A Year of Showing Up for Casco Bay
From shoreline cleanups to legislative wins to wildlife sightings, 2025 has been full of moments that reminded us why this work matters. Here are 15 snapshots that capture the heart, grit, and good humor of the people, partners, and places that make up Friends of Casco Bay.
1. Friends Clean up the Bay Together
From Back Cove to Brunswick, 246 volunteers picked up more than 12,000 pieces of litter—over 1,000 pounds—at 22 sites across the watershed.
2. Real-Time Bay, Real-Time Impact
Our scientists Mike Doan and Heather Kenyon show off the “cage of science” at our Continuous Monitoring Station in Harpswell, now upgraded with telemetry equipment that sends us data in real time, saving hours on the road and getting us answers faster.
3. Facing Forever Chemicals Together
Heather Kenyon and Hannah Sterling (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences) are part of the team working on our ongoing PFAS study. Three years into this collaboration, Friends of Casco Bay and Bigelow Laboratory continue to combine local knowledge with cutting-edge science, tackling questions no single group could answer alone. Here, Heather and Hannah gather sediment samples from the shores of the Fore River in South Portland.
4. Eelgrass in its Element
With a new GoPro camera in hand, we ventured underwater in fresh ways this year and snapped a photo of these graceful blades of eelgrass at Willard Beach.
5. Silly for Seagrasses
Eelgrass researchers gathered for the 2025 Maine Seagrass Summit, co-hosted with our partners at Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, Maine Coastal Program, Manomet, and Team Zostera. While the summit covered serious research and policy issues, this group had fun, too, donning green pipe cleaners to become a human eelgrass meadow.
6. Furry Friends Help Pump Pollution Out of Casco Bay
Wiggly, a gentle giant Newfoundland with a lot of enthusiasm, often joins Pumpout Coordinator Andy Neilson on the water. This year, Andy and fellow Pumpout Coordinator Bill Linnell pumped out more than 8,000 gallons of sewage—keeping that pollution out of Casco Bay.
7. Gulls Gone Wild
Photographer and Water Reporter Virginia Sambuco caught these gulls fighting over a green crab while a cormorant supervised from the sidelines at Halfway Rock.
8 & 9. A Bay Full of Discoveries
From high school students to families from the Khmer Maine community, 167 participants explored the Bay, oyster farming, and marine life with us and our partner organizations, Maine Sea Grant and Casco Bay Estuary Partnership. For some, it was their first time seeing the ocean.
10. Intern Making an Impact
Standing here with Sara Freshley at a coastal cleanup, Leo Kerz, our Community Engagement Intern, used his GIS skills to take Water Reporter to the next level, write a story about Chief Polin and the Presumpscot River, and helped clean up litter along the Bay’s edge.
11. Externs of Excellence: Past and Present
Casco BAYKEEPER Ivy Frignoca stands with externs past and present: Heather Kenyon and Sara Freshley (left), now members of our staff, and Natalie Jump and Anthony Erwin (right), who joined us this year. Natalie and Anthony helped advance our legislative tracking, Presumpscot River conservation, and policies that protect eelgrass and nearshore habitats as sources of blue carbon. Keiran Lorentzen (not shown) expanded our policy work on eelgrass protection, EPA water quality criteria, and stormwater management. Together, these externs strengthened efforts that will benefit the health of Casco Bay for years to come.
12. Light Moments in a Serious Session
Passing legislation can be weighty work, but protecting the Bay brings its share of bright spots. Heather Kenyon and Ivy Frignoca share a laugh in the halls of the State House, where they spent this past legislative session connecting with lawmakers on wastewater treatment, PFAS, stormwater pollution, and more. You can read more about our work in this year’s legislative session.
13. A Final Bow for Film Fest
Our fantastic Film Fest for Casco Bay volunteers made our last cinematic celebration one to remember. After 16 wonderful years of hosting film festivals, we’re excited to look forward to something new: a storytelling event featuring true stories from our community about Casco Bay and the watershed.
14. Your Friends, All in One Frame
We gathered the whole team for an early-morning shoot at East End Beach in September. Here we are perched on the rocks, ready to lend a helping hand to Casco Bay.
15. Behind the Lens
Many of the photos you see of Friends in action are taken by Meghan Vigeant, our Communications Coordinator. Writer, designer, web manager… and sometimes accidental kelp wrangler, she works to capture the people, moments, and stories that make our work possible. Here she holds up a piece of sugar kelp.
As the holidays approach, we’re grateful for every donor, volunteer, partner, and friend who helps us protect and strengthen Casco Bay.
