HARPSWELL ANCHOR • July 11, 2023
A trawler that sank to the bottom of Mackerel Cove, Bailey Island, in the 1990s leaked diesel fuel into the cove on Monday, July 10. A local diver plugged the leak late Monday afternoon and the U.S. Coast Guard plans to pump out the rest of the fuel, according to Harpswell Harbor Master Paul Plummer. The amount of fuel that leaked is not known. “We don’t have a clue,” Plummer said. Plummer said he was in his office on Monday morning when he received a call from a commercial fisherman who told him “the whole cove stinks” from the fuel. Soon afterward, another caller reported a sheen “across the entire cove.”