Long-time Mount Desert Island fishermen Davie Horner and Holly Masterson are launching Acadia Vendors Market in Southwest Harbor.

Working Waterfront

Acadia Vendors: affordable space in high-price area

Long-time Mount Desert Island fishermen Holly Masterson and David Horner were busy recently prepping a site in Southwest Harbor for a completely new endeavor—an outdoor vendors market for entrepreneurs of all stripes. [caption id="attachment_25454" align="alignleft" width="300"] Brown Family Farm had a spot at Acadia Vendors Market last year and will… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Plenty of grit in the women who lobster

Pretty Rugged: True Stories From Women of the Sea By Ali Farrell (Sea Street Publishing, Camden; 2020) Review by Tina Cohen This is a book about women who lobster, and it is about the grit of these fishermen (the term has become gender-neutral). Nothing is prettied up here. Author Ali… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The whole story on scallops

Mussels used to grow nearby on rocks at the water’s edge, and now there aren’t many at all. And it was getting harder about 25 years ago, but we used to dig clams out of a tidal flat just down the road, enough for a meal of steamers. No more.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On the record with… Sebastian Belle of the Maine Aquaculture Association

When it comes to aquaculture, it would be hard to top Sebastian Belle’s resumé. Belle, 62, earned a degree in fisheries and wildlife at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, fished offshore for a time, then moved to Europe. “I was able to get a job in Norway on an… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Is ‘fishless’ fish next on the menu?

Millions of research and development dollars are being invested in a startup company in Singapore that has converted a high-rise parking garage into a production facility that manufactures lobster “meat.” For years the meat “analogue” industry has been busy profitably developing, creating, and marketing plant-based meatless “beef” patties for Burger… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Carving her way from surgery to art

Carving from green wood is a whole different beast from dry-wood carving, says Danielle Rose Byrd, a Bar Harbor-based wood carver and sculptor. “It’s wet wood. It behaves differently when it dries. It wants to crack and people are super scared of that. And so I’m like … Why is that bad?” In Byrd’s new book, the self-taught carver presents step-by-step wood carving instruction, with some soul-carving instruction threaded in. SEE MORE

Maya Newsam in front of her store. PHOTO: KELLI PARK

Working Waterfront

A hometown revival in Owls Head

Maya Newsam has found her niche in Owls Head. That location isn’t coincidence. It’s where her great-great grandparents were rooted in the working waterfront. And as the new owner of Owls Head General Store, Newsam is here to stay. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On the record with… David Hopkins, chair of Maine Arts Commission

Born in Bangor in 1953, David Hopkins grew up on North Haven Island. When he was 14 and his brother, painter Eric Hopkins, was 16, they asked their parents if they could open an art gallery on the family’s Hopkins Wharf. That was the beginning of a life-long connection for… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Downeast ‘oasis’ subdivision marketed for urban dwellers

A high-end housing development is being planned for a 1,000-acre peninsula on Howard Lake in Robbinston. Merriwood Sustainable Community is described on its website as “just beyond the edge of the paved world—a vibrant and comfortable oasis nestled within the splendor of the Maine wilderness. Completely off the beaten path… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The ocean as natural capital

Standing onshore, we perceive the ocean as locality, the curve of the beach, the limit of the harbor, and as universality, the infinite inclusion beyond a distant horizon. We can look at the calculation of value in a similar way. We can understand capital as a monetized measure of value,… SEE MORE