GRAND Magazine - Summer 2021 - 34

our planet our home
Standing along the sluice, the aproned women sliced, sorted,
packed, and threw enough scraps about so the town cats never
left hungry. The smells, sights, and sounds-squawking, meowing,
heavy motors running, the women talking and their knives
flashing as they worked, water rushing down the sluice-were
irresistible to me and the other town children there, too. Then the
sardine carrier's hold was emptied, all was packed, and " the fish
factory " became empty and silent.
The women returned to their homes. They put some cash in
their dresser drawers and resumed preserving summer fruits and
vegetables to keep in their cellars against the long, lean winter to
come. All too soon it would be September, and I would be taken
600 miles south to my parents' home in Baltimore. There, during
another long school year in a big city, I would be wanting and
waiting to return to my small town by the cold sea.
Finally, June would come again, and I would return to live in my
grandmother's home at the harbor.
shimmering memory of big excitement during carefree and glorious
summer days. But a way of life was ending, and in 1959 my
childhood would end, too.
Long since I was so lucky to have been a summer child living
on the Maine coast, I have wondered-why did the sardines
disappear? Today, I contemplate the fish factory as a mystery
of nature in relation to the impact of man. Now we know that
around the world many fisheries have been exploited to the point
of commercial extinction. Man-made plastics are being eaten by
and killing marine animals, birds, and fish, and scientists say that
in a few decades there will be a greater weight of plastics than
fish in the sea.
"
Man-made plastics are being eaten by and
killing marine animals, birds, and fish, and
scientists say that in a few decades there will be
a greater weight of plastics than fish in the sea.
Another summer had come to the coast of Maine, and then
would come another, but the big sardine boat never returned.
Sometime in the 1950s, the fish factory was sold to become a
boatyard for building and repairing the yachts and small pleasure
boats of summer that were replacing year-round working boats.
A way of life was shifting because of new realities. Fish-factory
jobs were surely tough, low-paying, and intermittent, and in 2010
the last Maine sardine factory closed. Whether the year-round
people of the town considered this change to be for the better
or worse, I cannot say. To me the arrival of the sardine boat is a
34 GRAND Summer 2021
As the climate changes in Maine, it is possible in future decades
that the lobsters and clams may disappear like the sardines. In 50
years, for today's children now on the Maine coast, digging at low
tide for clams, like seeing lobster boats going and coming-these
too may become just shimmering memories of a colorful way of
life gone by.
"
The mystery and beauty of the coast certainly affected me, and
40 years later I found myself serving as our nation's top lawyer for
all EPA investigations of pollution crime. I concluded my career in
2011 with 17 years of federal service worldwide, advising other
nations on U.S. strategies for implementing clean air and water
laws. Along the way I saw too many man-made insults to nature,
including oncoming climate chaos.
Click here to continue reading
Richard Emory, Jr. is a career enforcement attorney
retired from the United States Environmental
Protection Agency. He served as our nation's top
lawyer directly responsible for all EPA investigations
of pollution crime. Then he worked globally in
EPA foreign assistance to many other nations also
wanting clean air and clean water.
This book speaks to young
people, telling stories of
adventure, fulfillment, and joy
that can be found in a career
in almost any work of planet
protection.
Learn more here
A perfect gift to give
to a grandchild who
cares about nature.

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GRAND Magazine - Summer 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - Summer 2021