Some of these authors have a will be appearing on booktv. You can watch them on our website, booktv. Org. Often i think of the beautiful town that is seated by the sea and often in fossil upanddown the pleasant streets of that town and my youth comes back to me. Welcome to portland, maine, on booktv. Located on a peninsula, it was the original capital of maine and started as a fishing and trading village. Today its the largest city in the state with a population of about 66,000. It still has strong ties to its maritime history with lobstering and tourism in its largest economic drivers. With help of our spectrum Cable Partners for the next 90 minutes will feature the areas history and literary community. Whitney kent are special feature on portland with a history of lobstering industry. We begin our special feature. Over here is my gps and radar. So and thought it helps us figure out where we are. I dont mark my traps with the gps. I i kind of do it by feel. Look at that bad boy. Its a male. That right there is about 75, 80 bucks. Maine has been tied up with the sea for a very long time. Coastal maine was a place where many people form and it was difficult to form because of the ledges and this one wasnt easy, and a lot of people especially in certain parts of the state had to turn to the sea to survive. The lobster became, over time, evolved from being a nuisance species the user fertilize and could sell anywhere to the sort of endall beall support that is keeping many of the working waterfronts and working people and ages old fishing communities and culture alive here lobsters were incredibly common. You could go out and get five and six pounds by waiting out in the bay and spitting them and bring them home. As many as you wanted. In storms they would form when roads, and like seaweed and people collecting to fertilize the gardens. They were staggeringly common and, of course, you could eat them and they became one of the foods of last resort if you were running low on things. You would pick clamps on the shore, going get lobster because they were always there and easy to get. But the problem with them commercially if youre going to try to live on learning, not just substance, is for still your local community can anyone else could go get the lobsters or syndicated to get a wheelbarrow full easy enough. You couldnt sell them to your friends. Lobsters when did i start putrefy almost immediately. You have to sell them live. In the past there was no way to keep them like to get into market. Because of that lobsters were seen as sort of a nuisance subsistence food but not anything you could make money off. At the time when you can actually start making money to make a living fishing lobster came in the 19th century. Starting in 1800, 1810, people, october know people some of the major cities, in new york in particular started selling lobsters locally. They would send kids out and in those days you can trap a lobster on the bottom, they took bear loops and they put netting over it and it would create a couple of sticks over where you could hang some kind of, drop them in Shallow Water and have rope attached to it and basically they would wait, watching the water until lobster walked onto the net to get the bait and it would pull it up. You could pull up lots and lots of lobsters in this fashion, there were so many of them, three pounds and four pounds. The entrepreneurial people would create boiling houses and send kids out or got themselves and trap these lobsters in food traps and start something around the city from, boiled and so their rent and sell it as an inexpensive source of food in the urbanized neighborhoods where people didnt have access and couldnt get to the lobsters. The problem that came up quickly though is near boston and new york its essentially sandy bottom. Its not very good lobster habitat. The resource was quickly overexploited. There are not that many lobsters down there and the demand kept growing and growing and more people were not with her food traps and had to go into deeper and deeper water. Pretty soon theyre getting to the point where the couldnt get lobsters before they started putrefying. They were so far out trying to catch them. The innovation that transformed the lobster industry particularly in maine and kept fueling the expansion of the lot to Consumer Market upanddown east coast was some ambitious yankees with Yankee Ingenuity came up with a solution around the problem and it was this. They took one of their sailing vessels, when a small sloops and they built a sort of wooden tank and then they flooded the tanks. Like a a sieve and water would flow in and get the flight tank which they would put a lobsters they purchased or caught into this giant tank and giant pool of cold and constantly recirculated see what i think its their life for several days, a week or two. That meant these vessels, they could travel much longer distances and they started sailing first to provincetown in massachusetts but also Sandy Bottoms and the start over exploding filtered by the 1830s they started showing up in maine right near portland. It turned out one of the only places in all of maine where people were catching lobsters as a commercial proposition was a peninsula about ten miles from where were standing in portland. The reason for that is its one of the first sections of rocky coast where theres lots of lobster, and he was right adjacent here to portland which had that growing market, especially workingclass people without a lot of sources of inexpensive protein who created a massmarket to sell lobsters. Theyre close enough with ticket sales down here each day and delivered to catch. The first phase were really exploded is as people were realizing automobile people, that there was a demand and a case for lobster and a started moving to restaurants and other places where people started to eat them by choice, they were becoming maybe not a delicacy but not just a cheap form of protein. As it happened and judd the beginning and have met of the civil war of the summer tourism and summer cottage trade. Before that that that being that by jeff people maine to get