Maine

B

Fisheries

Fishing has been an important industry in Maine since the colonial period. Dried and salted cod was Maine’s principal export until it was overtaken by lumber in the 19th century.

In the late 1990s, Maine’s annual catch ranked second to that of Massachusetts among the New England states, and fourth among the states overall, in the value of the catch. Lobster is by far the most valuable species caught. Marine worms, sea urchins, shrimp, clams, flounder, and cod are also caught.

The fishing industry has become increasingly mechanized. Large trawlers comb the ocean with nets, fishing the numerous banks that line the North American eastern coast. New techniques have enabled Maine to freeze, rather than salt or dry, most of its catch. Some of the fish is frozen on the trawlers as soon as it is caught.

Portland is the state’s largest fishing port, while other coastal towns remain important sources of lobster and other shellfish such as clams.

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C

Forestry

Maine’s original white pine forest has been almost entirely cut away. In colonial times, shiploads of timber were sent to England to be made into spars, masts, and bowsprits for merchant and naval ships. Later the vast forests enabled Maine to launch its own shipbuilding industry. The first ship built in the New World by the English was constructed by early settlers of Maine in 1607. Until the age of steel, Maine was a leading builder of wooden ships.

Tree farming in Maine has replaced the careless exploitation of forest resources that took place in the past. Large paper companies own much of the forests, especially in north-central and northern Maine, and utilize scientific management methods to ensure a steady supply of wood. Many farmers who have 40 to 80 hectares (100 to 200 acres) of woodlot select a portion of their timber for harvesting each year. Some of them earn more from selling wood than from selling crops. The leading forested regions include Franklin, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, and western Aroostook counties. The principal industrial use of the forest resources is for the production of pulp and paper, industrial and domestic fuel wood, and saw timber. The major species harvested are spruce, balsam fir, a mix of hardwoods, and white pine.

D

Mining

Mining employs a small number of workers compared with other industries in the state. Some clays, garnet, peat, perlite, and gemstones are extracted. However, in the late 1990s, most of the dollar value of Maine’s mineral output came from sand and gravel, cement, crushed stone, and dimensional stone.

E

Manufacturing

Maine is not a major manufacturing state from a national standpoint. Although manufacturing is an important source of employment, it ranks behind services in its contribution to the state’s gross product. Manufacturing has been dominated throughout most of the 20th century by the making of paper and paper products, lumber and wood products, textiles, leather and leather goods, food stuffs, and ships. Maine at one time had been among the leading states in each of these industries, except food processing.

Wood in one form or another has contributed the largest share of Maine’s income from manufacturing for many decades. In the 20th century, Maine has depended more on paper and pulp as an industry and less on lumber. The paper products industry was the leading source of industrial production in the late 1990s.

The construction of transportation equipment ranks as another of Maine’s large industries. The Bath Iron Works, at Bath, is a major shipbuilder, and various coastal boat yards manufacture yachts and small pleasure craft. The United States Navy’s Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is located on a group of islands at the southern tip of Maine, but the base’s economic links are with Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The manufacture of aircraft engines and parts is also a significant employer in Maine.

In addition to paper, the state’s forests provide raw material for the manufacture of lumber and wood products. Food processors also rank high in their contribution to the state’s gross product. A leading employer is the canning or freezing of vegetables, including the processing of the state’s potato and blueberry harvest. Seafood processing is also a major employer, as are firms preparing poultry and eggs for market.

The shoe industry was once Maine’s largest single source of industrial jobs, but has since fallen behind other industries. Associated with shoe manufacturing is the tanning industry, and together the two make up an important industrial sector for the state.

The significant decline in employment in shoe production, textiles, and food processing during the last quarter of the 20th century was only partially offset by major growth in the manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment, fabricated metals, and printed materials. Because ship building in Maine depends primarily on military contracts, employment in that industry has fluctuated greatly. The most stable of Maine’s manufactures has been the processors of the state’s most valuable natural resource—its forests.

Industry in Maine is not highly centralized geographically; no product or area dominates the industrial scene. Several types of manufactures are found in almost every sizable city. Androscoggin, Cumberland, Kennebec, Penobscot, and York counties are the most heavily industrialized. Cumberland County, containing Portland, is the leading industrial area.

F

Electricity

In recent years the share of electricity generated in Maine by hydroelectric power has grown tremendously. Periodic water shortages and other factors had caused hydroelectric generation to fall to just one-fifth of Maine’s total electricity production in the early 1990s. In 2005, however, hydroelectric dams once again provided a significant share–22 percent–of all electricity. Two of Maine’s large hydroelectric dams are Harris and Wyman, on the Kennebec River. Ripogenus Dam, on the West Branch of the Penobscot River, was built by a large paper-manufacturing concern. Some 55 percent of Maine’s electricity output came from thermal plants burning petroleum in 2005. A nuclear power plant at Wiscasset was jointly sponsored by several electric power companies and in the mid-1990s produced about three-quarters of the electricity generated in the state; the plant closed in 1997.

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