2013 Beaches Conference | Multimedia Session

Exhibits | Posters | Demonstrations | Art & Photography

EXHIBITS

Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation’s Gear Grab Program
“GEARGRAB” is a three-pronged approach to removing and recycling derelict fishing gear as well as any marine debris from the sea and shorelines in the Gulf of Maine. The Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation works closely with fishermen, their families and local businesses to host at-sea recovery efforts and community beach and island clean-up days. By providing an exhibit we hope to encourage more community members to help us plan more clean-ups and get input on where there may be problematic areas along the coast.

Maine Beaches Association
The Maine Beaches Association formed in 2000 to promote the southern Maine coast as a four-season vacation destination. Throughout the year, the association serves as a regional clearinghouse of information for potential visitors, and helps to inform the Maine Office of Tourism on travel and tourism related issues in our area. Our exhibit is one that we use regularly at travel and trade shows around the Northeast and Canada. The Maine Beaches Association exhibit depicts beaches and other coastal icons on the southern Maine coast, and includes literature on travel and tourism to the area, data on economic impacts of tourism in the area, and a laptop for displaying several videos of the beaches region.

Maine Coastal Program

Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s Agents Detection Program
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) represent a class of compounds present in natural waterways that originate as products disposed of in household sewage. PPCPs have been found in a number of streams selected for testing by Maine DEP, Maine Healthy Beaches, and U.S. EPA in 2011 and 2012. This project tested for a subset of eight compounds that EPA calls “Source Tracking Agents” and includes: acetaminophen, blood pressure pharmaceuticals, caffeine and nicotine metabolites. We primarily looked for compounds that have been metabolized or passed through the human body as indicative of domestic sewage. Detection of these compounds is used to identify potential sources of fecal contamination in streams with bacteria concentrations that exceed Maine’s Water Quality Standards. Detection occurred at most sites, even remote sites, which confirms regional observations in the Northeast that low levels of PPCPs are ubiquitous. These results are used to establish baseline levels of PPCPs relative to Maine waters and distinguish between human and wildlife sources of bacteria, since only bacteria of human origin violates Maine’s Water Quality Standards.

Maine Floodplain Management Program and National Flood Insurance Program
An exhibit of the NFIP and flood mapping outreach materials.

Maine Geological Survey
Learn more about how beaches change over time, how erosion affects the beach profile and dunes, and why monitoring is important. Find information on how to obtain the latest report: The State of Maine’s Beaches in 2013 from the MGS web site. Explore more about all of the Maine Geological Survey’s resources on groundwater, earthquakes, landslides, fossils, rocks, and minerals. Discover the thousands of publications and maps that are available for purchase in hard copy or free to download from the Maine Geological Survey.

Maine Sea Grant
Maine Sea Grant is a federal-state partnership program based at the University of Maine and supported with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the State of Maine. Sea Grant funds marine and coastal research and works in Maine communities via a Marine Extension Team of ten professionals located in coastal communities from Wells to Eastport. Maine Sea Grant is part of a network of 33 programs across the Nation’s coastal and Great Lakes states and territories. Sea Grant research and extension led to the first Maine Beaches Conference in 1999, and Sea Grant continues to work on issues of concern to Maine beach communities.

Nadeau Land Surveys
This exhibit will be an extension of Nadeau’s presentation, providing resources for participants to get more information and ask questions about the topics covered. Nadeau Land Surveys will have visual aids such as FEMA brochures and documents used for elevation certificates and challenging flood zone determinations. We will have posters with photos, plans, and information about our company and the services we offer.

Ecological/Economic Value of Seaweed
This exhibit will provide educational material about the value of native seaweeds in Maine, both ecologically and economically including sampling of types of seaweed products.

Surfrider Maine
Surfrider Maine wants people to realize that you can never take it for granted that you will always have access to the beach, that the beach will always be clean, and the water will not be polluted.

Walsh Engineering Associates
Walsh Engineering Associates Inc. is a professional consulting engineering firm based in Portland, Maine. WEA offers professional consulting services including civil engineering, permitting, site planning, landscape design, project management, and construction administration services to clients throughout New England. Our exhibit focus will be information on Shoreline Stabilization, Maine DEP Sand Dune Permitting, local site plan permitting, FEMA Flood Hazard Assessment and other consulting services we offer.

Wells Reserve’s Coastal Training Program
The Wells Reserve Coastal Training Program exhibit features the general work of the Wells Reserve, the watershed approaches to land use management the CTP has facilitated in the Salmon Falls River, Saco River, and the Merriland River, Branch Brook, and Littler River (MBLR) watersheds, and the climate change scenario-based game the CTP will facilitate with the community of Wells as part of the New England Climate Adaptation Project.

