Harbormasters are the municipal protectors of Maine’s 5,300-mile coastline, where a single day might include tasks as diverse as saving a sinking skiff, sorting a same-day mooring request and seizing undersized quahogs.

The job has existed for more than a century, but a buzzworthy political campaign and a heated lobster turf war have elevated this obscure government position to a new level of visibility in the public discourse, even if few people know what they really do.

“No day is the same,” says Daryen Granata, harbormaster and shellfish warden for Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth. “Ride in my truck or my boat for a week, and I can practically guarantee you that we wouldn’t do the same thing twice.”

Graham Platner used his $3,000-a-year gig as Sullivan’s former harbormaster to help frame his run for U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, South Thomaston hopes that hiring a harbormaster can resolve a dispute over dock access that some lobstermen say threatens their livelihoods.

Beyond the headlines, however, the duties of Maine’s 250 or so harbormasters vary from town to town. Some are highly paid police officers with arrest powers; others are seasonal mooring managers, like Platner was before he resigned in August, according to the town manager.

“Most people doing this job aren’t doing it for the money,” says Granata, who is vice president of the Maine Harbor Masters Association. “They’re doing it to be a steward, to be an ambassador of the harbor.”

Platner, who operates an oyster harvesting business, said he took the post to make sure the person hired to “run the show” had local waterfront experience. He said he was “bummed” that he had to give up the role due to his campaign schedule.

“There is something to be said about working-class folks coming together over the water despite their differences, all with the same goal in mind — to protect and preserve their way of life,” he said.

South Thomaston was one of Maine’s rare shoreline communities that had resisted hiring a harbormaster. Residents preferred to solve their own problems to keep their mooring prices artificially low. But that changed when a lobster turf war broke out.

The town is now advertising for a per-diem harbormaster to resolve the dispute.

A typical day for Granata might start by answering office emails at 7 a.m. and end with a 5 p.m. radio call about a boat sinking off Prouts Neck. In between, he juggles calls for illegal fishing, a shark sighting and a boat diesel spill, all while juggling walk-ins.

One of the most time-consuming parts of a harbormaster’s job, regardless of whether they are a police officer or a seasonal volunteer, is managing the vessel placements, or moorings, in their local harbor, Granata said.

Maine has more than 30,000 moorings. Small harbors may have a couple dozen, but larger ones can have up to 1,300. The harbormaster ensures each one is in the proper location with enough depth for a boat’s draft and enough anchor to hold it in place.

Unlike their counterparts in warmer climates, Maine harbormasters face a seasonal scramble. Because of winter ice, most of the state’s moorings must be pulled ashore in the fall and reset each spring to avoid being dragged around by moving ice.

The role is also one of public safety. Harbormasters coordinate with the U.S. Coast Guard and Maine Marine Patrol on search-and-rescue operations, monitor for navigational hazards, and inspect critical marine infrastructure like piers, docks and cranes.

In Portland, harbormaster Paul Plummer and his six seasonal deputies spend a lot of time keeping Portland Harbor safe — from marine debris that could cause accidents, from environmental threats, and from commercial-recreational boating conflicts.

His office escorts big commercial vessels through the busy harbor to protect the people in kayaks and sailboats that fill it up during the summer, many of whom are not familiar with Maine landmarks and water rules, Plummer said.

“We are out in the harbor and visit the islands every day,” Plummer said. “It’s not just to protect boats, but also the fragile working waterfront infrastructure. We have a lot of old piers and wharves that require a lot of care but are critical to our economy.”

Despite these differences, state law requires all harbormasters to get certification through the Maine Harbor Masters Association within a year of taking the job. The four-day certification must be renewed every three years.

Success in the role requires more than a technical knowledge of shackles and swivels, Granata said. Harbormasters must be able to shift from “swearing like a pirate” with a lobsterman to politely guiding a Vineyard Vines-clad tourist to a local luncheon spot.

“You can’t be down here being a stiff shirt,” Granata says. “This job is crazy, but it’s a privilege. Drinking straight from the hose, every day. You never get a break, not really, but you never get bored, either.”

PORTLAND (WGME) – The wife of Democrat Graham Platner, who is running for U.S. Senate in Maine, is responding to stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times about sexually explicit text messages Platner allegedly sent to other women during their marriage.

CBS13 reached out to the Platner campaign for comment Monday but did not hear back.

According to multiple reports, Platner calls the stories “gossip.”

Amy Gertner, his wife of nearly three years, called the former staffer’s claims a “betrayal” and an “invasion of our privacy.”

