Working Waterfront

Remembering my ‘summer girl’ days

How did we get to September already? July felt like August and August felt like a gust of wind. Surely, after the time warp that was summer 2021, I could avoid experiencing the strange mix of emotions that hits me around Labor Day. But no, here it is, right on… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Bluefin tuna blues: To eat or not to eat?

My favorite sushi restaurant is in Rockland—Suzuki Sushi, where Keiko Suzuki Steinberger presides over a delectable panorama of sushi, sashimi, nigiri, and other mostly seafood delights of Japanese cuisine. I love Chef Keiko’s insistence on fish that’s local, fresh, and sustainably harvested, but there’s one variety, in great demand, that… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The essential kitchen arts

Art, according to one Merriam-Webster definition, is a skill acquired by experience, study, or observation. Let’s tweak that to “and/or” observation. If that definition works for you, then, because it’s a joy to practice an art, let’s apply it to the part of daily life that starts in the kitchen.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Don’t mow the milkweed

Not too far from my house, on one of my usual walking routes, is a huge field. A house sits on the field far back from the road, so that any signs of habitation are invisible to passersby, but the field covers an immense swath of South Shore Road. It… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The ‘ocean’ above us under assault

One of the great ocean experiences is the panoply of the night sky. A vast darkness, shaped by intimations of residual clouds, the crescent moon, complicated by distant planets and stars in their constellations, swept into the arc of the Milky Way, made exhilarating and mysterious by the potential of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The nuances of defining drought

In June, which turned out to be one of the hottest and driest on record, we paddled to a beaver dam on the St. George River just north of Round Pond in Union. The banks rose above us covered in sedges and grasses, bringing our focus to the slow-moving water,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

It’s time to build leadership skills

Discussions about leadership are everywhere—in books, in the media, in our daily conversations. But what does leadership mean? How do you define an effective leader? At the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, we recognize that community projects cannot move forward without effective leaders at the helm. As a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A commencement speech that might have been

This might have been this year’s commencement address, had there been a commencement: “You and I and many of the others gathered here have a great deal in common. We each finished high school in Vinalhaven and we each have the rest of our lives ahead of us. I hope… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Islesford’s outdoor market is booming

Last summer’s Bar Road Market on Islesford was just what I needed to give me focus and a chance to safely see people during the odd year of 2020. It was a gathering in the style of a farmer’s market where anyone was welcome to set up a table at… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

It’s time for a working waterfront advocate

I have spent a good part of my professional life working with fishermen. I helped found the Tenants Harbor Fisherman’s Co-op... SEE MORE