Acadia Fact Sheet

Tasty Planet – Acadia Fact Sheet (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Acadia (in French Acadie) was the name given by the French to a colonial territory in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day New England, stretching as far south as Philadelphia.

Acadians were French subjects

At the outbreak of the French and Indian War between Britain and France, the British burned Acadian homes, accusing Acadians of disloyalty (for not having taken the oath) and guerrilla action. Those who still refused to swear loyalty to the British crown then suffered what is referred to as the Great Upheaval, when some 6,000-7,000 Acadians were expelled from Nova Scotia to France or the American colonies. Others fled deeper into Nova Scotia and other parts of the colony of Canada. After 1764, many expelled Acadians settled in Louisiana, which had been transferred by France to Spain before the end of the Seven Years' War. The name Acadian was corrupted to Cajun.

Today, Acadia refers to regions of Atlantic Canada with French roots, language, and culture. In the abstract, Acadia refers to the existence of a French culture on Canada’s east coast.

Lobster Fact Sheet

Tasty Planet – Lobster Fact Sheet (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Global industry that nets $1.8 billion in trade annually

Lobsters are invertebrates, and have a tough exoskeleton

Lobsters must molt in order to grow, leaving them vulnerable during this time

Lobsters live on rocky, sandy, or muddy bottoms from the shoreline to beyond the edge of the continental shelf. They generally live singly in crevices or in burrows under rocks.

They primarily feed on live fish, dig for clams, sea urchins, and feed on algae and eel-grass. They occasionally eat other lobsters, too.

Lobsters move slowly by walking on the bottom of the seafloor. However, when they are in danger and need to flee, they swim backwards quickly by curling and uncurling their abdomen. A speed of 5 meters per second has been recorded.

Most lobster comes from the north-eastern coast of North America with the Canadian Maritimes and the U.S. state of Maine being the largest producers.

Lobster traps are devices made of shrimp mesh and wire (wooden traps, now largely obsolete, were originally used). They are baited and lowered to the sea floor. They allow a lobster to enter, but make it impossible for the larger specimens to turn around and exit. This allows the creatures to be captured alive.

The traps, sometimes referred to as "pots", have a buoy floating on the surface and lobster fishermen check their traps daily.

In North America prior to the 20th century, eating lobster was considered a mark of poverty.

Some consider boiling lobsters cruel, and suggest that more humane ways of killing them include inserting a knife into the back of their head and slicing downward, or freezing them for 15 minutes to 2 hours before boiling. Freezing may make the meat tough, however.

A Norwegian study released in February of 2005 suggested that lobsters may not be able to feel pain, but should be given the benefit of the doubt, while a Scottish study released that same year concluded that lobsters probably do feel pain.

Maine Fact Sheet

Tasty Planet – Maine Fact Sheet (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Capital: Augusta

Largest City: Portland

Largest and the northernmost state in the New England region

Bordered on the west by New Hampshire

The only state that borders just one other state

The easternmost state in the contiguous 48 states

The most sparsely populated state east of the Mississippi River

Its land mass exceeds that of all other New England states combined

The Pine Tree State (90% of its land is forest)

Geologists describe Maine’s coastal landscape as a drowned coast, where a rising sea level has invaded former land features, creating bays out of valleys and islands out of mountain tops

Suffering partly from rising sea level and its invasion of some former land features

Maine's Acadia National Park is the only national park in New England

Continental climate: Temperatures Farenheit (20s/10s in winter, -10 Celsius; 80s/90s in summer, + 30 Celsius)

Original inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine were Algonquian-speaking peoples including the Wabanaki, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscots

The first European settlement in Maine was in 1604 by a French party that included Samuel de Champlain, the noted explorer

The French named the area that includes Maine as Acadia

96.5% White

Maine is second only to New Hampshire in the percentage of French Canadians in a U.S. state

Highest percentage of current French-speakers

Per capita personal income for 2003 was US$29,164, 29th in the nation

Maine's agricultural outputs are seafood (notably lobsters), poultry and eggs, dairy products, cattle, blueberries, apples, and maple sugar

Western Maine aquifers and springs are a major source of bottled water

Industrial outputs consist of mainly paper, lumber and wood products, electronic equipment, leather products, food products, textiles, and bio-technology, naval shipbuilding and construction