Platner says the Wall Street Journal and New York Times ran stories without any evidence, based solely on gossip from a former staffer.

He says claims made by that staffer, former State Representative Genevieve McDonald, are untrue.

Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, says she trusted McDonald with the most private chapter of their lives.

“I confided deeply personal details about my marriage to someone I considered a friend. In the months since, I have had to watch as she spread malicious gossip to anyone who would take her call,” Gertner said.

“The situation he’s in right now that’s most uncomfortable, I think, is that he and his wife seem to be telling different versions of the story,” USM Political Science Professor Ron Schmidt said.

Gertner defended her husband in a video she posted.

“I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets, and people who are willing to spread gossip, instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on like healthcare and education and childcare,” Gertner said.

The wife of Democrat Graham Platner, who is running for U.S. Senate in Maine, is responding to stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times about sexually explicit text messages Platner allegedly sent to other women during their marriage. (WGME)

She says being newly married while going through infertility and a Senate campaign is hard, but she says they are working on their marriage and mental health.

“I knew the man that I married had been through an immense amount of violent, active combat,” Gertner said. “No marriage is perfect, and I don’t want a perfect marriage. I want my marriage.”

“If this is a case of mistakes made early on in the marriage, and they’ve had marriage counseling, then the best thing to do is to say ‘I made a mistake. It was a while ago. It was related to something else, and it doesn’t have a bearing on where I am right now,’” Schmidt said.

A Platner supporter, who attended Sunday’s town hall meeting with the candidate, says the focus needs to be on policy, not personal matters.

“I think people should really continue to engage with Platner and the campaign around affordable housing, universal healthcare and issues that really matter to us,” Auburn Community Organizer Safiya Khalid said.

The wife of Democrat Graham Platner, who is running for U.S. Senate in Maine, is responding to stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times about sexually explicit text messages Platner allegedly sent to other women during their marriage. (WGME)

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“Graham and I have a great marriage,” Gertner said. “And we love each other deeply. We deserve better. I think Mainers deserve better.”

Platner has apologized for other controversies like now-deleted Reddit posts calling himself a communist and blaming victims of rape, and a nazi-symbol skull tattoo his military unit got that he’s since covered up.

Through it all, he’s still leading in the polls.

Schmidt says Democratic voters like what Platner stands for, but he says the controversies are certainly a concern, especially with Senator Susan Collins, in his view, doing a good job distancing herself from President Donald Trump.

A Maine lawmaker is preparing to push for legislation that would ban almost all of the controversial automatic license plate readers popping up around the state.

Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland, said he submitted a bill title to ban both municipalities and police departments from using the readers with an exception for cameras used for toll collection. This is the first step in the legislative process. Details may be added to the bill later, and it won’t be considered at least until the Legislature reconvenes in January.

Automatic license plate readers are proliferating in Maine and across the country. Some municipalities here are using cameras by the companies Flock and Verkada. The cameras are meant to alert police departments if a vehicle connected to an active investigation passes by. Footage is sometimes shared with police across the country, raising privacy concerns.

Boyer said local officials in his district covering have the “good taste” to have avoided using license plate readers so far, but he added that his constituents are likely to encounter them in neighboring Auburn. That city, which is the main service center near Boyer’s district, recently approved funding to install Flock cameras at intersections and in neighborhoods.

He said the proposal was inspired by reader malfunctions in other states. Some people have found themselves under investigation after camera errors. But Boyer, a libertarian-leaning lawmaker, also said he was “just trying to slow down the impending surveillance state.”

It’s difficult to pinpoint how many automatic plate readers are running in Maine. DeFlock, an open-source network on which users report sightings of Flock and other cameras, lists 50 stretching from York to Bangor. The real number may be much higher. Earlier this year, Hancock County said it would install 13 Motorola license plate readers across six locations, but so far, none appear on DeFlock’s map.

Civil libertarians on both sides of the political aisle have voiced anxiety over the proliferation of AI-powered surveillance tools in Maine. The state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union recently called Flock “a significant threat to our constitutional rights to privacy.” In April, the conservative Maine Wire also published an article critical of them.

When Hancock County began installing its cameras, some expressed fear they could be used for immigration enforcement despite policies that prevent data sharing with immigration officials. Similar concerns have come up in South Portland, where police recently stopped sharing footage with Flock’s national database accessible to departments across the country.

It’s not clear how the bill might affect other surveillance programs that are not specifically aimed at license plates. Bangor and surrounding towns recently faced significant backlash over their use of Placer AI, a program that uses phone data to monitor foot traffic. In some parts of the state, police are also using AI-powered cameras to generate police reports.