There’s been extra reporting this summer season about sharks. There have been some incidents of individuals bitten by sharks, and in response, extra concerted efforts to observe for them.
The state of Maine this 12 months created a brand new place to higher monitor sharks, which has now been crammed by Matt Davis.
Morning Version host Irwin Gratz spoke with Davis about sharks in Maine. This is an edited model of their dialog.
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Matt Davis, pictured right here, began earlier this 12 months because the Maine Division of Marine Assets’ first researcher devoted to learning nice white sharks. He hopes to offer the state a greater understanding of how sharks spend their time within the Gulf of Maine. Credit score: Courtesy of Matt Davis
Gratz: Over an extended stretch of time, now we have seen a rise in white shark populations, appropriate?
Davis: That’s appropriate. So white sharks had been a standard bycatch species and plenty of fisheries previous to the Nineteen Nineties. Within the Nineteen Nineties, there have been some protections put in place federally that made it unlawful to focus on or fish for white sharks in U.S. waters. And with these protections, their populations have been in a position to slowly start restoration over the past a number of many years.
Effectively, what sort of instruments are at your disposal to trace white sharks off the Maine coast?
Right here in Maine, the first device that we use is known as acoustic telemetry. So the final means this works is you’ve got somebody connect one in all these tags to a shark. And that’s normally hooked up on the base of the dorsal fin, which is that enormous fin that you simply see on the again of sharks. Any time one in all these animals carrying a transmitter comes inside a pair hundred meters of one in all your acoustic receivers, it sends what we name a detection, or you may consider it kind of like a radio ping, that sends a timestamp to that receiver to say, Tag 12345 was right here on this date at the moment. On the finish of the 12 months, we will convey these receivers again to shore and obtain the info to see what tagged animals have swam close by. Now there does exist actual time acoustic know-how. So now we have two right here in Maine. One is predicated in Saco Bay, and the opposite one is at present at Popham Seaside. And these really use cell towers to transmit detections in actual time to seaside officers to alert beachgoers if a detection has been, nicely, detected.
Are you able to give us some concept of what you are discovering?
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This 12 months is the primary 12 months we have used the stay receiver know-how, in any other case often known as actual time know-how, and people haven’t but detected any sharks in actual time. So far as the what we name passive acoustic receivers, now we have picked up a complete of 39 particular person white sharks within the one and a half years of information that now we have at present.
Of the 39 detections you have seen over the past 12 months and a half, are they starting to color an image of the place the sharks go, the place we see extra of them, fewer of them, and so forth.?
It is actually arduous to say. Once you solely have a pattern dimension of 1 and a half years, it is arduous to say what’s one thing we may think about regular conduct or what could possibly be an anomaly or, you understand, out of the typical. Now that mentioned, a few of our preliminary knowledge does recommend a pair spots to be notably excessive within the variety of sharks detected. That might be close to Hermit Island, which is simply west of Popham Seaside, which final 12 months alone detected 18 completely different particular person white sharks. After which additionally one in all our collaborators had a receiver close to Seguin Island which detected greater than 20 particular person white sharks. The most effective estimates now we have are that these habitats do present vital or necessary entry to prey sources akin to seal populations, as an illustration.
What would you say to folks concerning the issues they’ll and will do to ensure they’re secure once they’re within the water?
So there are fairly a couple of issues that you are able to do and methods you can kind of reduce your probabilities of interacting with a white shark. So a few of these ideas can be to swim with a buddy; sharks usually wish to isolate their prey. So when you’re with a buddy that lessens your probability. Keep away from extreme splashing on the floor as a result of that may mimic the vibrations within the water of an injured animal. Keep away from colleges of fish or seals. These are frequent prey gadgets of white sharks and you don’t need them to by chance mistake you for meals. Keep away from sporting shiny jewellery as a result of that may generally seem just like the scales of the fish. And also you wish to keep away from swimming at daybreak and nightfall.
Maine State Police responded to more than 50 crashes and road slide-offs Saturday after southern Maine woke up to some light snowfall.
Police were responding to several crashes on the Maine Turnpike (Interstate 95) and Interstate 295 south of Augusta, state police said in a Facebook message posted around 10 a.m. Saturday.
Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss said that as of early Saturday afternoon, more than 50 crashes had been reported on the turnpike and I-295.
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“The Turnpike has seen 24 crashes and slide offs primarily between Kittery and Falmouth with a higher concentration in Saco,” Moss wrote in an email. “The interstate has seen about 30 crashes and slide offs also in the Falmouth area but now in Lincoln and heading north.”
Moss said no injuries have been reported in any of the crashes.
“So far it appears visibility and driving too fast for road conditions are the causation factors,” Moss said.
State police reminded drivers to take caution, especially during snowy conditions, in the Facebook post.
“Please drive with extra care and give yourself plenty of space between you and the other vehicles on the roadway,” the post said. “Give the MDOT and Turnpike plows extra consideration and space to do their jobs to clear the roadway. Drive slow, plan for the extra time to get to your destination and be safe.”
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New rules that went into effect in August changing who pays real estate commissions have resulted in more paperwork and some anxiety for home buyers and sellers but have had little, if any, impact on home prices in the state’s hot real estate market.
The changes, which stem from a settlement in a lawsuit accusing real estate agents of conspiring to keep their commissions high, altered the way commission fees are set nationally.
For decades, most home sales in the United States have included a commission fee, typically between 5 and 6 percent of the sale price.
The typical Maine home went for around $400,000 this fall. A 5 to 6 percent commission on a $400,000 home would be between $20,000 and $24,000, split between the agents for the buyer and the seller.
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Before the changes in August, the split for each agent was predetermined by the seller, who paid the fee for both agents. That usually resulted in fees being baked into the list price of a home.
