With more than 45 years boating experience in all manner of watercraft, Capt. Shaw is a highly skilled seaman with an impeccable safety record. Fully licensed by the United States Coast Guard, he holds a 50-Ton Near Coastal Masters License.

   Capt. Shaw is also an experienced naturalist and Registered Maine Guide who has spent the past two decades boating, sea kayaking, hiking, bicycling, snowshoeing, and guiding nature enthusiasts along the Maine Coast. Having traveled more than 50,000 miles by boat in the greater Mt. Desert Island area alone, he is intimately acquainted with every island, cove, harbor, headland, fishing village and lighthouse within 50 miles of the Bar Harbor town pier.

   Blessed with a healthy curiosity, Capt. Shaw has "never met a fact he wasn't interested in" according to his wife Joyce. And there is nothing he enjoys more than sharing the wealth of information he has collected over the past quarter century with visitors eager to truly "experience" all Acadia National Park and the Mount Desert Island area has to offer.

    Having helped organize the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, Capt. Shaw has been a deeply committed environmentalist for more than 30 years.

The Coastal Maine Bald Eagle Project

In 1977 Capt. Shaw began working as a volunteer field researcher for bald eagle biologists at the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife. Over the course of the next 8 years, Capt. Shaw supplied biologists at MDIF&W with census data documenting yearly nest productivity, as well as with extensive field data reporting new nests and helping establish the perimeters of nesting and foraging areas. Capt. Shaw's study area runs from Isle Au Haute to Milbridge, encompassing 650 miles of shoreline, 150 islands, and approximately 50 nesting pairs of eagles.

    By the mid-1980s it was clear to Capt. Shaw that there was a need for an advocacy group to safeguard the future of coastal Maine's recovering bald eagle population. Thus in 1985 he founded the Coastal Maine Bald Eagle Project headquartered in Bar Harbor.

    In addition to the many thousands of hours Capt. Shaw has spent in the field studying eagle behavior over the past two and one-half decades, he has also maintained a long-term commitment to safeguarding Maine's recovering bald eagle population. He played a key role, for instance, in securing badly needed legislative protection for Maine's recovering bald eagle population in the mid-1980s. He also worked to secure protection for bald eagle nesting and foraging habitat in the mid 1990s. Capt. Shaw continues today to be actively involved in programs promoting the future of Maine's growing bald eagle population.

    When you sign up for a Sea Venture Custom Boat Tour, you have the satisfaction of knowing that your trip fee provides funding for the vitally important advocacy efforts being accomplished by the Coastal Maine Bald Eagle Project.