Toward a Working-Waterfront Ethic: Preserving Access to Maine’s Coastal Economy, Heritage and Local Seafood

(Two-Minute Read)

Policy in Brief:

Robert Snyder, the executive vice-president of the Island Institute, highlights how Maine created a working-waterfront ethnic that is spreading throughout coastal communities in the U.S. through the adoption of single and multi-generation policies that aim to ensure there will always be access points for fisherfolk to harvest from the sea.

Fascinating Features:

Policies to conserve working-waterfronts are needed throughout the U.S. to protect the fishing industry from high taxes, competition from recreational uses, and development of shorefront for non-water-dependent uses, all of which impede waterfront access.

What is a working waterfront? It is a protected harbor where one can bring a boat, offload and work on gear, and moor a vessel in secure waters. It also requires all-tide access, connection to public roads and distribution networks, and enough parking for the vehicles that support the activities of a robust fishery.

Once a property transitions from a place where workers access maritime resources into non-water-dependent use, it is highly unlikely that the property will ever convert back. In fact, from 2002 to 2005 the area of Maine’s 5,300-mile coastline supporting working-waterfront activities diminished 20% from 25 miles to 20 miles.

For fishing families who want to purchase shoreline access, there is a large gap between what they can afford to pay and what the market bears for a price. The average lobster-fishing family has an annual income of $70,000 while the average waterfront home in Maine costs $549,000

Despite this differential, the working waterfront contributes up to $168 million more per year to Maine’s gross state product than coastal residential construction.

Working-waterfronts support more than $740 million in Maine’s state revenue and approximately 35,000 jobs. In total, they provide over 222 million pounds of fish, lobster and other species with a value of approximately $323 million.

Single-generation policies are localized efforts to conserve these working spaces and can be adapted to community and family values. These include comprehensive planning, harbor ordinances, zoning, and public investment. However, these measure are not enough to protect working-waterfronts as almost 60% of access points are privately held and vulnerable to conversion.

Multigenerational policies aim to ensure shoreline access into the future. These include current-use taxation measures as well as bonding to purchase development rights of properties that support commercial fishing. In this approach, these policies are enhanced by longterm planning and research, investment, and education at the state level.

Conclusions:

The combination of single-generation and multi-generation policies to ensure current and future access for commercial fishing conserves economic opportunities for Mainers but it also has the added benefit of preserving close-knit seaside communities, Maine’s coastal heritage, and the ability to obtain locally harvested seafood. This creates an overall working-waterfront ethic in society where residents and visitors alike think about what is lost when work is placed at the periphery instead of the center of Maine’s shoreline communities. Snyder contends that these are significant public benefits gained by preserving working-waterfronts and that they deserve the attention of policymakers and municipal and state investment.

Image of Rob Snyder

Dig Deeper:

Robert Snyder. “Toward a Working-Waterfront Ethic: Preserving Access to Maine’s Coastal Economy, Heritage, and Local Seafood.” Maine Policy Review 20.1. (6 pages, 10-minute read)

From MPR’s Archive:

Alden, Robin. 2011. “Building a Sustainable Seafood System for Maine.Maine Policy Review 20(2): 87–95.

Ames, Ted. 2017. “Citizen Science and Maine’s Fishermen: An Enlightened Approach to the Search for Ecological Solutions.” Maine Policy Review 26(2: 7–8.

Schmitt, Catherine V. 2011. “Adrift in a Sea of Information about Sustainable Seafood: The Maine Consumer Perspective.Maine Policy Review 20(1): 96–104.
Wilson, James A. 1996. “Options for Managing Maine’s Fisheries: Fisheries Management from an Ecological Perspective.” Maine Policy Review 5(2): 36–40.

Related Resources:

Island Institute. 2007. The Last 20 Miles: Mapping Maine’s Working Waterfront. Island Institute, Rockland, ME.

Sheehan, Elizabeth and Hugh Coweperthwaite. 2002. Preserving Commercial Fishing Accces: A Study of Working Waterfronts in 25 Maine Communities. Coastal Enterprises, Inc. Portland, ME.

Taylor Singer, Laura and Daniel S. Holland (eds). 2008. Taking the Pulse of the Lobster Industry: A Socioeconomic Survey of New England Lobster Fishermen. Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Portland, ME.