Thirty-two people, twenty of them fishermen, joined the Coastal Resilience Committee team in the Peninsula School cafeteria on Saturday, May 17, to prioritize potential investments in the town’s harbor infrastructure over the next 5-10 years. The meeting focused on Bunkers Harbor, Prospect Harbor, and South Gouldsboro Harbor. (The town does not own harbor infrastructure, apart from roads, in Corea Harbor.)
The meeting’s purpose was to provide guidance to the town’s Coastal Resilience Committee, Harbor Committee, Planning Board, Budget Committee, and Select Board regarding capital improvements that Gouldsboro should make to its municipal harbor facilities over the next decade. After brief introductory remarks about the meeting’s structure and goals, participants broke into three groups, one for each harbor. Coastal Resilience Committee members Tim Fisher and John Renwick led the discussions in the Prospect Harbor and Bunkers Harbor groups, respectively. Deirdre McCardle, a member of the Planning Board, led the discussion on the South Gouldsboro Harbor.
Leaders in each group asked participants to describe how the harbor is likely to change over the next decade and how sea level rise and storms might impact the harbor. We also asked participants to identify and prioritize investments the town could make in its harbor property. Finally, we asked about their views of the harbor’s future: Will it be a vibrant, active harbor into the future?
What We Learned
I met with each of the group discussion leaders in the days following the meeting and also talked with other participants. What follows is a high-level summary of the information each group provided. This summer, the Coastal Resilience Committee will collaborate with engineers and environmental specialists from FB Environmental Associates and Streamworks PLLC to assess the feasibility, costs, and potential impacts of the ideas that emerged from the meeting and are summarized here. We will schedule a second Harbor Resilience meeting this fall to share the results of that work and gather additional ideas and feedback from fishermen and other stakeholders.
I realize that the summary in the following paragraphs might leave out important ideas and may demonstrate my less-than-complete understanding of others. Please, if you were at the meeting and feel that some of this is incomplete or not quite right, add a comment in the box at the end of this post.
Bunkers Harbor
The most pressing need in Bunkers Harbor is dredging. Boats often get stuck in the mud when they pull farther into the harbor to unload. Everyone understands that dredging depends on the Army Corps of Engineers, not the town. What the town might do is determine where Bunkers Harbor is on the Army Corps’ dredging schedule and contact the Army Corps to convey the urgency of the problem.
The most important harbor feature that is under the town’s control is the town launch ramp. It is the only way to get lobster boats and other medium-sized vessels in and out of the water in Bunkers Harbor and, significantly, it is how most boats mooring in Prospect Harbor are launched and hauled. (Prospect Harbor does not have a launch ramp, but see below.)
Use of the launch ramp is compromised because it is located immediately adjacent to a private wharf. If a boat is tied up to that wharf, getting to the ramp can be difficult or impossible, depending on the tide level. Easy, rapid access to a launch ramp can be critically important when a large, potentially damaging storm is approaching. Many lobstermen, particularly those mooring in more vulnerable areas of the harbor, want to be able to haul their boats before the storm arrives.
An additional, related problem is that there is no public float in Bunkers Harbor. An increasing number of fishermen in Bunkers Harbor do not own a wharf in the harbor. To tie up and unload their catch, these fishermen have to use one of the privately owned floats. The same is true for recreational boaters who visit the harbor.
During the meeting, Michael Bernier suggested a novel solution that addresses both problems: build a new launch ramp to the right (north) of the current ramp and use the old ramp structure to access and anchor a public float. The Bunkers Harbor participants agreed that this idea appears to address both the ramp and float issues and so is worth further study.
The Bunkers Harbor group also noted that the larger storms now coming into the harbor are eroding the soft sediment harbor walls, particularly on the west side of the harbor. One private wharf on the west side is now completely detached from the shore. This is not an issue that the town can solve, but it is on the minds of fishermen as they think ahead to the next ten years.
Finally, the group noted that the demographic makeup of the harbor is changing. It is a good thing that more young fishermen are using the harbor, but most of these younger fishermen do not own property around the harbor. This demographic shift is part of what makes improving the launch ramp and creating a public float so important.