In some states (although not in Maine) agents were able to search the multiple listing service, a catalogue of homes for sale, by the commission split, which critics said incentivized agents to steer clients toward more expensive properties with higher commissions.
Now, fees are negotiated sale-by-sale. Buyers and sellers are now each responsible for paying their own agents, meaning a buyer may have to come with more cash up front if a seller doesn’t want to pay the commission fee for a buyer’s agent. Sellers are also no longer allowed to include commission fees in their listings.
Tacy Ridlon, a listing agent with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate The Masiello Group in Ellsworth, who has been in real estate for 32 years, said it is a bit jarring to have a conversation with buyers about whether they are willing to pay part of their agent’s commission.
Once the commission is established and the agreement signed, she said, the buyer’s agent then approaches the seller’s agent to see what part of their commission the seller is willing to cover, if any.
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Ridlon said 3 percent for the buyer’s agent is a typical starting point.
“We have to start high. If the seller is willing to offer 2 percent for the buyer’s agent, then our buyer only has to pay one percent… If the seller is not offering anything, then we ask the buyer to pay a certain amount. Some can pay and some can’t. For some it’s very difficult because they don’t have a lot of money to play around with.”
The change has resulted in some confusion for many buyers and even some agents around the country, as rules differ from state-to-state. Photo by Kate Cough.
Some agents said they found the changes minimal; others find the paperwork and negotiating with buyers daunting. One agency owner said the ruling has done little to bring prices down.
“This ruling has done nothing to save buyers or sellers any money,” said Billy Milliken, a designated broker and owner of Bold Coast Properties, LLC, in Jonesport. “If anything, it’s made the cost of buying a home even more expensive.”
Milliken said his sellers have had no problem agreeing to pay both buyers’ and sellers’ commissions. The cost has been embedded in the price of the property.
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“The real loser is first time home buyers who are not educated in buying a home and also have limited cash resources,” said Milliken. “It puts them at a disadvantage.”
The change has resulted in some confusion for many buyers and even some agents around the country, as rules differ from state-to-state.
People are slowly getting used to the changes, said Monet Yarnell, president of the Midcoast Board of Realtors, who owns her own agency, Sell 207 in Belfast, adding that Maine’s real estate practices were already more transparent than many other areas of the country.
“I think it was a little confusing in the beginning, more doom and gloom,” said Yarnell. But sellers are still incentivized to offer something to the buyers’ agents, she said. And the changes have increased the level of communication between agents and their clients.
“It’s more how the money flows rather than the actual dollars.”
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Ridlon, in Ellsworth, said she has been fortunate that most sellers have offered some compensation toward the buyer’s agent commission. “I have not had a buyer who can’t do the 3 percent.”
Ridlon had one seller who was not willing to pay any part of the buyer’s agent’s commission. The property had a lot of showings, but many of the buyers asked for closing costs to be covered or for concessions in lieu of picking up part of the commission.
“That didn’t really work for my seller either,” she said. “Then he relented and said he would pay one percent.”
The property sold.
Debbie Walter sold her condominium in Stockton Springs via Yarnell and then bought another condominium in New London, N.H., with another real estate agent.
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“We’re kind of guinea pigs,” said Walter. “We were very concerned about that whole piece, both as sellers and buyers.”
Fearful the sale of their house might not proceed smoothly the couple readily agreed to pay a 3 percent commission for the buyer’s agent.
When they made their offer to buy the condominium in N.H., they offered as buyers to cover their buyer’s agent’s commission as well. But the seller in that case took an equally cautious approach and offered to cover 2.5 percent of the buyer’s agent’s commission, which Walters’ agent accepted.
“It was very stressful,” Walter said. Offering to cover their buyer’s agent’s commission, she said, created “one less headache for the whole closing procedure.”
Tom McKee, president of the Maine Realtors Association, said the settlement and new rules have had little impact.
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“It hasn’t changed anything for me,” said McKee, who is with Keller Williams in Portland. Now that the commission split is no longer listed in the M.L.S., said McKee, “there are just more questions in the transaction.”
McKee said there is no set percentage, that everything is negotiable.
“If we do our job right and are meeting with the client first, they already understand.”
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has proposed new rules governing judicial conduct complaints that would keep members of the high court from having to discipline their peers.
The proposed rules would establish a panel of eight judges — the four most senior active Superior Court justices and the four most senior active District Court judges who are available to serve — to weigh complaints against a justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Members of the high court would not participate.
The rule changes come just weeks after the Committee on Judicial Conduct recommended the first sanction against a justice on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in state history.
The committee said Justice Catherine Connors should be publicly reprimanded, the lowest level of sanction, for failing to recuse herself in two foreclosure cases last year that weakened protections for homeowners in Maine, despite a history of representing banks that created a possible conflict of interest. Connors represented or filed on behalf of banks in two precedent-setting cases that were overturned by the 2024 decisions.
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In Maine, it’s up to the Supreme Judicial Court to decide the outcome of judicial disciplinary cases. But because in this case one of the high court’s justices is accused of wrongdoing, the committee recommended following the lead of several other states by bringing in a panel of outside judges, either from other levels of the court or from out of state.
Connors, however, believes the case should be heard by her colleagues on the court, according to a response filed late last month by her attorney, James Bowie.
Bowie argued that the outcome of the case will ultimately provide guidance for the lower courts — a power that belongs exclusively to the state supreme court.
It should not, he wrote, be delegated “to some other ad hoc grouping of inferior judicial officers.”
The court is accepting comments on the proposal until Jan. 23. The changes, if adopted, would be effective immediately and would apply to pending matters, including the Connors complaint.
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