“A private nuisance action may not be maintained against a person engaged in a commercial fishing activity or commercial fishing operation,” states Maine’s 2001 “right to fish” law, “so long as the activity or operation is undertaken in compliance with applicable licensing and permitting requirements …”
The fishing industry, it would seem, is protected against lawsuits by neighbors. What it’s not protected against, of course, is the other forms of change sweeping along this coast: rising real estate values and taxes, gentrification, demographic shifts as coastal towns fill up with retirees, commuters and well-heeled summer people.
The irony, fishermen and other water-dependent people point out, is that some of the same folks who have come to the coast to vacation for years can retire here and then try to change it. If they succeed in re-defining coastal aesthetics (how the coast should look, smell and sound) then half of the residents in communities like St. George (see page 14) could be out of work.
Private efforts to preserve working waterfronts can certainly help. Co-ops in many towns have bought their own piers, providing working access at least to their members. Individuals and groups of fishermen have negotiated access rights with upland owners. The proprietors of boatyards and other waterfront businesses have done what they can to accommodate fishermen. Public-spirited landowners in island and mainland communities have allowed traditional access patterns to continue.
Communities and the state, as we reported last month, have also begun to deal with the access problem. The preservation of working waterfront is starting to become an important element in city and town plans in large and small communities. It’s an option in the zoning scheme administered by the Land Use Regulation Commission for shorefront that’s not part of organized towns. A Working Waterfront Coalition, assisted by the State Planning Office, is now searching for solutions including expansion of current-use taxation, deferred taxation and a bigger role for land trusts.
Maine has had a working coast for centuries. It’s ours to lose, or ours to keep if we are willing.