The Bar Harbor Inn at center on a cloudy autumn day.

Working Waterfront

Tourism industry wrestles with disruptive influences

Social media and new technology are driving change in the tourism industry at an unprecedented rate. Those changes are driving marketplace innovations, as tourism interests strive to reach new demographic groups on the latter’s own terms. That was the message from Paul Ouimet, managing director of DestinationNEXT, a research and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On Vinalhaven, business hopes kelp will help fishermen

Making ends meet from season to season is a challenge for many islanders. Finding additional avenues of income can be difficult in an isolated community with limited resources. It is, in part, to that end that Vinalhaven Kelp, Inc. was established. The business is a new venture seeking to prove… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Letters to the editor: Nantucket thoughts

Nantucket native remains islander To the editor: What a delightful surprise to open November’s issue of The Working Waterfront to see a story and pictures of my native Nantucket Island. It was a fine article and so vividly portrays what has happened to it in the past half century. Unfortunately,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On The Water In Maine offers more than lists

When Justin and Tiffany Ford launched their vacation rental management business in 2006, there were about 8,000 residential units available in the state. That number included houses whose owners rented them by the week or month in summer, as well as cabins, cottages, and condominiums near ski resorts like Sugarloaf… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Pingree’s working waterfront bill would provide grants

A proposal by Maine’s Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, to protect working waterfronts and the jobs and economic activity they support, was aired at a congressional subcommittee hearing on Nov. 2. The bill, HR 1176, is co-sponsored by Rep. Rob Wittman, a Republican from Virginia. The bill… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Obama climate advisor tells Mainers he’s ‘optimistic’

Despite the Trump administration’s sharp turn away from working to slow climate change, Brian Deese remains optimistic. Deese, who had been President Barack Obama’s senior advisor on climate, conservation, and energy policies, was the keynote speaker at an Oct. 25 event in Portland hosted by the Maine Conservation Voters advocacy… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Estuary Beat: Red tide, Downeast river quality, and alewives

Red tide of a different shade At the end of September, an unprecendented bloom of the phytoplankton karenia mikimotoi extended from Cape Elizabeth to the New Meadows River. Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) staff and local observers noted brownish water and the odor of suffocating sea life, which by… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Harbor Gawker says goodbye

PHOTO ESSAY BY COURTNEY MOONEY The Harbor Gawker has been a fixture in Vinalhaven’s village center, just a stone’s throw from the harbor, since 1975. That was the year owners Lonnie and Kathy Morton were married. Later, the couple later bought the business from Lonnie's parents, John and Barbara Morton, who… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Nantucket as symbol of undesirable island fate

By Tom Groening A year ago, my wife and I returned to Nantucket to celebrate our 35th anniversary. It was our first time back since I began working at the Island Institute, and so it was with different eyes that I took in the beauty, the history, the wealth, and… SEE MORE

Eastport's rebuild breakwater shelters fishing boats.

Working Waterfront

New Eastport breakwater ready to welcome marine activity

By Jacqueline Weaver Finishing touches on the new $15 million breakwater in Eastport were due to be completed Nov. 1 with the installation of floats alongside a new pier that provides access to everything from cruise ships to fishing boats. Construction of the 100-foot-by-400-foot pier began following a catastrophic collapse of… SEE MORE