Marine resource center hires coordinator

STONINGTON – Penobscot East Resource Center has hired a New York fisherman as its first community coordinator.

Robert Rosenbaum will work to build connections between local groups working to responsibly manage marine resources and help those groups operate and organize effectively.

“Fishermen need to be involved in governing their fisheries,” Rosenbaum said in a prepared release. “If you’re involved, you can help in making the right decisions.”

Rosenbaum also will play a large part in Penobscot East’s Zone C Lobster Hatchery, located on the Stonington waterfront, according to Executive Director Robin Alden.

“Bob will help Penobscot East move the community-built lobster hatchery into a community-operated hatchery,” Alden said.

The position is funded for the next two years by a grant from the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust. Earlier this year, Penobscot East also received a Rural Development Agency grant that will provide training for the center staff to help them to work effectively in the community.

The Penobscot East Resource Center is a Stonington-based nonprofit group working to make a future for fishing communities from the Penobscot Bay islands to Jonesport. The Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust funds projects in New England in the areas of health, education, and the environment.

Rosenbaum brings broad fisheries experience to the job, having worked for many years as a commercial fisherman in New York.

“I consider myself a bayman,” said Rosenbaum, whose fishing experience includes gillnetting, dragging, pound netting, clamming and lobstering. Rosenbaum has also worked as a contractor for a Massachusetts seafood company.

His experiences as a New York bayman have shown Rosenbaum the necessity of caring for marine resources and the working waterfront. He saw the New York lobsters vanish and the commercial fishing fleet all but disappear following a massive Long Island Sound lobster die-off in 1999.

“If you’re not involved in the process, then it rolls right over you,” said Rosenbaum. “You need to be a steward of your livelihood.”