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Missing fishermen braved ‘wild’ weather as they tried to get home

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Missing fishermen braved ‘wild’ weather as they tried to get home


Chester and Aaron Barrett, the father-and-son fishermen from Addison who went missing over the weekend, had planned to drag for scallops close to home on Monday, according to a friend.

But they needed to get Chester’s boat, Sudden Impact, from Edmunds back to South Addison, their friend Chris Beal said Monday. When they set out on Saturday morning, they ran into foul weather after rounding West Quoddy Head in Lubec.

“They were in a rush to fish today,” said Beal, a fisherman who has known the Barretts for decades, during an interview on Monday.

The Barretts texted someone else during the trip and indicated they would try to seek shelter from the rough seas as soon as possible.

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“It’s wild out here,” they said in a text, according to Beal.

They headed for Cutler.

But the Barretts and their scallop dragger did not make it to Cutler and were reported overdue that evening. After a Coast Guard search late Saturday and on Sunday, the boat is believed to have sunk en route.

Dean Barrett, Chester’s nephew and Aaron’s cousin, said he wasn’t sure if they checked the weather forecast before they left Edmunds and tried to make it home. He said his uncle is an experienced diver and so knew the hazards of the sea, but that the stretch of coast between Lubec and Cutler can be unforgiving.

If the tide and wind are running against each other, it can amplify the size of the swell and waves, he said.

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“You’ve got 17 miles of raw ocean,” Dean Barrett said.

Beal echoed the assessment of that section of coastline.

“It’s a horrible place to be” in bad weather, Beal said. “There’s zero islands to shelter behind.”

The loss of Sudden Impact underscores the dangers of fishing in general and the hazards that draggers in particular can face. The Barretts were not fishing on Saturday, but draggers can capsize even in mild weather if their gear catches on the bottom.

During a 10-month span over a decade ago, from March 2009 to January 2010, three draggers capsized and sank in Cobscook Bay, taking the lives of five fishermen on two of the boats. The crew of the third boat, Miss Priss, were rescued by a nearby vessel and survived.

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Last week, the Barretts and everyone else who had been fishing scallops in Cobscook Bay this winter found out they would have to move their boats elsewhere to continue through the end of the season in March. That came after state officials enacted an emergency closure of Cobscook Bay, including Whiting and Dennys bays, in order to protect the broodstock. For years, that area has been considered the most productive scallop-fishing grounds in Maine.

Now, other fishermen who have gone out looking for the Barretts think they may have located the missing boat via SONAR. It may be submerged near Moose Cove in about 160 feet of water, officials have said, but the weather on Monday remained too windy following an overnight snow storm for recovery efforts to proceed.

Beal said that Aaron Barrett, whom he has known since Aaron was a child, worked on Beal’s boat for roughly five years before Chester Barrett won a scallop license in a state lottery three years ago. Since then, Aaron has worked with his father during scallop season.

“Everybody’s just in shock,” Beal said, adding that he did not know the Barretts would be out on the water on Saturday. Scallop fishermen can only fish during certain days of the week, and draggers are not allowed to fish on weekends but can relocate from one fishing area to another any time.

“We kind of knew” they likely had sunk when they didn’t make it back to South Addison by the end of the day, Beal said. “We was holding hope they made it in somewhere.”

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Brigitte Beal, Beal’s wife, said she and her husband and the Barretts — Chester, his wife Melanie and Aaron — owned neighboring camps at Schoodic Lake for 20 years.

“Chet and Aaron were remarkably hard workers, a very close father-and-son relationship, very well-known in our tight community, always willing to help, first with a joke, very family-oriented guys,” Brigitte Beal said. “We surely have lost two incredibly respected members of our community.”

Dean Barrett said his uncle and cousin were outgoing, friendly people but largely kept to themselves. His uncle enjoyed hunting deer, while his cousin was more partial to fishing for bass.

“Uncle Chet loved to hunt,” he said. “They’d always make time to be up at Schoodic Lake.”

Aaron didn’t have any of his own kids but had a girlfriend who lived in Bangor with two children from a prior relationship, Dean Barrett said. Aaron would take them fishing with him sometimes on trips to Schoodic Lake, he said.

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Dean Barrett said he and another fisherman are planning to recover Sudden Impact from where they believe it came to rest on the bottom near Moose Cove. He said they tried on Sunday, but had to stop after the Coast Guard said conditions were too unsafe.

He said he and the other fishermen have larger fishing boats, and that he is sure they can resurface the sunken vessel between the two of them.

“I’m going to try to get it tomorrow,” Dean Barrett said.



