Casco Bay

Casco Bay is an open bay of the Gulf of Maine on the southern Maine coast. NOAA's chart puts its seaward boundary on a line from Bald Head on Cape Small in Phippsburg to Dyer Point in Cape Elizabeth. The bay covers about 229 square miles, roughly 146,600 acres. One estimate puts its shoreline at 578 miles. The Harpswell Neck peninsula splits the inner bay into eastern and western sections. Its deepest point, southwest of Halfway Rock, is about 204 feet, and the tidal range averages about nine feet. Portland lies on the western edge. Brunswick, Falmouth, Freeport, Harpswell and the island towns of Chebeague Island and Long Island also front the bay. Its 985-square-mile watershed drains through the Presumpscot, Royal and Stroudwater rivers. The Casco Bay Estuary Partnership estimates 785 islands, islets and exposed ledges, known as the Calendar Islands.

Most public launches belong to municipalities. Portland's East End launch on Cutter Street, off the Eastern Promenade, has two concrete ramps and a float, with an attendant on duty and a launch fee. Falmouth's Town Landing on Town Landing Road cannot be used at low tide and charges non-residents a fee. In Brunswick, Simpson's Point Landing at the head of Middle Bay is described by the state as a carry-in site for canoes and kayaks. Other launches include the Centennial Street Ramp on Peaks Island, the Chebeague Island Boat Ramp, and Harpswell's town landings at Garrison Cove, Mackerel Cove, Potts Point and Holbrook Street. Casco Bay is a federally designated No Discharge Area, so releasing raw or treated sewage from any vessel is illegal.

Friends of Casco Bay/Casco Baykeeper was founded in 1989, after a report named the bay's waters among the most polluted in the nation.