay podcast

This week, Bilal Shukr phoned in to the Weekend Roundtable. Mr Shakur is part of the editorial collective for "The Call" a newsletter by and about Maine prison inmates and the environment they live in, and is a prominent national voice in prison reform. Having seen things from both sides of the bars, Shukr is well versed in the state of corrections and corrections reform around the United States and beyond, and is a powerful critic of the society that expends so much of its wealth and its human potential on imprisoning its own people. You can contact Bilal Shukr at 207-400-6748 or by email at bshukr@hotmail.com

Terry Martin of WRFR Community Radio in Rockland interviewed
George Baker and Chad Allen of Cianbro on the Fox Islands windmill. 55 minutes

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

30 minute audio recording of the waves and tidewash of the rocky intertidal at the north end of Birch Point State Park, Owls Head, Maine, as the tide slowly winds out to the bay. Recorded by Ron Huber. This recording may be freely copied & distributed.

On this fifty minute show we discuss the push to end Maine Department of Corrections' practice of exiling "troublemaker" inmates to prisons in distant states. We also look at the ghost gerrymandering of non existent inmates in the federal census and what it means for School administration Districts.

Then a report on a tour of Maines juvenile incarceration facilities by a group of Russian judicial court officials.
All interspersed with Jimi Hendrix's Up from the Skies, Bellybutton Window, Third Stone from the Sun, and Night Bird Flying (Jimi's country song).

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 granting of leases, easements and rights of way for renewable energy on the Outer Continental Shelf.

Bornholdt's talk was followed by a lengthy Q & A session, that is being uploaded seperately.

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 terminate the OPEGA investigation and leave it up to Maine Department of Corrections to investigate themselves. In their words:

"...allow the Department of Corrections to address these questions in continuing the cultural change work it has initiated in a more deliberate, coordinated and accelerated fashion. OPEGA, the Government Oversite Committee and/or the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee would receive periodic updates from the Department on the status of its cultural change efforts and the results achieved. In this way, the Department would be held accountable to pursue necessary change."

Uh huh. 'held accountable'? Magnusson, Merill and Lord must have laughed all the way back to their prison fastness.

See recent meeting minutes about the maine state prison review at
http://www.maine.gov/legis/opega/GOC/GOC_meetings/Current_handouts/5-22-09/Meeting%20Summary-Tab%201.pdf

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.

Learn the important difference between the old "New England Sierra Club chapter" that protected Sears Island through state and federal courts in the 1980s and early 90s, and the present day "Maine Sierra Club Chapter" that received an award for signing off on the dismemberment plan

So we go to Augusta on a hot May 22nd to challenge the Governor's Sears Island "environmental award" ceremony! Nature was on our side: way too hot to close the mansion's windows. Attendees at the Governor's Sears Island whackers award ceremony could hear our power bullhorned taunts and imprecations, and could see the coffined Rachel Carson speaking from the grave and the ghost, too of Sierra club founder John Muir, who gave Sierra Club a Rubber Duck award for "quack environmentalism".

The Kennebec Journal WBZ TV and Maine Public Radio came across from the ceremony and got the straight scoop from us.

Listen to the SECOND half hour of a scoping session for Massachusetts oyster cage farmer William Vaughan, who says he found Massachusetts' environmental laws too strict, and now proposes to run his operation in Maine, parallel to the Sears Island causeway, on the Stockton harbor side.

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 30 seconds long

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 to use in fishing in federal waters off the Downeast Maine coast.

Robin Alden of Penobscot East's statement begins about ten minutes into the recording. Alden proposes that a "sentinel fishery" be carried out to determine what condition the groundfish schools near the coast are, and whether they could be exploited by a hook-only commercial fishery.

The legislators quiz the pair on details (Price of a groundfish permit can vary from
$100,000 dollars apiece to millions.)

Listen to the first half hour of a scoping session for Massachusetts oyster cage farmer William Vaughan, who says he found Massachusetts' environmental laws too strict, and now proposes to run his operation in Maine, parallel to the Sears Island causeway, on the Stockton harbor side.

A steel checkerboard within the viewshed of the Maine Coast Heritage Trusts' perpetual conservation easement - the viewshed that both MCHT and Sierra Club declare a national treasure. Was MCHT there at the meeting sponsored by Maine DMR? Was Sierra Club there to defend this "precious jewel of the Maine Coast" as they fondly refer to it?

OF COURSE NOT.

The true activists were there, in the able person of Harlan McLaughlin, who's a Penobscot Bay Watcher and Fair Play for Sears Islander par excellence. Listen to the discussion on Vaughan's plan, led by the timid - nay - the anti-ecologist John Sowles, nominally the Maine Department of Marine Resources Ecology Director, but in actuality a cheerleader for industry who has learned next to nothing, protected next to nothing in his tenure under King and now Baldacci.

Sowles didn't even ID himself as state marine ecologist. He was there, he said, to keep fights from breaking out between the shellfish cager wannabe and public. Following this cryptic statement, he pandered endlessly for Vaughan. Sigh.

I'll post the second half hour tomorrow (Sunday May 3rd)

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.

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.

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 bill be passed

On April 17, 2009, members of the Maine Legislature's Natural Resources Committee heard from opponents of LD 1282 "An Act To Protect and Enhance Maine Marine Fisheries."

The bill requires the owners of hydropower dams in Maine to enable safe and reliable passage over or around them for Maine's diadromous fishes: the salmon, alewives, eels and other animals that spend part of their life breathing freshwater, another part as salt breathers.

This is the second 30 minutes or so of testimony in opposition to the bill, coming from law firms representing hydroelectric businesses, state government officials and others opposed to re-opening the natural river/estuary/marine ecosystem complexes dotting Maine's coast.

