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

Ready Seafood’s 52,000-square-foot lobster processing facility in Saco, built in 2019, is the largest such operation in Maine. Front row, from left are Curt Brown, Francisco Bumba, and Lori Talbot. Back row, from left, Van Bo, Pamela Lukasa, Lee Stafford, and Korina Costanzo. PHOTO: KELLI PARK

Working Waterfront

‘New Mainers’ are key to seafood industry

Welcoming immigrants to Maine is more than just the polite, hospitable thing to do. It’s critical to the state’s economic future. That’s the view of the authors of Maine’s community development strategy for 2020-2029, who assert that the state will lose 65,000 workers to retirement by 2029 and that to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lobster fishery’s history suggests a response

The current threats to the lobster fishery, and consequently our coastal economy, presented by pending federal regulations to protect the critically endangered right whale have me reflecting on my experience as an academic studying the fishery and my family’s experience within the fishery. It was almost exactly 100 years ago… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The strange tale of a would-be chicken king

The Island Institute, publisher of this newspaper, has done a lot of work with small island schools and one of its best efforts was helping form the Outer Islands Teaching and Learning Collaborative, or TLC, which facilitates links between students from those small schools. Recently, the Institute’s education team asked… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Deer Isle, Stonington affordable housing breaks ground

Fundraising is nearly complete and construction will soon start on the first phase of an affordable housing project, called Oliver’s Ridge, that’s designed to serve workforce housing needs in Deer Isle and Stonington. Island Workforce Housing, a nonprofit organization formed in 2018 by Deer Isle and Stonington residents to address… SEE MORE

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