Prospect Harbor
Prospect Project LLC, the limited liability corporation owned by investors who purchased the former Stinson Cannery in 2023, has given Gouldsboro a portion of the northern edge of their property. The gift consists of the blue-shaded area on the map below. The white area that divides the two blue areas is a right-of-way easement for the town and other property owners on the site. Readers who do not have close familiarity with the site might find it helpful to know that the “House” in the drawing above “Brown & Weaver” is the pink house visible from Rt. 186.
The benefits and opportunities made possible by this gift were the primary focus of the discussion within the Prospect Harbor group. The most immediate benefit is that the town now owns land adjacent to the town pier that can be used for parking. Fishermen and others have long used the area in the lower, blue-shaded part of the map for parking, but it was always possible that the property’s owner could one day restrict that parking. Now that the town owns the property, public access to parking is secure.
The blue-shaded area above the easement abuts the pier property that the town already owns, providing the town with additional waterfront access that could be used to construct a launch ramp. The Prospect Harbor discussion group focused on that possibility.
As the January 2024 storms approached, Prospect Harbor fishermen were not able to haul their boats. As I noted above, using Bunkers Harbor is how Prospect Harbor fishermen launch and haul their boats. The fishermen in Bunkers Harbor, where the launch is available only for half the high-tide cycle, were dealing with problems of their own. The Prospect Harbor fishermen at the May 17 meeting said that having a launch ramp in Prospect Harbor would be a “game changer.” Asked about the negative consequences of building a ramp, they didn’t see any.
Tim Fisher, the group’s facilitator, asked about the value of building a breakwater in the area of the Clark Ledges daymark. The idea of building a breakwater to protect Prospect Harbor has been around for at least 60 years, and perhaps longer. The Prospect Harbor fishermen at this meeting believed that it was probably not worth the expense, particularly if the town built a public launch ramp that could be used to haul boats in advance of an unusually large storm. They have made substantial investments in improving their moorings and believe that these investments will suffice for all but the most severe storms, when they would prefer to haul their boats.
Finally, like the Bunkers Harbor group, this group also noted that Prospect Harbor is undergoing a significant generational shift. A relatively large group of younger fishermen is coming into the harbor, while a relatively large group of older fishermen is moving toward retirement. They believe the harbor has a bright future and acknowledge that increasing recreational use is part of that future.
South Gouldsboro
The town owns and maintains a launch ramp in South Gouldsboro. It also owns a small plot of land adjacent to the boat launch, which once provided access to a structure now used solely as a breakwater. That structure consists of the remains of a sunken barge, now topped with a mound of rocks. In the past, it was used briefly as a makeshift pier, but access is now fenced off to prevent people from attempting to drive on it.
For most fishermen and the seaweed harvester using South Gouldsboro Harbor, this town property is their only means of accessing the ocean and bringing lobsters, seaweed, and other harvested products ashore. The two other piers in the harbor are privately owned.
Regarding town property and future investments, the South Gouldsboro group emphasized the need for a pier, hoist, and float that would enable fishermen and seafood harvesters to bring their catch ashore.
Parking near the boat launch is potentially limited, again because most of the property is privately owned. The private owners currently allow parking on their property, but, as always, this could change.
South Gouldsboro is the town’s only harbor and launch ramp on Frenchman Bay. Frenchman Bay offers advantages over Prospect Harbor and Gouldsboro Bay, particularly for recreational users. It offers kayaking, sailing, and boating opportunities between the two sections of Acadia National Park, as well as access to many islands. Its waters are usually less challenging and less dangerous for kayakers and casual boaters. However, the limited parking space in South Gouldsboro Harbor restricts its potential as a recreational boating and kayaking hub.
The South Gouldsboro group expressed concerns about the future of South Gouldsboro Harbor. The harbor area appears to be in a state of transition. Some of the waterfront infrastructure is in a state of disrepair and decay. Other buildings have been demolished recently and may be rebuilt. The largest waterfront property owner in the harbor is a limited liability corporation registered in Indiana and was not represented at the meeting. The group that attended the meeting has limited information about the corporation’s plans.