On April 17, 2009, members of the Maine 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.

Ther recording begins partway through testimony by Maine river activist Douglas Watts of Augusta. Watts also helped in the crafting of this bill. Conservationist Kathleen McGee and many others also speak.

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

Maine is among a minority of states that has exported inmates to prisons in other states(including WRFR's own Maine State Prison inmate/correspondent Deane Rowland Brown, now cooling his heels in solitary confinement in Maryland).

On this podcast of Ron Huber's show on WRFR Community Radio in Rockland Maine 4/4/09 you'll learn how the Maine legislature has quashed any further exiles. But as Ron laments. what about those ALREADY exiled. Don't they have a Right of Return? Ron shares his thoughts on this and related subjects and airs an interview with ex-inmate Robert Bothen who updates us on legislation before the Maine legislature on reducing prison sentences. And more!

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 himself in the stakeholder processes for the ever-evolving fishing laws and regulations emanating from the agencies and legislatures of the state of Maine and the United States of America.

In this 42 minute interview on March 25, 2009, Keating describes his experiences within the fisheries of the Mussel Ridge, details how scallopers and other fishermen take on thes latest challenges and opportunities, and offers a heads up on a new initiative dawning for Bay fishermen a zone-managed cod trapping industry in Maine's territorial Sea (Mean Low Water to three miles from shore.
PHOTO: Mike Keating (right) and Arthur Alley(left) aboard Keating's scallop dragger Mary and Donna. (BDN photo by G. Degre)

On March 16th the Maine legislature's Marine Resources Committee met and discussed amending the laws governing the sea urchin season. Urchin populations are at markedly different densities in eastern and western Maine waters. Zone 2's biomass is roughly ten times Zone 1’s. Making this fishery fair takes a lot of working out, as you'll hear in this 27 minute excerpt from their hearings, ending with the unanimous vote to approve legislation. Note: The hearing was already underway when the recording began.

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 to the workshop on February 24, entitled "Eelgrass: the Big Picture"

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...

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

This 45 minute show features tales of how Christmas is celebrated in prisons around the globe today, and an eerie Xmas tale by science fiction novelist Arthur Clarke. Interspersed with a bit of Jimi Hendrix, of course.

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 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!

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, dozens of lobstermen feed and livetrap and release thousands of lobsters that crawl into Rockland harbor each year.

Meanwhile there are abandoned and derelict boats, moorings to be licensed, upcoming civic harbor events and lots more keeping Ed busy. Listen and learn.

Photo courtesy Bates College

In part one of this week's show we check out what the New England fishery management Council will be diong at its upcoming meeting, consider a report showing that sea scallops are back in the Elephant's Trunk (huh?)travel back to 1895 for a report on the sources of food for wild fishes and interview the manager of one of the world's larges seaweed-into-carageenan processors. And, of course, the sounds of lobsterboats steaming through the mists off Owls Head while two lighhouses blare their warning foghorns.

Note: in part two, you'll get the latest on the Sears Island controversy afflicting Penobscot Bay. Port or no port?

Author, playwright and cinematographer Warren Forma is interviewed about his life and times and how they have shaped his creative output; from guiding a lost squadron of B-29s over WW2 Germany to watching the rise of the National Security State and the fall of the World Trade Center.

Warren Forma's productions are often both in book and film versions, Some examples include: "Offspring." A powerful anti-Viet Nam War film; "Five British Sculptors work and talk", "They were Ragtime": on the era from 1892-1917, with 250 period photographs; "The Falling Man", The Brain Train--All Aboard"

Forma's just completed book is: "The Day God Smiled" subtitled: "(he wasn't listening to a priest, a rabbi or a mullah--he was listening to Mozart)"

Forma was interviewed October 4, 2008 by Ron Huber, a producer at WRFR Community Radio, Rockland, Maine for his "Weekend Roundtable" show.

Dragon Cement produces its product at its kiln in Thomaston, Maine, then sends it by railcar to Rockland, where it is pumped aboard a sealed cement barge for journey to Boston or New York.

ISSUE 1 The pumps and cooling systems at the harbor dock leak out a certain amount of oily bilge. Presently this is captured in barrels and taken back to the kiln for burning. Now Dragon wants to filter the oil from that bilge water, and add the cleaned bilge water to the seawater being pumped through the pump cooling system.

Issue 2. After unloading the cement, the barge takes on ballast water to maintain stability during the return trip empty to Rockland. That water is them pumped out to make wasy for the new cement. How much water? Where is it pumped out? In the harbor? Inthe Bay?

In Part 1 Listen to a presentation by Dragon's representatives. In later posts hear the response questions from skeptical citizens.

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 economic unit if all trade barriers and regulatory barriers to trade were removed betweenthese states and provinces.

Opponents of the plan, including lister, however, belive that the removal of these regulations would result i. a severe weakening ni environmental protection of the regions land air and water quality and its natural ecosystems. We spoke first however about Maine independent media and its role in providing news to the public.

This podcast is 26 minutes long.

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 build a port on the island, so long as it meets agency standards. Up to 1/3 of the 940 acre island could be terraformed. Big loser in the negotiations: eelgrass. The magic meadows along the west side of Sears Island nourish the great upper estuary of enobscot Bay, a place where river and bay come together in an ecosystem that nourishes and nurtures the groundfish, salmon, herring, mackerel, striped bass, bluefish and shrimp that live in or visit Penobscot Bay.

All could be lost if a toxic container port sets up on Sears island, as proposed by government and industry. And Sierra Club!

Listen to a twenty minute discussion between Huber and McLauglin discussing this important subject.

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.

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 for oil!