The most comprehensive online source of conservation news and events in Maine and beyond, edited by Jym St. Pierre
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC • July 29, 2020
The return of great white sharks to New England over the past two decades is both a conservation success story and an emerging public safety concern. Though it is extremely rare for a shark to attack—much less kill—a human, incidents are on the rise in New England. Scientists say they have no reason to believe there will be a spike in shark attacks in Maine.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 29, 2020
Portland Water District has begun looking to sewage for clues on the ever-evolving coronavirus situation in what has been one of Maine’s consistent hotspots for COVID-19 cases.
MAINE PUBLIC • July 29, 2020
Earlier this month, the Mills Administration updated its COVID-19 guidance for retailers to permit the use of reusable bags. But John Hite from the Conservation Law Foundation says some Hannaford locations still don't allow them. "It's time to clear through this myth that reusable bags are a threat to public health." Hite says states such as Massachusetts and New Hampshire have lifted their restrictions on reusable bags.
MAINE PUBLIC • July 29, 2020
About two dozen current and former Maine legislators are calling on Hydro-Quebec to stop its campaign to influence November's ballot referendum on a proposed transmission line through the state. In a letter to both the company and the province of Quebec, the group says that the company should not be "meddling" in elections in Maine, and that it is exploiting a loophole in Maine's campaign-finance laws. A ballot committee representing the company has spent more than $6 million thus far on the referendum campaign.
MAINE PUBLIC • July 29, 2020
The Maine Center for Disease Control is working with U.S. Wildlife Services to distribute an oral vaccine to prevent the spread of raccoon rabies. During the first week of August, 385,000 baits will be distributed primarily in rural, wooded areas of northeastern Maine. The vaccine distribution is part of an ongoing program to prevent the westward spread of raccoon rabies. A state database shows that more than 40 wild animals have tested positive for rabies in Maine so far this year.
MORNING SENTINEL • June 29, 2020
Overheating machinery is thought to be the cause of a minor fire at Sappi’s Somerset Mill on Waterville Road. Firefighter Joe Almand of the Skowhegan Fire Department said that crews responded as a precautionary measure when a bearing overheated at the mill, causing concern. By the time the fire department got there, Almand said that the situation was mostly under control.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 29, 2020
Maine Marine Patrol says it is conducting targeted searches around the coast of southern Maine to locate the great white shark that killed a New York City woman here on Monday, and any other sharks in the area that might pose threats. In the U.S., the odds of a beachgoer being attacked by a shark are 1 in 11.5 million, according to the International Shark Attack File, which monitors shark activity around the world. A person’s chance of getting killed by a shark is less than 1 in 264.1 million.
MAINE GOVERNMENT NEWS • July 29, 2020
Oral rabies vaccine baits will be distributed in northeastern Maine beginning on or about August 3 through August 7 as part of ongoing, cooperative rabies control efforts aimed at reducing the spread of raccoon rabies in Maine. Approximately 385,000 ORV baits targeting raccoons will be distributed by air and ground over a 2,650-square-mile area. Wildlife Services, a program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, will distribute the ORV baits in cooperation with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
MORNING SENTINEL • July 29, 2020
The Department of Economic and Community Development announced on Wednesday that large gatherings for groups up to 100 people will be permitted starting Saturday, although the limit on gatherings of up to 50 will remain in place for indoor events.
