Working Waterfront

All that is old is new again

Writing for the New York Times, Kim Severson annually digs deeply into food trend predictions and comes up with what we ought to expect to see in the coming year. For islanders, the good news seems to be that with a little tweaking, we can participate this year. Or, actually,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

My space to be creative

I look around as I sit at a freshly decluttered desk in my studio to write for the first time in 2026. This 8-foot by 10-foot room has been the work area for countless projects and creations for over 40 years. I used to design and make jewelry here until… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Winter is time for ‘vertical swimming’

My love of swimming is well documented. But while I don't turn my nose up at a cold dip, the salty miles I log in the Millstream and Pulpit Harbor every summer aren't possible from October to May on North Haven. As an alternative, when we get any amount of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Shrimp fishery moratorium continues

It's hard to manage a fishery with little data. It's hard to collect data with few people. I attended the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission shrimp fishery meeting in Portland in December. Its goal was to determine the fate of the northern shrimp fishery, and besides the depressing news of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine’s housing crossroads

Maine entered the 2025 legislative session with housing at the top of its policy agenda. For years, Mainers have grappled with unaffordable rents, scarce housing availability for working families, and regulatory barriers that help keep supply low—all of which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, growing numbers of seasonal homes, and development challenges. This past year, the… SEE MORE

The Public's Policy

Working Waterfront

Looking for hope in a stormy season

In hindsight, I wonder if the name I chose for this column was too wishful. I took the phrase “Sweetest in the Gale” from Emily Dickinson’s poem, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” in which a bird stands for hope in dark times. “And sweetest - in the Gale -… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Here’s how to save working waterfront

Many people and organizations in Maine, including the publishers of this paper, have rightfully sounded the alarm about the loss of working waterfront along the coast. What is obvious is that Maine’s coast has become a very desirable place to live, and many fishing families have been displaced from shorefront… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

From the ashes, a call to action

In my last “From the Helm” column, I wrote about the importance of Maine’s working waterfront—the people, the structures, the boats, and the businesses that sustain Maine’s marine economy. I asked you to imagine what it would look like if that critical connection between land and sea were to disappear.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

When Vinalhaven was its own service center

Longtime Vinalhaven columnist Phil Crossman passed away on Dec. 27. We wanted to run one of his own pieces, one last time. This one first appeared in August 2014. Our gratitude for Phil’s many years of writing, and condolences to his family. When I was a kid, my friends and… SEE MORE

Columns

Working Waterfront

Remembering Susan Jones: A guiding light

The Maine fishing industry lost a guiding light when Susan Jones passed away in early September in Stonington at the age of 78. Her leadership shaped the fishermen’s newspaper, Commercial Fisheries News (CFN), for 40 years, from the early 1980s until her retirement in 2014, during which it was the… SEE MORE