Maine
Videos show dead Maine moose covered in winter ticks. How they kill.
Outdoors
The BDN outdoors section brings readers into the woods, waters and wild places of Maine. It features stories on hunting, fishing, wildlife, conservation and recreation, told by people who live these experiences. This section emphasizes hands-on knowledge, field reports, issues, trends and the traditions that define life outside in Maine. Read more Outdoors stories here.
Shed hunter Drew Maciel recently found two dead moose while searching for antlers this month. Both were covered in winter ticks and had significant hair loss.
He said he has encountered six dead moose with heavy tick loads this spring. About half were young animals, while the others were fairly large.
Moose biologist Lee Kantar recently discussed winter ticks and Maine’s moose on the Vortex Nation podcast.
Kantar said the state has been documenting winter ticks since 2006, though wardens noted them more than 100 years ago.
Unlike dog and deer ticks, which take blood meals from multiple hosts at different life stages, winter ticks spend their entire life cycle on a single animal. They attach to moose in September as larvae, then molt into adults, breed and the females drop off in spring to lay masses of roughly 1,000 eggs on the ground.
Those eggs hatch over the summer. The larvae climb onto vegetation and wait for a host to pass by.
“The biggest problem,” Kantar said, “is once it attaches to the moose in the fall, whether it’s 50 degrees or 50 below, it makes no difference. The tick is living on the moose.”
He said more than 90,000 ticks have been counted on a single animal and explained how heavy infestations can lead to death.
If roughly half of 50,000 ticks are females, they can each take more than 1 milliliter of blood to produce eggs. This drains so much blood from the animal that it becomes anemic.
Kantar said that unlike deer, which regularly groom using their teeth and hooves to remove ticks, moose do not.
“There are very systematic levels to how moose deal with winter ticks,” he said.
Sometimes the hair shaft breaks off from winter rubbing, leaving the white shaft — coining the term “ghost moose.” Some moose rub off all their hair, which can abrade the skin and lead to bacterial infection.
He believes rubbing the coat is a learned behavioral response. Many moose entering their first winter do not have missing hair. By their second year, they begin grooming and rubbing and continue to do so for the rest of their lives.
Kantar said that based on observations from radio-collared moose, animals captured in January can begin losing about a pound of body weight per day until little remains. By late winter, they may lose about 30% of their body weight.
“It’s a dead moose walking,” he said. “They basically go septic at some point.”
Small animals are the most vulnerable, he said. An 8-month-old moose calf captured in January may weigh about 400 pounds.
“It needs to be that much weight,” he said. “Even without ticks, a calf entering winter has no fat because it’s still growing its skeletal mass and is in a deficit.”
An 800-pound cow has the benefit of entering winter with fat reserves.
Even so, adult moose still lose condition. If a cow goes into winter pregnant, the fetus requires nutrition while tens of thousands of ticks are taking blood.
A moose’s winter diet lacks the protein needed to replace lost blood.
Kantar and colleagues in New Hampshire have found that cows often survive heavy tick loads but give birth to calves that are underweight, do not survive or struggle because the cow may not produce enough milk.
Using data from roughly 1,000 collared moose over 13 years, Kantar said adult mortality is relatively low compared to calves. Fall tick counts from index samples collected at harvest can help predict spring outcomes.
In some years, more than 70% of collared calves have died due to winter ticks.
The worst year saw 87% mortality. The best was 8%.
Kantar said there appears to be a strong link between moose density and tick abundance. More moose on the landscape means more ticks.
That link led to a five-year adaptive hunt in wildlife management district 4 aimed at reducing cow numbers and studying impacts on tick loads and reproduction. Results from that study are expected this summer.
While some have proposed treatments such as acaricides to manage winter ticks, Kantar said the scale makes them ineffective and expensive. Future management may instead focus on forest practices that help spread moose across the landscape.
Next steps include conducting fine-scale work with adult moose using high fixed-rate GPS collars. Kantar hopes to better understand where individual animals are each week over their lifetimes, and how forest management may play a role.
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Michael Capeci is the former chairman of the Bangor GOP.
Let’s be honest about Maine’s current state.
