Clammers seek help from state

WHITING – Out of work and out of money for seven weeks already, about 40 clam diggers from the Cobscook Bay area on Wednesday demanded that the state make more money available for the testing of clam flats currently closed for red tide.

George LaPointe, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, shouldered most of the clam diggers’ complaints at a meeting at the Whiting community building.

He told them there won’t likely be any respite soon, either in manpower or more frequent testing Down East.

“We are in a worse situation than last year,” he said. “There hasn’t been a red tide this bad in 30 years, since 1972.”

Last year, clammers Down East endured 13 weeks of flat closures between July and September. This year, the algae bloom appeared earlier and was more widespread than biologists expected, and it hasn’t left. It affects at least two-thirds of the Maine coast, LaPointe said.

In red tide, the algae bloom releases toxins known as paralytic shellfish poison. It is unclear what causes the algae blooms.

The closures, largely since June 17, have left as many as 150 clammers who normally work out of Cobscook Bay without an income. A clammer can earn as much as $100 to $150 per tide.

The closures are hurting far more than just clammers, their families and clam dealers. Stores up and down U.S. Route 1 are looking to tourists for cash, rather than local clammers, some of them said.

In early June, clam warden Lester Seeley said, “One day’s work paid a total of $7,400 in this area, because of the double tides. I ask all the dealers what they pay out every few weeks. Ordinarily, a day will pay out half that amount, and even losing that is a lot of dollars that aren’t being spent.”

A portion of the inner-bay flats in Pembroke was opened to digging last week. But that didn’t satisfy many in the room who live in the still-closed areas between Lubec and Eastport.

Something good has got to be done, and soon, the clammers told a table full of people with titles.

Three first-time legislators sat alongside LaPointe, in Rep. Ian Emery, R-Cutler; Howard McFadden, R-Dennysville; and Sen. Kevin Raye, R-Perry. There was representation from the Department of Labor’s Career Center in Machias, and from the offices of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

Albion Goodwin, the former state representative from Perry, had called the meeting to call attention to the clammers’ growing desperation.

“What will it take to wake people up downstate?” asked Julie Keene, a Trescott woman who has become the unofficial voice of Cobscook-area clammers. “We are so dependent here on clamming. We have nothing else.”

By the end of two hours, the clammers covered a number of topics that the three legislators at the top table promised to take back to Augusta. Goodwin boiled them down:

. Federal grant money, not low-interest loans, may be coming to the displaced clammers, thanks to Collins and Snowe, who have initiated that request in Washington, D.C.

. More state money needs to be dedicated to more water monitors, so Down East flats aren’t caught short in the testing cycle.

. Raye and Emery will look at sponsoring a modest tax paid by clam diggers, similar to what quahog dealers now pay, that could provide a safety net for times of red tide.

. Local diggers might organize themselves to gain more political clout down the coast.

Additional areas that continue to be closed are identified through the toll-free Red Tide Hotline maintained by the DMR, with daily updates for shellfish harvesters, dealers and the public. The numbers are (800) 232-4733, and 633-9571.