Hauling the Flotsam and Jetsam
MidCoast Barge left Tenants Harbor in the early morning gloom on a chilly day in Late September. We made our way out to Hart Island, about a mile off Port Clyde, with Marshal Point just barely visible in the distance. Hart Island is small and uninhabited—one low-lying knoll at its center with a few trees surrounded by short coastal scrub and some rocky outcroppings on its shoreline. Despite the size, tides and currents deposit an inordinate amount of ghost gear and shore warped lobster pots on Hart Island’s diminutive banks. The back side, in particular—with nothing but open ocean beyond it—is littered with lobster traps. As the problem grew worse, the island became an unofficial gathering spot for volunteer crews pulling ghost gear off other local islands. When Maine Island Trail Association, Rozalia Project, and other stakeholders got involved the unofficial collection point became official, and a plan was hatched: Volunteers using MITA skiffs flattened and deconstructed lobster traps on Hart Island that MidCoast Barge loaded and transported off-site where the traps were collected into giant truck-sized recycling bins so the metal could be reused.
