Tenants Harbor Light. Built in 1857 and decommissioned in 1937. Penobscot Bay has a couple of dozen lighthouses. Eight of them clustered around this one on the southwest side of the bay. There are a lot of rocks, fog, ships and boats in this large bay. The GPS system has displaced lighthouse technologically, but the sight of a lighthouse on a distant shore or its light cutting through dark and fog is reassuring backup for many 21st century mariners. Peter Ralston photo www.ralstongallery.com
Restoring Atlantic Salmon
to the Narraguagus
by Sarah Craighead Dedmon
A bronze plaque alongside the Narraguagus River in Cherryfield memorializes historic Cable Pool, once a premier fishing spot for anglers seeking the prized Atlantic salmon. Today it’s a riverside park that welcomes picnickers, not fishermen. But recent results of salmon restoration efforts on the Narraguagus are cause for cautious optimism.
The range of the U.S. Atlantic salmon once extended from New York’s Hudson River to the tip of Maine, including every coastal river in the northeastern United States. In 2000 the United States listed the Atlantic salmon as an endangered species, their precipitous decline due to many factors including overfishing, pollution, habitat degradation and warming waters. Today the last wild populations of the U.S. Atlantic salmon live in just eight Maine rivers.