MORNING SENTINEL • July 29, 2020
The disbelief in COVID-19 is very similar to — probably an extension of — the disbelief in climate change, which probably does not appear to be happening at your house either. It still gets cold in winter, right? But like COVID-19, climate change is, in fact, happening and getting worse by the day in different parts of the world. Unnecessary suffering and death will result. This winter I wrote that maybe the tide has turned on climate change denial. That was before pandemic-denial started swallowing people’s minds whole. Now I don’t know what to think. But real-world events suggest that voting this November is going to be almost literally a matter of life and death. ~ Dana Wilde
MAINE PUBLIC • July 29, 2020
A regional plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants also made the northeast healthier, by reducing air pollutants like mercury and sulfur dioxide. But a new study focused on children found the benefits were even greater than previously thought, preventing hundreds of childhood illnesses and saving an additional hundreds of millions of dollars. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative – or RGGI – was the first regional cap-and-trade plan of its kind in the country. It started up in 2009, and now involves nine states.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 29, 2020
Unsolicited packages of seeds have been arriving in the mailboxes of Mainers and residents of many other states. In each case, the recipients say they did not order the seeds. This has sparked a warning from the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry against planting the unsolicited seeds and asking anyone who receives them to report them to the department or the U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Maine. The motive behind the unsolicited seed mailings is not yet known.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 29, 2020
The Maine Marine Patrol continued patrolling the coastal waters around Harpswell and urging beachgoers and others to use extra caution following the state’s first fatal shark attack. A seasonal resident of Bailey Island in Harpswell was killed Monday by a great white shark that attacked her as she swam 20 yards from shore. The Maine Marine Patrol is using boats and aircraft to scan the Casco Bay region for sharks, but had not reported any additional shark sightings in the area as of Wednesday afternoon.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 29, 2020
The Maine Marine Patrol continued patrolling the coastal waters around Harpswell and urged beachgoers and others to stay out of the water or use extra caution following the state’s first fatal shark attack. A shark sighting Wednesday afternoon near Cousins Island in Yarmouth triggered an alert from the town of Cumberland. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are advising that residents do not enter the water at Broad Cove Reserve beyond ankle-deep,” the town’s alert says.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 29, 2020
A group of 25 current and former Maine lawmakers wrote a letter Wednesday to Quebec’s premier and Hydro-Quebec’s CEO asking that they stop trying to influence the outcome of a referendum this November on Central Maine Power’s proposed $1 billion hydropower corridor. The letter is the most recent volley in the high stakes debate over the project that would bring Canadian hydropower to the regional grid through western Maine. So far, Clean Energy Matters, a CMP-linked group, and Hydro-Quebec have spent close to $14.7 million to promote the corridor. Gov. Janet Mills on July 10 announced a $170 million deal with Hydro-Quebec to provide discounted electricity to the state through CMP’s transmission corridor, though opponents said it would largely benefit industrial users.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 29, 2020
My family moved to South Portland 13 years ago and we have experienced many severe health problems since we have lived here. I am paying with my life to support profits for Global with no real improvements to these problems. I feel hopeless. ~ Barbara Saulle, South Portland
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 29, 2020
State fisheries biologist Frank Frost gave northern Maine anglers one more reason to fish an already popular Aroostook County lake last week, as he and a colleague hauled in a lake trout he estimated at 25 pounds while doing research from Eagle Lake in the town of Eagle Lake. “It was a really cool experience to handle a fish that big. It was the biggest togue I’ve handled, by far,” said Frost, who serves as the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s fisheries resource supervisor for the Fish River Lakes Region.
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 29, 2020
A woman was attacked and killed by a great white shark while swimming in Mackerel Cove off Bailey Island in Harpswell on Monday. Two days after the attack, shockwaves reverberated out from Mackerel Cove to the Maine coast and beyond as locals and tourists tried to make sense of the unthinkable.
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 29, 2020
The “Do This” column by Ray Routhier on July 20 encourages people to travel to the islands of Casco Bay via public ferry. This is problematic and potentially dangerous. Increasing ridership during the pandemic puts the vessels’ crew at risk by exposing them (and passengers) to larger numbers of riders. ~ Twain Braden, Peaks Island
BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 28, 2020
The New York City woman killed in Monday’s shark attack in the water off Harpswell is believed to be only the third person killed by a shark in New England since 1936. In September 2018, a 26-year-old college student from Revere, Massachusetts, was attacked by a suspected great white shark while body-boarding off Wellfleet, but died after making it back to shore, according to Yankee magazine. Before that, a 16-year-old boy was attacked off Mattapoisett, Massachusetts in July 1936.
