Longtime fisheries activist Robin Alden fęted as she retires
Photo / Amber Jones Photography
Robin Alden, center, listens to remarks made during her retirement party held recently at the Samoset Resort in Rockland. Alden is pictured with husband and co-founder of Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, Ted Ames.
More than 170 friends and colleagues from all aspects of Robin Alden’s 45-year career as fisheries journalist and activist attended a celebration at the Samoset Resort in Rockland marking her retirement as executive director of the Stonington-based nonprofit Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries.
Alden’s four-decade career includes 20 years as publisher and editor of Commercial Fisheries News, a regional fishing trade newspaper that she founded in 1973. She co-founded the Maine Fishermen's Forum and was commissioner of Maine's Department of Marine Resources from 1995 to 1997 before co-founding the precursor of the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries in 2003. She's also a founding partner of the Downeast Fisheries Partnership.
Alden received in May received a prestigious "Hero of the Seas" award from the international Peter Benchley Ocean Awards nonprofit organization, an award recognizing "outstanding achievement across many sectors of society leading to the protection of our ocean, coasts and the communities that depend on them."
The Samoset was a fitting location for the event, since the Maine Fishermen’s Forum that Alden launched earlier in her career has been hosted there annually ever since. Cutler fisherman Kristan Porter was the master of ceremonies for the evening. Speakers included U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine District 1, as well as a video presentation from U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine
“The evening was lovely,” Alden said in a news release. “I was encircled by family, friends, and colleagues. I am truly lucky to have this moment and to learn some of the ways I have inspired fisheries leadership. The memories will nurture me as I decide what is next.”
In her final remarks, Alden thanked the many people she has worked with over the course of her career and “handed the wheel” of Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries to the new executive director, Paul Anderson, who previously served as director of the University of Maine Sea Grant College Program.
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