Isle au Haut & Lobster Conservation

My mother loved the Isle au Haut Lullaby, and even though she lived on Deer Isle for 21 years, I never remember her saying she came here. I have been here only once with my father, our family and my brother Dale's family. Remarkable.

We arrived mid-day on Friday to find most of the 3 or 4 "rent me" moorings taken. In a few communities they allow for people to attach a soda bottle to their pennant with an amount to stick in to it for the night. Finally we found one, and happily stuffed our $20 in the bottle. After eating lunch, we set out to hike a bit. We decided to go up Mt Chamberlain in hopes of a glimpse of Merchants Row or Jericho Bay and islands beyond. We are saving Saturday for Acadia here, and biking around the island. The walk up the road to the trail was peaceful, and the trail itself somewhat overgrown brush, but a gradual hike up to the highest peak on the island. The views were only glimpses - a tease really - but we were impressed with the rock pile at the top people had created to try to get above the trees and see a bit more. This pile included a huge rounded beach rock and two whale skulls! On the way down we met a nice gentleman who was headed up who told us much about the trails, and that his son and friends brought up the rock and skull (which seemed impossible to lug up there!)

In the evening, after a quick bite back at the boat, we headed to the old stone Revere Town Hall to hear a UMaine professor, Jim Wilson, speak about "the History of Lobster Conservation so we can repeat it." We both learned a ton, and were really stimulated to learn about Horacio Cree and how the local democratic decision making for the lobster industry has enabled it to be the only fishery without a collapse. Even his perspective of the territorial disputes and trap cutting that goes on, he saw as a way to stay local and not fish out an area and move on to a new area to fish out. Really interesting thoughts on governance, democracy, and rule making. I took his message to be no matter how much science we learn, we cannot really predict the complexity of ecological interactions that go on. Thus, we need to use common sense, stay local with collection of wild species, and those involved (in this case lobsterman) need to ethically follow rules decided upon collectively. We both hope we can get him to our area to hear more about his lifetime of studying this issue.

Off to bike and hike on this glorious clear day.