History of MCCF

In 2003, a group of fishermen and community members and fishermen known as the Stonington Fisheries Alliance (SFA) decided that they needed an organization with bigger reach and resources to tackle science, management and policy questions that impacted local fishermen. SFA members Ted Ames, Ted Hoskins, and Robin Alden together with Kristen and Paul Lewis, founded Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, then called Penobscot East Resource Center, to help Stonington and other community fishing groups in Downeast Maine see beyond the horizon of their own harbors and take an active role in caring for their fisheries.

Since it originated, Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries has launched many innovative and collaborative programs that create a place where fishermen’s knowledge becomes part of science, and where their voices can become a constructive and creative part of the management dialogue. We have also invested in and engaged the next generation of fisheries stewards.

While we work throughout Maine and regionally, nationally, and internationally as needed, our focus is on the area from Penobscot Bay, east to the Canadian border. The area is distinct ecologically and socio-economically. It comprises about one third of the Gulf of Maine, has ~3000 commercial fishermen, and includes the two most fisheries dependent counties on the East Coast.

The 2021 Annual Report can be viewed here.