 Coastal Enterprises, Incorporated, has been working with the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the Land for Mains Future Program to help protect key properties along the coast and preserve the fishing industry in these areas. Tom talked with Jim Merriman of Potts Harbor Lobster about the ways in which CEI helped him expand his business and allowed him to go green. Jim, thanks for joining us. Now, how did, as a lobsterman, how did you do that? How did CEI help your business? In 2009, the company that owned Potts Harbor Lobster, we entered into the pilot program, which is through the state of Maine, it's Land for Mains Future, to purchase, to help in the purchase of some commercial working waterfront in the town of Harpsville. It was in the form of a grant, so CEI kind of facilitated that whole process, which was quite a lengthy process. Hugh Carpethwaite was very instrumental in kind of walking us through all the procedures and steps that we had to complete to be recipient of the grant, and fortunately we were and helped us with the purchase of what used to be the Bibber Wharf now as Reversing Falls Lobster Wharf in Harpsville. And so, that's kind of how CEI played a very instrumental role in helping us with that process. And your wharf now is home to how many lobster boats? There's five lobstermen there. So you all work together in this boat. Now you've really done something unique for the first time in the state of Maine, a commercial lobster wharf that's gone solar, right? Yeah, that's correct. Talk a little bit about that. I had this idea two, three years ago when I purchased the property. It had an existing wharf with a roof, and I'm like, wow, that's got some really good exposure to the sun, wouldn't it be neat if we went solar? And so I kind of tossed it around talking with different solar companies that could possibly help. We kind of struck out a little bit. We finally found Revision Energy, which is right in Portland, through a friend of ours who said, hey, you might check these guys out. Kind of kept it. It was a small group of people that knew that I was trying to pursue this angle. So we talked to them a couple years ago, and they said, yeah, it's doable. First step that I had to do was take down the existing wharf that it stood for 35 years. It was showing signs of wear and tear after 35 years exposed to the harsh elements. So we did that. We completed that project this past spring and put a new roof on it, redesigned the roof to hold the panels. Hopefully that was going to happen. And throughout the summer, we went forward with the plan of going solar, hammered out the details, and just September 6th, the panels were installed. We are currently on the grid only at night, and it's a 10 kilowatt system. It runs the refrigeration, it runs the pumps. Everything that the lobstermen need to conduct our business daily is now being run by solar power. And is it tied into the grid? It is tied. Yep. So our meter runs backwards during the day, which is cool. And throughout the night, of course, when the panels become less efficient because of the lack of sun, we're on the grid. And it's also green. It reduces emissions. Absolutely. We are reducing our carbon footprint by 20,000 pounds a year. And as a main lobstermen, we practice sustainable conservation measures every day. And as a business owner, I want to take it to another level. Why not do what we can do on land to make sure that doing our small part for water quality, because that's a real success in the state of Maine and our lobster fishery. We have such good water. It's clean water. We don't have the pollutants that the American lobsters, where they found in other states. And so doing our small part to ensure for future generations of Maine lobstermen that we have a viable industry. And so I'm really excited about it. We do have plans in the future to be 100% sustainable as far as renewable energy, clean energy. Net zero that the amount you put into the grid comes back. That's right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I'm hoping that anybody watching this and wants to emulate what you're trying to do can do it. How would they contact you and own? I know you just mentioned you had a website that might be up soon. Can you talk about that and how people can? Right. Pottsarbalopser.com. We are redoing our website currently. Hopefully it's going to be done in a week or so. We had to completely redo it to take over the new phase of our business. And hopefully in a week that will be done. But in the meantime, it's 833-577-5 will put you right in the office. Great. Well, thanks a lot for joining us. And I appreciate what you're doing for the environment. Absolutely. Thank you very much.