The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Robin Alden, Penobscot East Resource Center:

My organization has collaborated with The Nature Conservancy for years, most recently by purchasing a groundfishing permit together and through collaborative fisheries research. The goal of this partnership is to restore groundfishing rights to communities of Eastern Maine and to restore the fish communities they need. The Conservancy understands that you have to work on both issues. They have always seen helping coastal communities as part of their conservation mission. Our hope is that groundfish will rebound and our fishermen will be able to fish from
home again.

The Sustainable Maine, Sustainable Planet Campaign will have tremendous results for the Gulf of Maine and for these disenfranchised coastal communities, because it links forest and freshwater restoration to the Gulf ’s recovery. When trillions of juvenile alewives once again flow out of our rivers into the marine ecosystem, they may herald a resurgence of marine productivity unseen in our lifetimes.

With your help and our partners, we are:

• Collecting and integrating volumes of data from oceanography, biology and even social science to help solve long-standing problems in the marine environment.
• Leveraging new market-based approaches like permit banking to help revive and sustain local livelihoods, coastal culture and fish stocks in the Gulf of Maine.
• Helping the Gulf of Maine regain its status as one of Earth’s most bountiful marine ecosystems.