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

Working Waterfront

Why paper was king, and why it was deposed

Shredding Paper: The Rise and Fall of Maine’s Mighty Paper Industry By Michael G. Hillard Understanding Maine’s once-gigantic paper industry and what happened to it is a matter of perspective. Michael Hillard, author of Shredding Paper, a well-researched look at the mills that once employed thousands in communities all over… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On the record with… Tom Meyers of the Waterfront Alliance

Tom Meyers has spent his professional life as an active member of working waterfronts. After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard for 28 years and as the head of the Portland base, Meyers then spent 13 years as a transportation and waterfront coordinator for the city of South Portland. While… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A Maine power company: possible and practical

As Maine grapples with decarbonizing its economy to meet ambitious climate mitigation goals, I urge us to think big and consider what a statewide, ratepayer-owned electric utility could do to aid us in our quest. Electric utilities are natural monopolies. More than 100 years ago we had competing companies and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Ships, the Suez Canal, and our three ports

Assuming I have your attention, I am now going to ask you to look up and around the room in which you are sitting. What percentage of the things in the room were once aboard a ship? Thirty-five percent? Fifty percent? Seventy percent? Experts put the answer at over 90… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Halibut—a huge, thrilling, and tasty fish

“Once you’ve caught a halibut, you’ll never be the same, if you like fishing,” said Erik Waterman, a commercial fisherman who lives in South Thomaston and fishes out of Spruce Head. Waterman was talking about wild-caught Atlantic halibut, one of the largest fish in the Gulf of Maine and the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Is ropeless fishing ready for prime time?

[caption id="attachment_24983" align="alignleft" width="300"] PHOTO: COURTESY BLUE PLANET STRATEGIES[/caption] As the North Atlantic right whale population declines rapidly, regulators have proposed or enacted a series of closures of significant areas of lobster fishing grounds off the coast of New England and Atlantic Canada to protect the endangered whales from entanglement… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Our waterfronts deliver the perfect superfood

Over the past year there has been renewed focus on the value of infrastructure. Transportation, health, information, electrical, and even the food system’s infrastructures have all been stressed, tested, and failed as we collectively experienced the fallout from years of undervaluing and underfunding the foundational elements that keep our society… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Sweet and salty’ scallop fishery in good shape

Maine’s scallop fishery has changed considerably over the years. David Tarr, a Brooklin resident, has gone both dragging and diving for scallops since he was a kid in the early 1980s. “Things were way different back then,” he said. “It was kind of a wild, wild fishery. It was boom… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

In tough year, Maine seafood landings top $500 million

Despite unprecedented market losses, Maine fishermen earned over a half billion dollars for their catch in 2020. Valued at $516,796,614, the ex-vessel value of Maine’s commercially harvested marine resources was the ninth highest on record. “Maine fishermen and seafood dealers weathered one of the most difficult years in memory, but… SEE MORE