![]() After this, the city adopted an official emblem depicting a phoenix rising from the ashes. ![]() The most famous was the Great Portland Fire of 1866, which destroyed a huge portion of the city and robbed 10,000 people of their homes. ![]() Throughout its history, Portland has endured four devastating fires. As the second-largest port in New England, it’s a vital part of the commercial fishing and shipping industries. The Port of Portland remains essential to the city’s economy. In addition, Portland was an important shipping port between Canada and the United States, as well as Europe. It also played an important role in isolated battles of the French and Indian Wars, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812. Developing New Englandįounded in 1623, Portland predates the American Revolution by more than a century and a half and was instrumental in the development of New England during that time. While the city is a congregation of a historic waterfront, art communities, coastal lighthouses, hole-in-the-wall pubs, top-chef restaurants, sidewalk performances, antique and art shops, and nightclubs, it retains a small-town feel. This coastal area is a popular summer spot for tourists all over the Eastern Seaboard because it has access to beaches, forests, and many other landscapes in Southern Maine. Portland Maine is the largest city in the state but has the charm of a classic seacoast town. If you would like to harvest seaweed or shellfish such as clams, crabs, snails, chitons, or octopus, you are required to obtain a license from your state.Portland, Maine | photo via About Portland Maine & Its History Note that you need a permit to remove any sea life from the beach.Always replace rocks and seaweed for cover once you finish exploring, and do so carefully.Wet your hands with seawater before touching or holding anything living in a tidepool.A quick turnover could crush species alongside the rock or those attempting to hide as their home is uncovered. Turn over small rocks gently and avoid moving large ones. ![]() Step on bare rock whenever possible, rather than on living organisms like barnacles or periwinkles.Before you go, brush up on tide-pooling etiquette: Make sure you check a tide table before you go to hit the beach at the right time you can pick up a tide book at most sporting goods stores. If you want to identify the creature you find, bring an illustrated field guide and a magnifying glass to examine the marine life closely. These places provide the best protection for invertebrates and small fish. To find a good tide pool, look for rocky beaches with large boulders small animals could live beneath, and areas where water collects in pools once the tide goes out. It’s surprising how many beautiful colors, graceful movements, and interesting interactions you will witness by simply wandering down to the beach at low tide. Tide-pooling is a great way to learn about marine animals in your area. A few times a year we brought an octopus home with us and enjoyed its tough, chewy succulence in a salad or fried into patties with celery, onions, bread crumbs, and spices. We loved to watch their long tentacles change colors and feel their suctions stick to our fingertips. Octopus lived under the rocks on Stonewall Reef too, identifiable by the small piles of bones and shells left outside their watery caves and occasionally a beautiful red-orange tentacle curled lazily in the kelp. These black chitons suction to the bottom of rocks with their long orange foot, and are a salty, chewy snack. Bidarkis, a delicacy and important subsistence food source to people of the Aleutian Islands, were one of our favorite low-tide treasures. Sea urchins nestled between large rocks and we split them with our butter knives to eat the rich uni inside. We ate sea lettuce-a delicate emerald green seaweed with a salty crunch-straight from the shore. We filled our buckets with butter clams and blue mussels to carry home for chowder. An amazing array of marine animals live within the inter-tidal zone between the water’s edge and the high tide line, some edible and delicious. We investigated the homes of tiny invertebrates and watched small fish swim in the puddles left behind by the receding tide. Over slippery ribbons of kelp, we made our way toward Stonewall Reef, stopping to peer into tide pools alive with the colorful homes of hermit crabs, anemones, and sea stars. We rolled out of our bunk beds to pull on our boots, grab butter knives from the kitchen and buckets from the greenhouse, and run toward the beach. When we were young, our mom used to wake us up early when the tide was low.
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