Downeast Fisheries Trail
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    • Alewives and Blueback Herring
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Cobscook Bay Resource Center

110 Water Street, Eastport

Since 1998, this community organization has worked for sustainable development based on the bay’s renewable resources. Recent efforts include developing a licensed commercial kitchen and marketing co-op where local fishermen and farmers can add value to and sell Cobscook Bay scallops and farm produce. Across the street, visit the Breakwater wharf to fish for mackerel or take a ride on a whale-watching boat (both activities peak in August and September). Tour restaurants, galleries, shops, and historic buildings of downtown Eastport, location of the first sardine cannery built in the United States in 1875.

207.853.6607 | www.cobscook.org

Year-round. Limited parking.

Cobscook Bay Resource Center
Scallops
Eastport public landing
Quoddy fishing boats
Selling fresh fish
Eastport tug boat.
Eastport waterfront
Eastport breakwater
Eastport sardine history
"Nature’s Grace" sculpture
Eastport fisherman

Fisheries Heritage

 

The first sardine cannery in America opened in Eastport, Maine, on 17 February 1875. Julius Wolff had come to Eastport from New York City, where he worked as an importer of French sardines. But because France was at war with Russia, fish from Europe was expensive and difficult to get. Wolff knew that there was a small smoked-herring industry at the northeastern edge of the country, and when he arrived in Eastport and Lubec he found an abundant supply of fish. He soon opened the Eagle Preserved Fish Company, and other New York importers soon followed. By the end of the century, 75 canneries up and down the Maine coast were packing fish 24 hours a day. Production peaked a few years later at 344 million cans of sardines. But there are only so many fish in the sea, and by 1972, fewer than 20 canneries survived, and today there is nothing left of an industry that once dominated the waterfront. Some fish factories burned and many more were demolished.

 

Today, herring is a minor industry. Cobscook Bay is home to the last good scallop grounds in Maine because local fishermen have worked hard to protect them. The Cobscook Bay Resource Center works with scallopers to develop ideas for better management of the fishery.

 

Activities & Events

 

Late summer is the best time to watch whales from the deck of a historic windjammer.  

Eastport Windjammers
Sylvina W. Beal Daysails

On New Years Eve, the City of Eastport drops a glittery sardine instead of a ball. 

 

Sources & Links

 

Visit the Tides Institute to listen to oral histories from local sardine workers. 

 

Eastport Area Chamber of Commerce 

 

The Quoddy Tides newspaper 

Trail Sites

  • Abbe Museum
  • Bad Little Falls Park
  • Bar Harbor Town Park
  • Bar Harbor Town Pier
  • Beals Heritage Center
  • Bucksport Waterfront
  • Cable Pool Park
  • Carryingplace Cove
  • Cobscook Bay Resource Center
  • Cobscook Bay State Park
  • Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery
  • Deer Isle – Stonington Historical Society
  • Downeast Institute
  • Frazer Point
  • Frenchman Bay Overlook
  • Frenchman Bay Scenic Turnout
  • Gleason Cove Park
  • Gordon’s Wharf
  • Great Harbor Maritime Museum
  • Green Lake National Fish Hatchery
  • Henry Cove
  • Islesford Historical Museum
  • Jonesport Historical Society
  • Long Cove
  • Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries (formerly Penobscot East Resource Center)
  • Maine Coast Sardine History Museum
  • McCurdy’s Smokehouse
  • Milbridge Historical Museum
  • Milbridge Town Marina
  • Morong Cove
  • Mount Desert Oceanarium
  • Naskeag Point
  • Otter Cove
  • Penobscot Marine Museum
  • Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory & Fort Knox
  • Peter Gray Hatchery
  • Pleasant River Hatchery
  • Prospect Harbor
  • Quoddy Head State Park
  • Roosevelt-Campobello International Park
  • Shackford Head State Park
  • Somesville Mill Pond
  • Taunton Bay Gateway
  • Tidal Falls
  • Waponahki Museum & Resource Center

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The Downeast Fisheries Trail consists of 45 locations from Penobscot Bay, Maine, to Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, that showcase active and historic fisheries heritage sites, such as fish hatcheries, aquaculture facilities, fishing harbors, clam flats, processing plants, historical societies, community centers, parks, and other related places. The Trail is an effort to raise awareness among residents and visitors of the importance of the region’s maritime heritage and the role of marine resources to the area’s economy. The Trail builds on these local resources to strengthen community life and the experience of visitors.

For a printed map-brochure of the Trail, please call 207.581.1435.

Download the web version of the map-brochure. (6.8 MB)

For more information about the Downeast Fisheries Trail, email or call 207.288.2944 x5834.

Downeast Fisheries Trail Brochure Map - Web Version

Downeast Fisheries Trail Brochure Map - Web Version

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