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V O L . X X I I I N O. V I I I A P R I L 1 7 , 2 0 1 7 14 F amily-owned Millers' Wharf thrived over the past 40 years, then encountered rough waters fi ve years ago, so much so that the four brothers who own it considered selling it last year. But big changes over the past year, including diversifi cation with a new co-op and a Luke's restaurant, have the wharf in Tenants Harbor going full speed ahead. "Any time you create diversifi cation, in the town's and my mind, it's good, especially in the lobster business," St. George and Port Clyde Harbormaster David Schmanska says. "I wouldn't be surprised if this could have a dramatic eff ect in garnering more fi shermen in the next couple years." St. George comprises the vil- lages of Port Clyde, Clark Island, Glenmere, Martinsville and Tenants Harbor. e total population is around 2,591, with about 1,850 of them in Tenants Harbor, according to U.S. Census data. Lower Penobscot Bay still is a hotbed for the lobster fi shery on the peninsula and its islands. Only fi ve years ago, Millers' Wharf took a big hit, Schmanska says, when the Millers' paternal grandmother died and their Cod End Restaurant & Marina, which had supplied good food and talk along with diesel, ice and moorings to the yachting public and commercial fi shermen for decades, closed. "It changed from a vibrant business to a lobstering business," Schmanska remembers. But relying only on lobster was risky, says Josh Miller, a third-generation lob- sterman, especially with warming waters and mismanagement of groundfi sh stocks depleting available species to fi sh. Miller's father Peter and his three brothers still own the wharf under a com- pany called A&R Enterprises. But a year ago they wanted to get out of the busi- ness, Miller says, and considered selling it. Josh and other locals, including Merritt Carey, a lawyer turned entre- preneur who had summered in Tenants Harbor since she was a child, worried that if the dock were sold, condos would go up and the whole feel of the water- front would change. e entire area of the wharf, restaurant, parking and a co-op building is a little under an acre. Miller credits Carey and his uncle Hale with the dock's turnaround: it's now home to the 20-member Tenants Harbor Fisherman's Co-op, which leases the dock from A&R and is in negotiations to buy it. e co-op did so well in its fi rst year, bringing in $4.2 million in revenue, that all the members got bonuses from the cash left after expenses. About 15 to 20 boats use the wharf, plus about 25 to 30 students, Miller says. Tenants Harbor has about 150 or so commer- cial fi shermen, he says. Additionally, in March 2016 Millers' Wharf closed on $250,000 in bond money from the Department of Marine Resources' Working Waterfront Access Program, with technical help from CEI, to preserve it as a working waterfront, with an easement owned by the state. A working waterfront designation includes a tax break. And last summer it attracted Luke's fi rst Maine location. Luke's also buys most of the meat from the lobsters, while the frozen tails go to Hannaford and another supermarket. e most recent branching out is the new Maine Aquaculture Co-op formed under Maine's Fish Marketing Association law. It's located at Millers' Wharf and is the state's fi rst aquacul- ture cooperative. Carey says the new co-op has $46,000 in funding from the Maine Department of Agriculture for development of an ear-hung scallop aquaculture infrastructure and buying lantern nets, plus a scallop grader and start wheel that can be transferred among diff erent member vessels. e co-op matched the grant with $14,297. It also received an $8,500 seed grant from the Maine Technology Institute this March to buy lantern nets, and the co-op matched that with $26,897. Cutting out the middleman Buying the wharf distinguishes the Tenants Harbor Fisherman's Co-op from others, says Luke Holden, a Cape Elizabeth native and owner of the Luke's Lobster chain of 30 restaurants and a member of the co-op's board, P H O T O / DAV I D C L O U G H Millers' Wharf diversifies Fisherman's co-op, Luke's, aquaculture breathe new life into Tenants Harbor B y L o r i V a l i g r a Merritt Carey, left, and Josh Miller, board members for the Tenants Harbor Fisherman's Co-op, carry Miller's unmistakable, bright buoys on Millers' Wharf, which the co-op plans to buy.

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