POSTERS

Southern Maine Beach Profile Monitoring Program
Through collection and sharing of reliable data and encouraging collaboration among property owners, regulators, and scientists, the beach profiling program works to improve the decision-making process.

State-of-Maine’s Beaches in 2013 poster series
These posters will summarize beach changes observed by Southern Maine Beach Profiling Program volunteers at each of the participating beach locations. It will dscuss shoreline changes observed since 2011 at the majority of southern Maine’s beaches, and assign letter grades for the overall “status” of the beaches in terms of shoreline change trends. This exhibit will be tied to the oral presentation that will be made, in addition to the written State of Maine’s Beaches in 2013 written report.

Maine Healthy Beaches Program

Marine Invasives Monitoring Program
Marine Invasives Monitoring and Information Collaborative or MIMIC is a volunteer- driven program in Southern Maine, part of a network of trained volunteers, scientists, and state and federal agencies who monitor marine invasive species throughout the northeast United States. The collaborative provides an opportunity for the public to participate in an invasive species early detection network, identify new invaders, and contribute to knowledge about the behavior of established invaders. The monitoring protocol used in the MIMIC program is adapted from the visual rapid assessment method used by scientists from San Francisco Bay to coastal New England to monitor for marine invasive species. Rapid assessment is a qualitative approach of visual search within a fixed area and/or time frame, and is focused on the identification of organisms within arm’s reach. MIMIC is coordinated by Coastal Zone Management with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Northeast Aquatic Nuisance Species Panel, and local monitoring organizations that recruit and train volunteer monitors.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Piping Plover Monitoring Program
Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge’s piping plover management includes outreach, lethal and non-lethal predator control, and law enforcement.

University of Southern Maine’s Archeology of Beaches
A poster series exploring the relationship between stability, sea-level rise and archaeology. Posters will feature the concepts and examples of geoarcheology, environmental archeology, and public archeology.

DEMONSTRATIONS

Maine Sea Grant’s Web Tools for Cooperation
Maine Sea Grant has worked with numerous partners across the state of Maine and across the country to develop tools to facilitate cooperation among coastal stakeholders. Development of these tools begins with assessments to fully understand users’ needs. The Maine Beaches Conference is a gathering place for many of the audiences for whom these tools were designed, including coastal property owners, municipal officials, recreational beach users, etc. We will demonstrate several of these tools with conference attendees, providing an opportunity for potential users to take guided tours of these tools. The tools on display for demonstration include:

• Accessing the Maine Coast
• Maine Property Owner’s Guide to Managing Flooding, Erosion, and Other Coastal Hazards
• The Maine Seafood Guide

ART & PHOTOGRAPHY

SMCC Art Department Exhibition

The Fine Arts Department at SMCC will enter its second decade this academic year, growing from an Artist-In-Residence program launched in 2003. The department has grown exponentially in the past ten years, and currently offers 35 courses in studio art, art history, art appreciation, music, theater, and dance. Students at SMCC can earn an associate’s degree in liberal studies with an art Concentration, and many have successfully transferred to art programs at public and private colleges, as well as finding work in the creative economy. The college has renovated a number of formerly derelict buildings on the Spring Point shoreway to use as art studios, making full use of the inspirational beauty of our marine location. The Art Exhibit at the Maine Beaches Conference will feature recent works from students in visual art classes at SMCC. Work created in summer 2013 studio art courses by the students of faculty member Jeff Badger and three other art instructors will be featured at the show. Media will include drawings, paintings and photography (such as the work to the left, “South Portland Inlet,” by Penny Magcalas, acrylic on paper). The works will be displayed in the Campus Center during the conference and for a week after the event.

Photography by Jessica Birtolo
The beach has always been a sanctuary for individuals to swim, fish, walk, bird watch, and sunbathe, as well as providing habitats to valuable wildlife. Even though many individuals appreciate the beach, misuse can lead to gradual degradation of the habitat. One only has to walk the beaches of Maine on a rainy day to see the seaweed intertwined with trash. For the Maine Beaches Conference Exhibit, I would share the beauty that the beach holds through my photography (e.g., seaweed, dune grass, mussel shells, and the ocean itself). Also on display are images titled Seas of Trash, which depict the beautiful elements of the beach tangled with human inflicted litter. My hope would be that these photographs could not only bring an increased appreciation for the beach, but also an awareness on the environmental issues of waste and the effects this may pose on the beach.