My top 15 climate and environmental stories for the BDN in 2018

From changes in Maine’s lobster population and odd sea creatures to earlier ice-outs, warming oceans, and water pollution, these are the top environmental and climate stories I wrote for the Bangor Daily News this year. Heraclitus’ observation that the only constant in life is change applies equally in Maine as elsewhere (or perhaps even more so, if viewed through the rate of warming in the Gulf of Maine), so there no doubt will be more proposals, cleanup projects, and emerging trends to write about in 2019.  I’ll do my best to keep track of the ones that stand to affect Maine the most.

Study: Maine’s lobster population will drop but fishery not ‘doomed’ — Jan. 26

Gulf of Maine has coolest year since 2011 but still getting warmer — Feb. 1

How listening to right whales could prevent more deaths of the imperiled species — Feb. 14

Study: warming Arctic could be fueling nor’easter storms — March 21

Milder winters shaving weeks off ice-fishing seasons in Maine — April 16

Scientists say Maine lobster boom won’t last. Here are the fisheries coming next — May 12

Proposal could create ‘retail hubs,’ sprawl in Maine woods — June 20

How one tiny Maine island prepares budding scientists for a warmer world — July 4

State: Baileyville mill has a history of wastewater leaks — Aug. 17

Mainers marvel over sightings of odd-looking ‘alien’ fish — Sept. 3

Company revives wind farm plan that state wildlife officials had opposed — Sept. 14

Estimated cost of Penobscot River cleanup balloons to more than $240 million — Oct. 3

Seals are dying at alarming rates and the virus that’s killing them could affect your pets — Oct. 12

Warming climate expected to bring more people, rising seas to Acadia National Park — Oct. 15

A creature that looks like ‘pancake batter’ is thriving in the warming Gulf of Maine — Nov. 15

 

 

PETA lodges complaint against another Maine lobster processor

Five years after it sought to have charges filed against a Rockland lobster processing plant, an animal rights group that has repeatedly raised concerns about alleged animal cruelty in Maine’s signature seafood industry has lodged a complaint against Maine Fair Trade Lobster in Gouldsboro. 12.19.18

Cartoonist whose summers in Maine inspired ‘SpongeBob’ dies at 57

Stephen Hillenburg, the animator whose childhood summers on a Maine island later inspired him to create “SpongeBob Squarepants,” died Nov. 26 in California from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. — 11.27.18

A creature that looks like ‘pancake batter’ is thriving in the warming Gulf of Maine

Marine scientists say gelatinous animals known as sea squirts have been growing in number in shallow waters along the coast and could be creating problems for native organisms that are getting squeezed out of their traditional habitat on the bottom. 11.15.18

She stole her sister’s identity, married an American and settled in Maine. Now her citizenship could be at risk.

Emilita Arindela assumed her sister’s identity, faked her own death in her native Philippines and married four times, with the marriages overlapping. Now living on Mount Desert Island, Arindela, 43, was sentenced last week in federal court for using her sister’s date of birth in applying for a U.S. passport. 10.31.18

Warming climate expected to bring more people, rising seas to Acadia

Some of these changes already are noticeable, as the warming climate has helped to extend Maine’s tourist season into the fall, resulting in increasingly high visitation numbers at Acadia. 10.15.18

Seals are dying at alarming rates, and the virus that’s killing them could affect your pets

A deadly outbreak of distemper that has killed hundreds of seals in three states is spreading east along the Maine coast, keeping responders busy as they deal with an unusually high number of reports 10.12.18

Estimated cost of Penobscot River mercury cleanup balloons to more than $240M

The plan — which now includes dredging and replacing the riverbed soil near the former Holtrachem chemical manufacturing site in Orrington with new soil, capping of much of Mendall Marsh, and adding clean sediments to the tidal Orland River and the channel on the east side of Verona Island — previously had been projected to cost $130 million. 10.03.18

To be more humane, Maine restaurant gets lobsters high before killing them

Charlotte Gill, owner of Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound in the Southwest Harbor village of Seawall, has treated lobster by blowing marijuana smoke into a plastic box with a lobster in it before the lobster goes in the cooking pot. 09.19.18

Company revives wind farm plan that state wildlife officials had opposed

A spokesman for Longroad Energy said the company has been in discussions with the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which came out against the proposal in 2015 because of the harm the department said it would cause to birds and bats. 09.14.18