away from the heat in the big cities, to have the kids learn to sail. They built the day grappling cottages with the crescent and mr. Wanting to eat some of the local food and laughter became more popular and people started realizing there was an extensive market. Some of these entrepreneurs started thinking about, well, wait you could preserve it and send it longer distances to the midwest, across the continent on the railways . What if you could can the lobster meat . There were canneries toucan sam and blueberries and corn and other products but the seasons for these things. There was a missing gap for the canneries in the late 19th century that happened to fit the time when the big lobster catches and landings laughing at the time. They started fitting it in on a provisional basis and it worked really well and they started sending thousands and tens of thousands of cans of lobster meat all over the country. They started creating an enormous demand. Ended up being 100, 150 canneries up and down the coast. Some of them had their own smacks going at. Do the 1890s the demand for lobster of almost any size became so enormous that it started overwhelming and destroying the lobster population itself. The fishery today is an example heralded in fishery circles around the world really of a sustainable fishery. But this came out of a terrible tragedy. This was a hard learned experience because none of those conservation measures were in place at the end of the 19th century when there was this cannery boom, a demand for lobster of any size. It would take 45 little snapper lobsters to get enough meat to fill the pan towards the end. Because of this you could land in the lobster. There was almost an insatiable demand. Based on a wiping out the lobster and pretty soon it ended up being a crash in the population. As the crash happened the value of the lobster as happens in many fisheries kept going up. It was an incentive to hunt down and fish the very last animal because of perunit price as it became more rare. Weve seen that in wildlife exploitation and fisheries and its one of those tragedies. Thats happen in the lobster fishery. The lobster landings were terrible all the way up until 1929 when the stock market crashed. That crash was so terrible that it finally eliminated most of the demand for lobster to the point where it was a with going out and catch them anymore. Then you had the Great Depression which kept fishermen from point out and aggressively pursuing lobster. After the Great Depression of the Second World War when many fishermen were serving in the navy or drafted into service to fight the two front war and it wasnt safe often to go out into many of fisheries grounds because of the belief of uboats and other threats. There was the time of decades where humans laidoff maines lobster fishery and was able to rebuild. After world war ii when things got back to normal and the supply chain for lobster group and lobster and start going out again the resource has been a Pretty Healthy shape. The lesson still of having destroyed the resource has been learned and internalized. There was not only support for brace conservation laws that have been on the books made in the 19th century but not observe like not catching lobsters that a big event 35 because as of the successful breeders. The number of eggs a female lobster produces grows geometrically with its size. If you catch all the big ones you are doing much greater damage to the lobster population than you think, it also not catching the small ones that have not had chance to reproduce once. Just doing that start helping but then the interdicting and cascading series of additional improvements. Lobsters only caught with traps. The traps have special vince intend to let lots of the undersized escapes of you get trapped into. Lobstermen throw away and returned to the water females bearing eggs. They notch the tales of the females so that the number lobstermen catches fema later after the eggs are con they will see it was a successful breeder and return it again but not before first renotching the lobster. A lobstermen we continue to put the notch backing. Various other measures that ensured the existence of a breeding stock and not catching ones that are too big and too small and using in the form of trap a technology that didnt destroy and disrupt the bottom habitat, that didnt accidentally catch the young are other species and ended up being rather benign. So the result is, think about this, we are in the 21st century in a globalized and a short air with High Technology and consolidation of virtually everything and yet this industry which is growing that because of this back story, it still prosecuted by sole proprietors, by somebody who usually owns their boat with maybe one or two assistants or employees on the vessel going out from own port for the day and returning that day at the scale that is a household sort of individual owner scale, thats how the entire lobster fishery which is now providing lobster to aircraft our flight to china right now and to japan loaded with lobster, supplying a Global Supply chain but at that level and at a level and discovered happens to work in tandem with the resource. So its that social and cultural benefit for the communities because its locally owned and operated or else, but also it had enormous benefit in the long term. Its defended and protected the resource. Lobster fishing is almost the only fish and left because the traditional fisheries have more or less been effectively destroyed. Theres very found fishing boats left in maine. Portman is the last day where there are many. It means the lobster fisherman are carrying the entire cultural legacy of working fischman. When youre out on a boat to earn your living you have to be so selfreliant and know what youre doing and go out and tackle the elements and survive. That something, whether they were farmers are fischman lumberjacks whatever they were had to do for a very, very long time because of our sort of tragic socioeconomic history. While in portland we took a driving tour of the city. Thank you so much for going to shows run