Penobscot Bay
WATERKEEPER
Named for the tribe native to this land, Penobscot Bay is Maine’s largest Bay, encompassing nearly one-third of the state’s coastline, and draining New England’s second-largest river system. Penobscot Bay hosts some of Maine’s most significant coastal wildlife habitat, its waters support a diverse fishing industry and its scenic beauty makes it a destination for tourists and locals alike. Yet the Bay and the communities that rely on these waters face mounting threats. The Gulf of Maine is one of the fastest warming bodies of water in the world and the impacts of climate change are already visible here. New development proposals and industries together with legacy industrial pollution threaten water quality in Penobscot Bay. Our local, state, and federal agencies are not doing enough to adequately protect people or the environment, and better enforcement from these agencies is crucial to the health of these waters.
​​​​​​​​​
Penobscot Bay WATERKEEPER® will protect and advocate for the health of the Bay and the rivers that feed into the Bay by identifying and investigating sources of pollution, pushing for better enforcement of existing environmental regulations and permits, and educating the public about issues of concern and the importance of protecting these waters.
​
​
​
​​​​​​​​​​
Penobscot Bay WATERKEEPER
Since 2018, Upstream Watch has been working to protect the Little River and Penobscot Bay, and the surrounding ecosystem and community from the Nordic Aquafarms’ land-based salmon aquaculture proposal. Through our efforts to better understand the large scale aquaculture industry, organize community members to engage in local and state permitting processes surrounding Nordic Aquafarms, and our legal challenges against this project, Upstream Watch has realized that Maine’s local, state, and federal environmental agencies and permitting processes are inadequate in protecting the health of our waters and communities. We cannot rely on these agencies or processes to protect our rivers or the Bay from proposals like Nordic in the future, and this reality has helped steer Upstream Watch’s future direction as an organization, and our establishment of the Penobscot Bay Waterkeeper Program.
The vision for Penobscot Bay Waterkeeper is to be a science-based, regional advocate for Penobscot Bay and its entire watershed through the identification of issues impacting water quality in the region, with the ultimate goal of fishable, swimmable, drinkable waters for the Penobscot Bay watershed. The Penobscot Bay Waterkeeper program will be guided by science, and informed by current and legacy pollution impacting the Bay, as well as concerns and needs identified by fishing people, tribal members, local governments, organizations, scientists, and members of the public throughout the watershed.
Upstream Watch received their license through Waterkeeper Alliance to start a Penobscot Bay Waterkeeper program in June 2024. A Waterkeeper serves as the local, on the ground advocate for a specific watershed pursuing the vision of “fishable, swimmable, drinkable waters.” Waterkeepers work towards this vision by conducting pollution investigations, collecting water quality data, organizing and educating the public, and bringing litigation to hold polluters and regulatory agencies accountable. The Waterkeeper movement was started on the Hudson River in 1966 by fishermen whose livelihood was at stake after industrial pollution devastated the Hudson’s fisheries. These fishermen turned activists sparked the Hudson’s recovery and inspired others to launch Waterkeeper groups. Today, there are more than 300 Waterkeeper programs protecting more than 2.5 million square miles of rivers, lakes, and coastal waterways on six continents.