{"id":6531,"date":"2015-03-31T16:19:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T20:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/?p=6531"},"modified":"2015-07-28T21:50:06","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T01:50:06","slug":"40th-annual-maine-fishermens-forum-one-for-the-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/40th-annual-maine-fishermens-forum-one-for-the-books\/","title":{"rendered":"40th Annual Maine Fishermen’s Forum: One for the books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_0409R\"<\/span> It had all the makings of a great movie: you had the glory of the Maine Fishermen\u2019s Forum celebrating its 40th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary mixed with the drama of worrying about what the weather might be.\u00a0 The Samoset Resort crew sent out an e-mail on Monday morning of forum week with a bulldozer excavating a small glacier out of the alleyway in preparation for moving in the trade show: \u201cWhatever it takes!\u201d\u00a0 Inside the Samoset, everyone from cleaning crews to kitchen staff had their game faces on.\u00a0 Show time.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"IMG_1155[1]\"\"IMG_0416R\" \"IMG_0436R\" \"IMG_0447R\" \"MHP_9051R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The ME DMR provided the drum roll for the opening day: the total value of 2014\u2019s commercial marine resources harvest broke all previous records with an all-time high of $585,348,370.\u00a0 In the meantime, the forum itself reflected the industry\u2019s mood: the trade show was full (and then some); rooms had been sold out ahead of time; fishermen and their families had come to celebrate, pool ideas, educate themselves and scope out the latest in gear and technology.\u00a0 Oh \u2013 and eat: Thursday\u2019s \u201cChefs Celebrate Local Maine Seafood\u201d (a \u201cstar chef-studded seafood immersion experience\u201d) segued into the opening night Seafood Reception.
\nNo one went hungry.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9451R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9248R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9231R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_3102R\"<\/span><\/p>\n


\nA bit of behind-the-scenes drama: the forum Board of Directors had set a goal of awarding $40,000 in scholarships at Saturday night\u2019s banquet \u2013 a big number to aim for.\u00a0 Key to the effort (as always) was the Friday night auction with former state senator Dennis Damon manning the gavel and microphone. The numbers were mounting \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9450R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9454aR\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9460R\"<\/span><\/p>\n


\nThe days were whirlwinds of activity, from safety demonstrations to crowded trade show floors (it\u2019s always a good sign when engine companies sell iron during the show) to packed seminars.\u00a0 Look \u2013 there\u2019s Governor LePage.\u00a0 And over there: Dave Carraro from Wicked Tuna.\u00a0 And those $100 coffee cups kept adding to the scholarship kitty \u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

\"IMG_3184R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_3345R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_3372R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9042R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9118R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"!-Hundred-Dollar-Coffee-Cup-MHP_9504aR\"<\/span><\/p>\n


\nSaturday night: smiles, accolades, more food \u2026 followed by DJ Chris Grade spinning the crowd\u2019s requests and a general high-five all around.\u00a0 The $40,000 goal had been reached, resulting in scholarships being awarded to 22 qualified applicants.\u00a0 The industry had celebrated itself in grand style \u2013 and given something back, as well.\u00a0 If you wanted to end with that same movie analogy, you could say that the 40th<\/sup> Maine Fishermen\u2019s Forum was truly a feel-good hit.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9734R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9729R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9693aR\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9643R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9642R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9632R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MHP_9618R\"<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It had all the makings of a great movie: you had the glory of the Maine Fishermen\u2019s Forum celebrating its 40th\u00a0anniversary mixed with the drama of worrying about what the weather might be.\u00a0 The Samoset Resort crew sent out an e-mail on Monday morning of forum week with a bulldozer excavating a small glacier out … <\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185,208,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-185","category-feature","category-maine-fishermens-forum","nodate","item-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6531"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6572,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6531\/revisions\/6572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}