End of the Line: Closing the Last Sardine Cannery in America

END OF THE LINE [Contains Image Plates]

[ 1 ] Village of Prospect Harbor as viewed from the northeast. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Headwaters of Prospect Harbor. The Beach Cliff Man. The sign was originally built in wood to welcome tourists on Maine’s interstate highway. When its condition deteriorated, the sign was brought to Prospect Harbor and refabricated in metal. Known as “Big Jim,” it became the local symbol of Stinson Seafood. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] Dock on the harbor side of the factory, used to land herring from the fishing fleet. To the left is the plant’s overboard discharge, screened through Rotostrainers. The bait sales area, where cuttings and unused herring were sold to lobstermen, is to the right. [ 7 ] Harbor side of plant. This section, which once housed the can-manufacturing operation, functioned as the casing room. Cans were made at the factory from 1960 until 2000, when the Connors Brothers bought the plant. In either 2003 or 2004, the can-making machinery was removed and sent to Blacks Harbor, New Brunswick. Bumble Bee purchased the factory from Connors Brothers in 2004. [ 8 ] Outside view of Warehouse 2. [ 9 ] The boiler room. This building housed the twin, 200-horsepower Superior Boilers used to generate steam for the plant, as well as a 10,000-gallon fuel-oil tank. Steam was used in the can washer, the pre-cookers, the retorts, and as heat for the factory. Stinson burned about 1100 gallons of oil per day in the winter. During the summer, consumption dropped dramatically, to approximately 400 to 700 gallons, depending on the day’s production schedule. Storage buildings are to the left. All of the boiler equipment, including the chimney, was removed and sent out of the country after the plant’s closing. [ 10 ] Three 10,000-gallon water tanks. The fresh water stored in these tanks, as a reserve for production, came from two artesian wells, approximately a mile away. In 2009, a new waterline was run underground and across the harbor to supply the factory. [ 11 ] The de-watering tower was used to screen water from the fish as they were pumped out of the carry boats. The fish were then placed in tanker trucks or totes for transport. [ 12 ] Crane used to lower a suction hose into the carry boats. This army-surplus crane was found in a Massachusetts junkyard, then rebuilt. Alexander’s Welding and Machine in Greenfield, Maine, made the new, osHa-approved framework. [ 13 ] A plant entrance. [ 14 ] Workers arriving at the main entrance at 5:00 a.m. The plant operated on a rolling start. Packers did not begin work until after the cutters had produced enough fish to keep them busy, and the retort operators did not start until there was enough fish in cans to fill the retorts. The casing section, which boxed the finished product for shipment, was one of the few teams that could operate on a regular schedule. [ 15 ] Workers unwrapping frozen blocks of herring. Frozen fish, stored in forty- or fifty-pound blocks, were used when fresh fish couldn’t be obtained. The plant’s last three months of production were all conducted with frozen herring. The use of frozen fish made scheduling easier, because everyone knew how long the day would be. The factory could not, however, pack as much frozen fish in a day as it could fresh fish. In the industry’s early years, fish were processed only from spring through late fall, when herring were migrating along the Maine coast. In the 1960s, fishermen began purse-seining in deeper waters, allowing factories to continue canning through the winter months. Pair trawling, which began in the 1980s, enabled fishermen to harvest herring in even deeper water and rougher weather. Fish caught in November or December, properly frozen, could keep the plant going through April, May, and often into June. With the imposition of fishing quotas, beginning around the year 2000, a reduction occurred in the amount of herring that could be caught in Maine, so Stinson began to supplement its catch with herring from other states. The bulk of the frozen fish came from New Jersey, along with some from Massachusetts. [ 16 ] Frozen herring, stacked in blocks, begin thawing on their way to the tank room. [ 17 ] [ 18 ] The empty boxes in which frozen herring arrived at the plant, ready for recycling. Frozen blocks of herring. [ 20 ] Pallets of frozen fish are moved toward the tank room, where they...