For many families, the cost of living has become unsustainable. Housing is out of reach for many young people. Energy bills keep rising. Many small businesses are struggling under taxes and regulations that make it harder to grow. Rural hospitals are under strain and despite years of increased state spending, the results are not showing up in people’s daily lives.
Concurrently, Maine continues to lose young workers to other states. That is not a statistic, it is a warning sign.
To me, the question in this Republican primary for governor is not about slogans. It is whether we continue with a political approach that has failed to reverse these trends, or whether we nominate someone with new ideas. I think that someone is Owen McCarthy.
Owen is not a political insider. He is an entrepreneur from Patten, a small town where opportunity is not assumed, it is built. He grew up in a working-class family, became the first in his family to graduate from college graduating from the University of Maine, and founded MedRhythms, a healthcare technology company focused on neurological treatment.
He didn’t just talk about opportunity. He built it. That distinction matters, because Maine’s problem is not a lack of debate it is a lack of results. We have seen the trajectory: higher costs, slower growth, and a steady outmigration of young workers. I believe Owen McCarthy represents a break from that pattern.
His Maine 2040 plan focuses on creating 50,000 new jobs in sectors where Maine has real advantages — maritime and defense, advanced forest products, and life sciences. These are export-driven industries tied directly to Maine’s workforce, geography, and institutions. What sets Owen apart is not only what he proposes, but how he approaches governing.
He prioritizes modernizing permitting so projects do not stall. He supports using technology to reduce costs and increase efficiency. He focuses on making it easier to build, hire, and expand in Maine.
That same practical mindset extends to healthcare. Expanding telehealth, strengthening EMS systems, improving provider flexibility, and shifting toward earlier intervention are not abstract reforms. They are system upgrades designed to improve access while controlling costs.
Maine voters consistently respond to competence. They reward candidates who understand problems and present plans to solve them. I believe they are tired of rhetoric that does not translate into results, and skeptical of politics that prioritizes messaging over execution.
Owen’s approach is grounded in solving the issues that shape daily life — affordability, healthcare access, job creation, and government efficiency. That is not just policy positioning. It is a governing model that speaks directly to voters.
Some will point to his lack of political experience. But I believe Maine’s core problems are not the result of insufficient political experience; they are the result of policies that have failed to deliver measurable improvement. Experience inside a broken system, by itself, is not a solution.
If Republicans want to win, this primary must be taken seriously. From my perspective, it is not about choosing a nominee for governor who can energize the base. It is about selecting someone who can compete in a broader electorate that is frustrated and looking for change.
That requires a candidate who can speak beyond the base, not by abandoning principles, but by demonstrating competence and a credible plan to address Maine’s challenges. I believe Owen McCarthy offers that combination. He represents a shift away from managed decline and toward economic execution.
This is not just another primary. It is a decision about whether Republicans position themselves to win Maine or whether they remain trapped in a cycle of repeating the same strategies and expecting different outcomes.
If Republicans want to compete for Maine’s future, they cannot afford to nominate a candidate who only motivates part of the electorate. They need someone who expands it.
I believe Owen McCarthy is that candidate.
And if the goal is to win Maine, then the choice should be unmistakable
The only notable change in the top-seven of the Varsity Maine baseball poll is that Gorham now has eight first-place votes, two more than last week. The order of the seven teams is identical. In fact, the only change in the top-seven over the past three polls is the swap at the top after Gorham’s win over South Portland on May 19.
Furthermore, Gorham, South Portland, Oxford Hills, Cheverus, Bangor, Mt. Ararat and Fryeburg have been ranked in the top seven for four straight weeks, and six of those squads have been among the top seven in every poll this spring.
Meanwhile, Scarborough is ranked for the first time since May 5, and Ellsworth and Thornton swapped spots.
The Varsity Maine baseball poll is based on games played before June 2, 2026. The top 10 teams are voted on by the Varsity Maine staff, with first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points.
1. Gorham (8) 89
2. South Portland 79
3. Oxford Hills (1) 75
4. Cheverus 55
5. Bangor 42
6. Mt. Ararat 41
7. Fryeburg Academy 30
8. Ellsworth 27
9. Thornton Academy 25
10. Scarborough 12
Also receiving votes: Washington Academy 8, Monmouth Academy 4, Cony 4, Leavitt 2, Falmouth 2.
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.”
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