May 17, 2019 — Fishing is one of the world’s most dangerous jobs.
To help save lives and prevent injuries, a group from Massachusetts is on a mission to travel around New England and train commercial fisherman on what to do in emergencies.
They were in Tenants Harbor Thursday.
“Anything you can do to make it better and that much safer for anybody by being out here is totally worth it.”
December 23, 2016 — A Cushing lobsterman has been charged with manslaughter in the deaths of two crewmen who were lost at sea when his boat capsized and sank near Matinicus Island during a storm in 2014.
Federal prosecutors have accused Christopher A. Hutchinson of taking oxycodone, using marijuana and drinking alcohol before taking out his boat, No Limits, early on Nov. 1, 2014, with two crewmen aboard. Tomas Hammond, 26, and Tyler Sawyer, 15, were never found after the boat flipped in heavy seas and sank several miles west of Matinicus as it was headed back to its home port in Tenants Harbor. Hutchinson, 28, made it into a life raft and was rescued.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Portland on Monday. Dressed in a tie-dyed T-shirt and blue athletic pants, Hutchinson responded to questions from Magistrate Judge John Rich and appeared shaken and tired.
Hutchinson had a court-appointed attorney during the hearing, but said he had retained an attorney to represent him. His family attended the hearing but declined to comment about the case. The families of Hammond and Sawyer didn’t return calls seeking comment Monday.
Hutchinson, who was arrested Monday, will be held in detention until a bail hearing scheduled for Thursday. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Hutchinson has been charged under the Seaman’s Manslaughter Statute, a little-used statute in the U.S. criminal code dating to the 1800s that is used in cases of misconduct or negligence by anyone responsible for managing a vessel, including a captain, pilot or owner.
The indictment charged Hutchinson in the deaths of Hammond, of Richmond, and Sawyer, of St. George and Waldoboro, on Nov. 1, 2014.
The boat was headed for a fishing area called Eleven Mile Ridge, despite National Weather Service warnings of dangerous weather and sea conditions.
After hauling lobster traps for several hours, Hutchinson decided to return to Tenants Harbor about 10:30 a.m., court documents say. Hutchinson tried to “surf” the waves, capsizing the boat.
In an interview a few days after the sinking, Hutchinson said the No Limits was on the way back to the mainland when the seas and winds quickly intensified, causing the 45-foot lobster boat to flip.
Hutchinson said that when the trio left the Linda Bean dock in Tenants Harbor early that morning, the wind was not blowing. He said he had fished that area off Matinicus for six years. He said his boat was large enough that he was not concerned about the weather.
October 3, 2016 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:
The Maine Marine Patrol is investigating the third sinking of a lobster boat belonging to Anthony Hooper of Tenants Harbor in two months.
The most recent sinking occurred at some point between Friday evening, September 30, and Saturday morning, October 1.
Marine Patrol Officers Brandon Bezio and Matthew Wyman were notified Saturday morning by the boat’s owner. Marine Patrol is investigating the sinking in cooperation with Knox County Sheriff’s Office.
The first sinking occurred between the evening of August 16 and the morning of August 17. The second sinking occurred between the evening of September 28 and September 29 and the third just two nights after the boat was raised and repaired. Each incident occurred in Port Clyde where the boat is moored.
The 35 foot fishing vessel Liberty has again been raised by its owner and is under repair.
This investigation is on-going. Anyone with information about the sinking of the fishing vessel Liberty is encouraged to contact their local Marine Patrol Officer or the State Police at 800-452-4664. Contact information for Maine Marine Patrol can be found here.
July 5, 2016 — TENANTS HARBOR, Maine — Nearly seven years after selling his first lobster roll, Cape Elizabeth native Luke Holden has opened the first Luke’s Lobster in Maine, a seasonal shack on Millers Wharf in Tenants Harbor.
Why did Holden, a 32-year-old who splits his time between New York City and Biddeford, choose to make his Maine debut in this scenic but out-of-the-way spot in coastal Knox County, 10 miles south of Thomaston? For the lobster, of course.
The Tenants Harbor shack actually sits on the wharf where 20 local lobstermen who fish Penobscot Bay will land over half a million pounds of lobster this year.
“This is about as close to the source as you can get,” said Holden, gesturing out to the lobsters sunk under the buy float just off the dock. “High-quality new shell Maine lobster. That’s my secret.”
But Luke’s has been buying lobster from a dozen Maine docks since he opened his first shack in New York City’s East Village in 2009. He could have opened a shack in any one of those places.
If he was going to come home to Maine, where most fishing villages have a good, if not great, local lobster shack, Holden wanted to do something different, something that would help the industry.
Then the owners of the wharf – the Miller brothers – and their lobstering pals gave him an opportunity to do that.
At Millers Wharf, Luke’s Lobster is now more than just a buyer. Luke’s sister company, Cape Seafood, is the guaranteed buyer of every lobster hauled by the 20 members of the newly founded Tenants Harbor Fisherman’s Co-op.
In a cooperative, fishermen bond together to split the overhead costs of running a dock, such as insurance, electricity and staffing the buy float, where boats unload their daily hauls for underwater storage.
The Tenants Harbor co-op is built to make money by shortening a lobster’s route from trap to table, eliminating middlemen such as lobster dealers and redistributing that savings to members.
May 13, 2016 — ST. GEORGE, Maine — A seafood processing plant that opened less than four years ago with the hope of bolstering the lobster industry is closed and up for auction.
Sea Hag Seafood’s plant and 7.5 acres of waterfront property at the mouth of Long Cove in Tenants Harbor will go up for auction on June 17.
Kyle Murdock opened the plant in September 2012 when he 23. The project’s financing included a nearly $1.7 million loan from Camden National Bank and a $400,000 grant through the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.
The grant money was provided to the company after it created 23 jobs for low- and moderate-income workers and after it met the terms of the federal program, said Maine DECD spokesman Douglas Ray. The town of St. George had sponsored the grant application but the town will not be liable for any repayment because the jobs were created.
April 11, 2016 — TENANTS HARBOR, Maine — The state has finalized a deal to preserve a long-time commercial fishing wharf.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources obtained a working waterfront covenant March 11 on the wharf owned by the four Miller brothers — Hale, Ira, Dan and Peter — at 12 Commercial St. in Tenants Harbor.
The covenant means that the pier must be used for commercial fishing.
The brothers, all commercial fishermen, inherited the property from their parents in 2002. They undertook considerable improvements to the wharf, including adding four hydraulic hoists to increase efficiencies, according to a news release from Coastal Enterprises Inc. of Wiscasset. They also dredged in the area to provide access for loading bait and unloading catch regardless of the tide.