Vouchers earned by fishermen at Meet Your Local Fisherman event during St. George Days were completed on November 23rd.

Click on any photo to view slideshow.

Three fishermen participated:

• Bradley “Butch” Rackliff , Wheeler Bay
• Bill Iliffe Jr. , Tenants Harbor
• Justin”Buzz” Libby, Port Clyde

About fifty members of the public visited the CodEnd float and talked with these fishermen about their boats and fishing businesses.

A total of $1,600 in vouchers were earned for boat maintenance and safety equipment – including a life raft inspection and certified repacking for a dragger as well as engine repairs and hull maintenance on two lobster boats.

The Midcoast Maine Fishing Heritage Alliance is also working with Lobster Festival board and Rockland harbor master to work out details of having a Meet Your Local Fisherman event at the Lobster Festival.

The Midcoast Maine Fishing Heritage Alliance is pleased to announce it has started to seek funding for its Fishing Heritage Virtual Museum.  This project has two purposes. First to collect and archive personal, family and business fishing heritage using newly discovered and historic images, news clippings, films, oral histories and anecdotal experiences related to commercial fishing in three Maine communities with a rich, but declining commercial fishing heritage. Then the project will ask those individuals interviewed to comment on the reasons for the fishing industry’s recent decline and comment on the future of the industry. All this information will be copied and recorded in digital format and made available to local libraries and historical societies. The Alliance’s public website will give the project an interactive component encouraging the ongoing collection and use of this information by the public and regulatory agencies. This information will be useful for future marine policy decisions in the Gulf of Maine region.

The following activities took place at the Cod End float:

• From 9-12 Dan Miller talked with about 20 people about operating a small dragger aboard his brother Tad’s boat Julie Marie

• Josh Miller talked with about another 20 folks in the afternoon aboard his lobster boat Dorcas Anne

• Dan and Josh each earned $400 worth of MMFHA credit vouchers for their time spent educating the public about commercial fishing at St. George Days.