MCCF Monthly
January 2023
MCCF Welcomes Visiting Scholar
Dr. Jon Henrik Ziegler Remme is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, Norway. Remme is a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College and MCCF from January to June 2023.

Through this previous long-term research engagement with an indigenous people in the highland of The Philippines, Remme attained an interest for the relations between humans and animals and has written extensively on the role of pigs in The Philippines. Now he has brought his interest in human-animal relations to Maine, focusing on the relations between humans and marine life, including lobsters, scallops, alewives, and whales.

He is currently leading a larger comparative project called SEATIMES: How Climate Change Transforms Human-Marine Temporalities (www.uib.no/en/seatimes) where along with two graduate students he looks at how human-marine related temporalities, seasonalities and rhythms are undergoing transformations as climate change cause marine ecosystems to change. Remme’s research is based on participant observation, and he will engage with fishermen, scientists and others involved in the marine related issues. He currently resides in Stonington with his wife, Unni, and three boys named Sigurd (13), Asmund (7) and Jonas (6).
Deer Isle Causeway Project
If you were on the island on December 23 and 24, it's very likely you were as rattled by the storm surge of Elliott as we all were. We recently received a grant from the Maine Community Foundation to study this vulnerability to sea level rise threatening to sever the Deer Isle and Stonington coastal communities from the mainland. Such a sudden disruption would have an overwhelming economic and social impact. 

The Causeway was constructed from 1927-1938 with a $15,000 allotment from the State of Maine with the goal of linking a series of small islands to create a vital economic corridor connecting the communities of Deer Isle and Stonington to the mainland.
Climate-driven impacts from rising sea levels and soil erosion due to increasingly frequent severe weather events have pushed this vital economic connector high on the list of projects that need to prepare for an uncertain future. In response, the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) has committed to begin a remediation effort construction project and address this high profile climate resiliency challenge. This timeline presents a sense of urgency and a unique opportunity to improve infrastructure as well as ecosystem function, and improve the long term climate resilience. The question is whether the solution lies in a rebuilt causeway, or a bridge?

MCCF has a proven track record of augmenting infrastructure projects with broad community and scientific engagement and realizes win-win solutions for the affected ecosystem and communities. We plan to engage with our home island and neighboring mainland communities to add this needed capacity to this timely effort. We'll help bring local voices and knowledge to foster a community coalition for this project which will simultaneously improve climate resilience of hard infrastructure and the local marine ecosystem for communities which are so dependent on marine resource harvest.

Lessons learned through past and current climate mitigation work tell us that for projects of this scale and scope require broad community involvement, early. The impacts of how a project is planned and implemented can be significant, complicated, and can last for decades. MCCF is pleased to be leading this critical community project. Stay tuned for more information.
Discovery Wharf Expansion
This spring, our Discovery Wharf (DW) will open its doors in 2023 with a new exhibit, offering visitors an interactive
Climate Change Immersive Video Experience focused on climate change and ecosystem awareness. Visitors will use a touch-screen table (seen at right) to manipulate video stories on a floor-to-ceiling projection. Visitors will select the location of the video and the environmental conditions such as a 50 or 100-year storm with worst case scenario sea level rise. The walls around them will display the selected environment in an impactful augmented reality experience.

Our MCCF videographer, Tate Yoder, completed the filming at two locations - the first is the Deer Isle Causeway, the second is Main Street in Stonington. Using the original raw video, PERCH Design Studios created animations to depict the climate scenarios such as sea level rise.

One of the enhancements added to the project is the addition of more interviews with local residents. Visitors will find the resident’s recollections and insights fascinating. For example, most residents don’t know that the Stonington harbor once froze over in the toughest of winters, allowing people to walk out to the nearby islands. MCCF's unique building site, wharf signage and interactive exhibits are providing a premier attraction for global visitors to Maine’s most active fishing port. This new exhibit will help folks understand the multiple challenges that threaten the traditional way of life, landscapes, and seascapes of Maine's coastal fishing communities. Offshore energy development and protection of marine mammals compete with fishermen for the same swath of ocean, as sea level rise erases shellfish habitat and erodes critical community infrastructure.

We believe fishermen’s engagement, knowledge and leadership is central to sharing responsibility, incorporating diverse viewpoints, and adapting to dynamic ecosystem, climate, market and social change. Through engagement with our visitors and community, we’ve identified a need to expand our capacity to interpret these issues and allow for individual reflection, appreciation, and conversation within the construct of a professionally designed and managed museum. MCCF appreciates the financial support of The Dorr Foundation.
MCCF's popular Lunch & Learn Series kicks off 2023 with Dr. Valerie Ouellet
Please join us on Friday, February 17 at 12pm for our first 2023 Lunch and Learn presentation with Val Ouellet from the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

Val will speak on Ecosystem-based management from a sea-run fish perspective. Sea-run fishes once supported extensive subsistence, commercial, and recreational fisheries in Maine rivers and also provided a suite of other ecosystem services. Val developed a visually engaging common sense conceptual model that explains ecosystem science in a very approachable way. You won’t want to miss this one-hour presentation!