Phyllis Sommer poses at her Searsport shop

Working Waterfront

Antique business evolving in Maine, elsewhere

Maybe you’ve noticed something missing in Maine’s coastal communities: the Mom-and-Pop antiques shops that seemed to be everywhere a decade or two ago. You’re not imagining things, but the disappearance of these shops doesn’t necessarily portend bad news for the antiques market that draws tourists and dollars into coastal communities.… SEE MORE

A waterfront house for sale in Stonington is not likely to be in the affordable range.

Working Waterfront

Generational clash part of Maine’s housing challenge

Aging baby boomers and millennials in their late 20s and early 30s have one thing in common: they're both looking to buy the same sort of houses. That was one takeaway from MaineHousing's annual conference on affordable housing in Bangor on Oct. 13. Boomers—born between 1946 and 1964—are looking to… SEE MORE

Beal & Bunker's Sea Queen at the dock in Northeast Harbor.

Working Waterfront

Cranberry Isles to hold Oct. 24 special town meeting on boat issues

Cranberry Isles voters will be asked at a special town meeting on Oct. 24 to authorize selectmen to negotiate with individuals or entities to appropriate or secure ferry transportation service from Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor to Great Cranberry Island, Little Cranberry Island, and Sutton Island, with the product of the negotiations… SEE MORE

An unidentified ship with containers stacked high on deck.

Working Waterfront

Thoughts about ‘those in peril on the sea’

Maine is a state made up of small communities. When my parents chose to move from the big city of Baltimore to the small island town we now live in—Islesford—part of their decision came because of the tightly knit bond within a small community. That bond brings all Mainers together;… SEE MORE

Chris Warner inspects the restoration design or Manomet's pioneer soft-shell clam farming experiment.

Working Waterfront

Manomet lands $288,000 NOAA grant for clam farming work

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded Manomet a two-year, $288,000 grant to help Maine towns set up softshell clam farms. The grant comes from the NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service Saltonstall-Kennedy Grants Program, which funds projects that address the needs of fishing communities, optimize economic benefits by building and maintaining… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

For lobster, it’s location, location, location

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. This year’s lobster stock assessment confirmed what lobstermen have been seeing out on the water—there are a lot of lobsters in the Gulf of Maine! Yet, while the assessment aligns with the skyrocketing catch, it doesn’t predict the future of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Swan’s Island designer explores intersection of art and function

When Christine Dentremont finished the industrial design program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., she relocated two days later to Swan’s Island, where she would spend the next few years as a sternman on a lobster boat. Fishing was never going to be her ultimate career move, but she found… SEE MORE

A schooner sails past the tanks in South Portland on a late May Saturday.

Working Waterfront

New mailboat in the works for Isle au Haut

There's one more day of summer showing on the calendar as this column is being written, but the signs of autumn are everywhere on the coast of Maine. Along with the crisp, cool air that moved into place last weekend, we've been seeing the median age of sidewalk strollers in… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Marijuana activist McCarrier believes it’s time to legalize

Forget the stoner stereotype: Paul McCarrier, 29, is serious, animated, maybe even intense as he talks about his work as the leading proponent of the effort to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, one of two proposals Maine voters will see on their state ballot in November 2016. He's not… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Tax breaks for renewables will keep innovation moving

Let's turn the calendar back to another October, the one in 1973, when OPEC raised the price of oil by 70 percent. Imagine that in early 1974, your state or federal government made a $1,000 tax credit available to be applied to the purchase of any vehicle that got 25… SEE MORE