Tenants Harbor fishing wharf earns working waterfront status
The Maine Department of Marine Resources has obtained a working waterfront covenant to preserve a long-serving commercial fishing wharf in Tenants Harbor that has been in the sights of developers looking to convert the property.
The covenant guarantees that the wharf, which has been owned by the Miller family for four generations, will continue to be used exclusively for working waterfront activities and that the state will invest $250,000 into the property, an amount determined by a standardized working waterfront property appraisal.
“Those funds will allow us to increase the operating efficiency of the business on the wharf,” Hale Miller, one of the four Miller brothers who own the wharf, said in a statement. “That will bring the operating costs down, which will benefit all the fishermen who use the wharf.”
Hale, Ira, Dan and Peter Miller inherited the wharf from their parents in 2002 and have invested in a number of improvements — including adding four hydraulic hoists to increase efficiencies, dredging to provide access for loading bait and unloading catch regardless of the tide.
More than 100 commercial lobstermen, scallopers, urchin fishermen and seaweed harvesters use the wharf, including the four Miller brothers. Over the years, landings have included shrimp and groundfish.
“Fishing is a big part of the community in this area,” said Victor Cole, who fishes off the wharf, in a release. “I’ve fished off quite a few wharves over the years and this is one of the best maintained wharves I’ve seen. The fact that it will be here for future commercial use is significant — much of the economy on the peninsula is tied to commercial fishing and that can’t happen without access.”
With 25 projects in the program, the protected commercial fishing properties total more than 42 acres and occupy almost 1.5 miles of Maine shorefront. Cumulatively the properties service 940 boats, 1,680 fishermen, and provide economic support for at least 1,730 families. Nearly 21.4 million pounds of seafood are landed at the properties annually and are worth about $49.2 million dockside, according to a news release about the preservation from Coastal Enterprises Inc. of Brunswick.
“We have worked with the Miller family for over a decade on a variety of projects,” said Dick Clime, project developer for CEI. “Having Millers’ wharf preserved as working waterfront is a significant win for this small fishing community. It’s these communities that, when you string them together, make up Maine’s coastal economy and create thousands of jobs.”
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