A crew member cleans balconies on a cruise ship docked at Portland’s Ocean Gateway in 2014.

Working Waterfront

CruiseMaine evaluating potential, impact

The cruise ship industry’s growing interest in visiting Maine’s harbor towns is being hailed as opportunity by some, and branded as threat by others. While communities like Bar Harbor and Rockland are debating the relative merits of this part of the tourism economy, there’s no denying its size and impact.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Strategies sharpened for bringing faster internet

Municipalities have power to control their own destinies. That was one theme to emerge from the Maine Broadband Coalition’s May 31 conference at Thomas College in Waterville. The conference drew representatives from communities around the state hoping to improve internet speed to match 21st century uses of the web. Providers… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Penobscot Marine Museum hosts remote control lobster boat, America’s Cup sailboat model races

On Saturday, July 7, from 11 am to 2 pm, the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport will host a model boat race featuring lobster boats and America’s Cup yachts. The event will take place at the Searsport Town Dock. For more information call 548-2529. About Penobscot Marine Museum What inspires model makers to… SEE MORE

A view from the town landing—and not the former ferry terminal—of a cruise ship off Bar Harbor.

Working Waterfront

Ferry terminal purchase overwhelmingly approved

By a 1,380-213 margin, Bar Harbor residents voted June 12 to purchase the former ferry terminal on Eden Street from the Maine Department of Transportation for $3.5 million. The next step is for the town to decide what to do with it. The town council’s Ferry Terminal Property Advisory Committee… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Dancing away the early spring cold

Sometimes, all it takes to warm back up is a little do-si-do. After a long, snowed-in winter and a chilly, damp spring, with the nearest restaurant opening still weeks away, North Haven kids and grownups were trudging along. Sunny days were few and far between, and it seemed that even… SEE MORE

A view from Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park.

Working Waterfront

Tourism to Acadia spurred $284 million in economic benefits

A National Park Service report shows that Acadia National Park’s 3.5 million visits in 2017 resulted in $284 million in spending in the local region. That spending supported about 4,163 jobs and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $338 million. Chart shows Acadia-related spending, year by year.… SEE MORE

Some of the bones still show evidence of flesh.

Working Waterfront

North Haven students, teacher rebuild minke whale skeleton

In August 2016, something unexpected washed up on a private beach in Wooster Cove on North Haven island—a whale carcass. PHOTO: JOE STONE The whale’s bones are dug out of a sand pile, where they’d been left to decay. Just what caused the minke whale, a young adult female, to… SEE MORE

Fisherman George Curtis and retired fisherman William Leaman talk fishing (of course) outside of Leaman’s fish house in Owls Head in 1957.

Working Waterfront

Penobscot Marine Museum brings Kosti home

COURTESY PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM In the summer of 1951, Ruohomaa received a call from his friend Andrew Wyeth inviting him to join in fetching an antique hearse from Loud’s Island. Ruohomaa documented the infamous trip from start to finish. In this view, sawmill operator, Ralph Cline, ro “Kosti Comes Home,”… SEE MORE

Jennifer Helman and Dale Joyce are the new owners of the Harbor Watch Inn.

Working Waterfront

Swan’s Island motel has new owners

If you visit Swan’s Island for a weekend getaway, don’t expect much nightlife. Unless, that is, your idea of night life is a peaceful early evening stroll down a quiet road to the shore, or a short drive to the lighthouse to watch the sunset. For one thing, the sale… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Islesboro’s Annika Rogers a two-sport standout

Annika Rogers has spent most of her life working hard to excel, both in school and in sport, competing locally in sailing and internationally in snowshoeing. The Islesboro Central School senior has been rewarded for her efforts with a $5,000 scholarship from the Maine Sports Hall of Fame. Rogers, 18,… SEE MORE