Bristol Consolidated School 7th grader Shawn Burns of Round Pond spent more than six hours hauling traps on Saturday afternoon, but he didn’t make a cent, nor did he expect to. None of his traps contained lobsters, but he wasn’t expecting that, either.
Burns was one of more than 20 volunteers who spent most of Saturday cleaning up Muscongus Bay, or more specifically, gathering over 200 derelict traps from the shores of Bar Island and ferrying them back to Round Pond Harbor for recycling.
The project, the first of its kind in Lincoln County, was organized by The Maine Island Trail Association (MITA), which has stewardship of 180 coastal Maine islands, including 16 in Muscongus Bay, including Bar Island.
MITA relies heavily upon volunteers, who “adopt” islands for stewardship. Cheryl and Glenn Allen of Round Pond are the volunteer stewards for Bar Island, off the southern tip of Louds Island, and first noticed the trap problem about two years ago.
Round Pond Harbor Master Robert Ball recalls that there was a big storm around that time, and that a lot of traps were lost. Because of Bar Island’s location, many traps, 218 to be exact, washed up on its shores.
Before the project could begin, MITA had to secure permits allowing them to remove the traps. They then sent a crew of volunteers to Bar Island to record the registration numbers of the 218 lost and storm damaged traps, and posted the numbers at local co-ops so that their owners would have a chance to re-claim them.
Few, if any, of the traps were spoken for, and so, after securing funding and local support for the project, the clean-up began.
Five boats were needed to ferry the traps from the island to the shore, including Ball’s Ezyduzit, Gary Clifford’s Destiny, and three skiffs, one manned by Burns.
On hand were Harbor Master Ball, lobstermen Gary Clifford and Dennis Morgan, the Allens, Theresa Torrent-Ellis of The Maine State Planning Office’s Maine Coastal Program, MITA volunteer Mike Duffy of Falmouth, Burns and his two pals Austin Pooler and David Runion, MITA staff and volunteers, and countless other volunteers, community members and observers.
B.J. Russell of the Round Pond Village Improvement Society was heavily involved in the project, and MITA Executive Director Doug Welch said, “This was a great community effort. We truly couldn’t have done this alone.”
Financial support for the project was provided by a grant from the Bonnell Cove Association, and from The Maine Coastal Program, which paid for, among other things, the 60 tons of dumpster storage space that was completely filled with traps by the end of the day.
Mike Duffy, a MITA volunteer who drove up from Falmouth to help with the clean-up effort, said that he’d helped with other island clean-up projects, and that he saw “a big improvement on (Bar) Island.”
Cheryl Allen added that it had been a “fun, interesting and successful” day, and that she’s pleased to be involved with the stewardship program because, “it’s a small way to be able to help.”
Most volunteers pointed to Ball and Russell as the “key people” and “movers and shakers” behind the successful clean-up, while also giving kudos to The Maine Marine Patrol and to the three kids who spent the day helping out, Burns, Pooler and Runion, all students at Bristol Consolidated School.
The traps will now be recycled by Cochran Environmental. Asked if there were future clean-up projects scheduled, MITA and Maine Coastal Program representatives were hopeful, while pointing out the on-going challenge of securing funding for such projects.
In response to the day’s work, Ball said, “I think it went great.”
Morgan said, “It got me out of the house after a long winter, and it was good to clean up out there.”
