Earlier this year, Maine’s last sardine cannery closed, ending yet another chapter in Maine labor history.
That followed the loss of the once-sizable granite quarrying and ice industries, while forest products represent a tiny remnant of a once great lumbering industry.
How can an industry that produces a popular food such as sardines simply disappear? In today’s difficult economy, does its loss hold any lessons for the state’s policy-makers or for the only remaining fishery of any size – the lobstering industry?
These questions will be explored Oct. 22-23 in a conference at Penobscot Marine Museum. “And Then There Were None – The Rise & Fall of Maine’s Sardine Industry” will present historical context, analysis, documentation and personal reminiscences of the final days of Maine’s last sardine cannery, Stinson Seafood Co. of Prospect Harbor.
