July 3rd ~ Bar Harbor, Maine

Location: College of the Atlantic
Local Organizer: Bob DeForrest, Gulf of Maine Expedition
207/288-4205; info@gomexpedition.org

Join us at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor to celebrate the Gulf of Maine and learn about sea kayaking safety and stewardship.

Below is a list of workshops and events that the Gulf of Maine Expedition team and other local groups will be bringing to campus on July 3rd, 2002. Join us for the whole day or for just a few activities. It's Free!

The Gulf of Maine mural project
We are carrying a huge roll of paper that will be unraveled in every town we visit. It will be an evolving art project celebrating the Gulf of Maine. Paint and color what this vast watershed means to you.

Natural History and Ecology
Bird hike: (Rich on language to make it fun for adults and kids) All you need is your feet to walk, your eyes to looks and your ears to listen. Binoculars would help too as you learn to see the birds that live along our shore.
What is in the Ocean? The Expedition team and the MDI Water Quality Coalition will show you how easy it is to get involved monitoring the ocean for phytoplankton and water quality. Learn how to use modern technology and traditional field skills. Use a field microscope to look for phytoplankton in a water sample you just gathered.
The edge of the sea. From the black slimy stuff at the top, to barnacles and rockweed in the middle, and starfish and urchins at the bottom, get down and dirty in the intertidal zone and learn about the species that live there.
Marine mammals of the Gulf of Maine. Join Allied Whale in discovering what marine mammals frequent the waters of the Gulf of Maine.

Sea Kayak Skills and Safety
Leave No Trace: Sea kayaking is growing so quickly that each person's behavior can make a big difference. Be a responsible sea kayaker! Acadia National Park and the Expedition team will teach the latest skills and ethics to tread lightly on the islands and shoreline.
Navigation skills: This will be an introductory session to reading nautical charts, using a compass and other navigational tools including parallel rules and GPS. Fun exercises (including perhaps a land-based scavenger hunt) will get us acquainted with the skills and the tools needed to find your way on the ocean.
Sea kayak rescue skills: The Gulf of Maine can be an unforgiving environment. As important as having the right equipment is having the right knowledge. The Expedition team and local volunteers will demonstrate a series of self and assisted rescue techniques from the basic paddlefloat rescue which all paddlers should learn, to the T and other assisted rescues techniques, and the elusive-for-many but important Eskimo roll.
Sea kayak safety equipment and trip packing: Planning a kayak trip? What should you bring? What should you wear? How should you pack? With the growing popularity of kayaking, it is easy to forget that sea kayaking on the Gulf of Maine requires some serious attention to safety. Learn about how the Expedition team keeps safety at the forefront of every single mile we paddle.

Local group workshops, activities and displays
The Gulf of Maine community is made up of an area of dedicated individuals and organizations working hard to protect our ecology and cultural legacy. Local groups (MDI Water Quality Coalition, Marine Environmental Research Institute, Friends of Acadia, Maine Coastal Program, Acadia National Park, Maine Coastal Program, MDI Paddlers, Allied Whale, and others) will be present to add workshops and activities to the schedule.

Natural History Museum
Explore the George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History from 10am-5pm.
Admission:
                        Adults- $3.50
                        Seniors- $2.50
                        Teens- $1.50
                        Kids- $1.00

The Gulf of Maine: a presentation by the Gulf of Maine Expedition
The Expedition team will kick off the College's summer evening lecture series (sponsored by the Dorr Museum of Natural History) with a slideshow of the Gulf of Maine. Share the experience with us through our images and stories from the Gulf. We hope that in traveling slowly, by kayak, we will gain and convey to others a sense of the Gulf that cannot be gained by other means of travel - a personal, immediate, and intimate sense of time and place. It is this sense of the Gulf of Maine that we hope to share with you through our slideshow. Because each community we visit is a part of the greater Gulf of Maine, we hope to follow the slideshow with an open discussion with all of you about the issues most important to your community.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

The College of the Atlantic is close to downtown Bar Harbor and can be reached by foot or Islander Bus.

Islander Bus Schedule:
B. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM / COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC
Buses stop at the College of the Atlantic at 20 and 50 minutes past the hour. After 3:15 p.m., service increases to every 15 minutes, with stops at 5, 20, 35, and 50 minutes past the hour. The bus turns into the College ON REQUEST ONLY after 10:00 p.m.