A Dual Use legislator?

Senator Dennis Damon, a lobsterman and politician, is co-chair of both the Transportation Committee and the Marine Resources Committee of the Maine Legislature. Will he devote as much time and energy protecting inshore Maine groundfish and shellfish nursery habitats in Penobscot Bay as he has in promoting a new container port that would lie athwart Penobscot Bay's top nursery ground?

Senator Damon commercially fishes. He knows the value of a healthy productive marine environment, and the importance of protecting it to keep it healthy. Listen to him supporting Maine coastal fisheries habitat protection and restoration at the March 19, 2008 hearing of the Marine Resources Committee.

But Senator Damon also chairs the Legislature's Transportation Committee. Listen to him two months later supporting construction of a container port on Sears Island, (right in Penobscot Bay's top fish nursery) at the May meeting of MDOT's Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee.

So which is it, Senator? Container port industry or Penobscot Bay fisheries? The Bay's ecology is not going to support a new port on Sears Island without reducing fish productivity down bay.

Have you asked the senators and representatives that live around Penobscot Bay to ask their constituents what THEY think? Let Senator Damon know what YOU think: by email or by phone : (207) 667-9629

It would be insulting to suggest that because Lobsterman Damon doesn't fish in Penobscot Bay, he is not as attentive to its environment as he'd be if MDOT were pushing an industrial port for Blue Hill Bay. But...?

About that MDOT meeting.From Bangor Daily News Story:

SEARSPORT - The Senate chairman of the state's Transportation Committee paid a surprise visit Friday to the Sears Island Joint Use Planning Committee meeting at the First Congregational Church. Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Trenton, praised the group but urged caution about not losing sight of the mission to keep part of the state- owned island for possible future port development.

"The members of my committee are very interested that this asset we have, Sears Island ... is of vital importance to the state of Maine and this whole region for its transportation opportunities," he said.

"They want to make sure that it's reserved as an opportunity for transportation," Damon said. "I think what you've been doing, is doing that," he added. "It would be very unfortunate that if anything we did now, in drafting this document, would preclude that."

The Joint Use Planning Committee, which evolved in June 2007 from the Sears Island Planning Initiative, was charged with creating borders on the 941-acre island between a conservation area and a parcel that could be developed into a container port. The committee is to complete its work by the end of June."

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