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Maine

BDN’s Larry Mahoney to be inducted into Maine Sports Hall of Fame

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BDN’s Larry Mahoney to be inducted into Maine Sports Hall of Fame


Larry Mahoney has covered legendary Maine sports figures for more than 50 years at the Bangor Daily News. And now he is set to join those legends in the Maine Sports Hall of Fame.

Mahoney is one of 10 honorees being inducted into the hall this year, the organization announced on Monday. He was also inducted into the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame last year and has been named Maine sports writer of the year six times.

He and the other inductees, will officially become Maine Sports Hall of Fame members during a Sept. 21 ceremony in Bangor.

Former BDN sports editor and writer Pete Warner worked with the veteran reporter for years, and highlighted the humanity and knowledge that shines through Mahoney’s continued work.

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“No one cares more about the people he is writing about,” Warner said about Mahoney. “He is very invested in the little details that make people special, regardless of their particular role in sports.”

Warner said Mahoney has an unparalleled historical perspective of Maine sports.

“He’s been paying attention to things for so long and he’s been so invested in his work that he can tie items together that may on the surface seem unconnected,” Warner continued. “But because of his experience and his depth of knowledge, he can connect the dots on things that people may not ever have realized.”

In the announcement from the hall of fame, Mahoney is credited for “earning a stellar reputation while writing on every sports topic imaginable.” That prolific and knowledgeable coverage continues today, and Mahoney would surely rather be writing about those topics than talking about himself.

“It’s humbling to be going into such a prestigious hall of fame with people who are giants in their areas of expertise,” Mahoney said on Monday, characteristically deflecting the attention from himself and stressing that each of the nine other inductees “have done remarkable things and so deserve to be going into the hall.”

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The nine other honorees are former Falmouth High School soccer and basketball player Bryant Barr, who went on to play basketball at Davidson with Steph Curry; paracyclist Clara Brown of Cumberland who has won 11 world championship medals and competed in two Paralympic games, including a Bronze medal showing in Paris; Husson University men’s basketball coach Warren Caruso, who is nearing his 600th win; mulit-sport standout Jamie Cook of Kennebunk who went on to be a three-time All-American in the Decathlon at Penn State; Maine Celtics President Dajuan Eubanks who has been with the team in various capacities since its start in 2009; basketball player and coach Kelly Bowman Flagg, who was a key player on the only University of Maine women’s or men’s team to win an NCAA tournament game (and who is also the mother of Cooper and Ace Flagg); Smith College women’s basketball coach Lynn Hersey who played for Dexter High School and Plymouth State; Messalonskee High School track star Jesse Labreck who went on to earn the nickname “Flex” as a champion on the TV show “America Ninja Warrior”; and Portland High School and Northeastern runner Danny Paul who went on to be a prolific road race winner and coach.

Tickets for the induction ceremony, which will be held at Husson University, will go on sale on June 1.



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Community invitation to United Way of Mid Coast Maine 2025 annual meeting

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United Way of Mid Coast Maine is extending an invitation to the community to join them at their 2025 annual meeting. The event will take place on Tuesday, June 10 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Bowdoin College. The event’s theme “United We Thrive” will be an opportunity to come together as a community, for the community. 

“We are honored to have Topsham resident, John Dorrer, labor economist and workforce analyst, joining us as our guest speaker to highlight our community’s greatest asset, volunteers,” said Nicole Evans, Executive Director of United Way of Mid Coast Maine. 

Additional details about the event are available upon registering at www.uwmcm.org/annualmeeting. To register by email or phone, please contact info@uwmcm.org or 207-443-9752. Request a registration link by texting UWMEET to 41444. Thank you Bowdoin College for hosting and co-sponsoring the event. 

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Standing for re-election and election to the United Way of Mid Coast Maine Board of Directors include: Sean Martin (chair), Catherine Showalter (first vice chair), Christopher Bowe (second vice chair), Bob McCue (treasurer), Coleen Farrell, Carol Dexter, John Dorrer, and Matt Orlando. For a complete board list, please visit uwmcm.org/board. 

For more information, visit www.uwmcm.org.



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Maine State Police K-9 finds missing 5-year-old girl

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Maine State Police K-9 finds missing 5-year-old girl


PALERMO, Maine (WABI) – Maine State Police shared some good news on social media this weekend.

Their 10-month-old bloodhound Millie, and her handler, Corporal Eric Sucy, alongside Maine Game Warden Julia Horst, found a missing five-year-old girl with autism in a swamp.

State Police said the young girl was found around 5:30 p.m. Friday off Rowe Road in Palermo.

We’re told the girl was waist-deep in the swamp but thankfully unjured.

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State Police say Millie is “proving herself time and again with her dedication, sweet disposition, and incredible nose.”

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