portland, maine, today. Its a beautiful city. When people hear the name portland, berlin maine may not be the first place that comes to mind. Tell me all the about this city. Portland, maine, to start on your initial point is the First Portland in the United States. What people dont realize is portman oregon is a one that stole our name. He wasnt stolen as much as it was given to her. The two people found at the city decided the name of the city. They tossed a coin and the guy from portland, maine, one. This city is a part of massachusetts when it started. First Parish Church is ahead of us, one of the oldest churches in the city continuously. The original building has the original steeple on top. This is the church where theres great literary history. Exactly. Theres a revolutionary war cannon ball in the chandelier that the found when they tore down the wooden structure when the city was attacked by the british. Give me a sense of the city. What for what is portland bastogne . Lobsters and white houses. Theres so much more rich deep history to this history a lot of people dont know. The old port section is one of the key seaports back in the day and still remains a working waterfront that is influential in terms of the world trade today. So much of what is going on in the history of the United States have lots of focal points here in Portland Meadows in the background people dont appreciate how much of a motivator it really was. In the declaration of independence they referenced the british burning our city and it were specifically talking about when portland was burned by the british in 1775. Where are we heading out . You will go straight. Where in the heart of the old port. This is the original at the center of the city. It was all would back in the revolutionary days. After the civil war there was a fire, some basically fourth of July Celebration fireworks got out of control and the wood chips created an entire fire that burned down three force of the city. All of the brick and castiron buildings were rebuilt within one or two years of that. It was the worst urban fire into chicago a few years back. A lot of these old cobblestone streets, a lot of these buildings look prehistoric. What are they today . A lot of them are restaurants, cafes, shops. The church in front of us is still in working church. The bottom floors were always set up for retail entertainment. This area of the old port is commercial. This is amazing because we are effectively driving on the harbor. Issues to all the water back when the city was founded, and they wound up getting a commission to be the winter port montreal and quebec. When that happened they needed railroads but there were no wide enough streets important for the railways, so they wound up creating this street out of landfill. The Center Divide your seeing was the old railroad tracks. Everything you see to our right on commercial street still functioning as a dock for seafood. Correct. A lot of different worse have fisheries. Theres a fish exchange, the portman fish exchange, sort of like the Stock Exchange but for seafood. Thats a lot quieter than the Stock Exchange but its where restaurants around the world will come in and buy food as it comes off the boat and large lots. Were heading up into the east in which is also known as the hill. This is the eastern side. Use of a lot of ship captain mansions. They had terrific views of harbor. This out here obviously isnt casco bay. Along the islands are city limits. We have the fairies they go back and forth for the commuters. We have a huge surge in population during the summertime so its pretty crowded out there. And we have a tremendous amount of islands here is about 220 that when he first export this area they will be some islands after that they match the days of the year. What do people do. Do people live out on the islands . Is a just recreation . Is a for the summertime only . There are larger islands for the most part, a lot of summer cottages and so forth as well. The small islands are more for recreation. Theres a lot of fortifications of the because this was head of north american operations during world war ii and also the nearest seaport to both europe and africa. Tell me about the neighborhood. This is one of the more rare buildings that survived the fire its not a lighthouse although it looks like one. It was built in older people when ships are coming in. The owner had the workers on top to water down the site so it didnt burn. This entry was very much after the fire everyone moved to the west and because of the fire had not caught these and thats when the west end of the city develop. This, however, sort of became an area for seaport workers, soldiers during the wars. Where driving around the downtown area now and we see the Farmers Market going on. The Farmers Market is one of the oldest in the country in the very original spot it started. If every saturday. Which is passing Henry Wadsworth longfellow childhood home and were going to congress he which is a main thoroughfare of the city. The Farmers Market is really terrific and its a huge push in the movement. That something we do to talk letter one of my favorite of portman is food. Why didnt there is such a popular place to open a restaurant . Theres a deep appreciation for food. Theres a lot of produce that comes out of this state. It is largely a rural state but it has been recognized by a lot of people. Where are we going . We are heading out of the city and going across the casco bay bridge into south portland. South portland, this causes over the river white work opens up to the portland harbor. This was a fort anderson the city park. Would you say this is maybe the most iconic structure in the portlanders . I would say its the most iconic structure in new england. Theres a lot of really great lighthouses in the world. This is probably the quintessential lighthouse. The most photographed in the country, right . I would say the most photographed in the world. There are older lighthouses in the country treated by the british but is this is the first commissioned by George Washington when he was president. If you go up to the left al