Working Waterfront

Multiple approaches to addressing worker shortage

The days of finding large numbers of pre-trained and experienced workers are fast fading. Businesses across Maine—and the nation—have had trouble finding the available, qualified workers they need to operate at full capacity. In fact, there are currently about two open jobs for every unemployed job seeker in the state… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Free community college gets good marks

Emma Brezovsky, 18, a senior at Bucksport High School, wants to become a teacher. To achieve that goal, she knows she needs a bachelor’s degree. “My original plan was just going to be four years at [University of Maine] Farmington,” she said. “But now I’m going to do two at… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Making our ‘civic deserts’ more fertile

Like most of Generation Z, many of my early life milestones were bookmarked by incredible socio-political events. I graduated high school in 2016, the same year as a shocking U.S. presidential election and the second deadliest mass shooting in the country. When I graduated from college in 2020, the first… SEE MORE

Katie Ashley, a plant science Ph.D student at the University of Maine, poses with potato bins filled with lobster shells.

Working Waterfront

Lobster shells may protect potato crop

Scientists at the University of Maine are studying lobster shells as a possible aid to microbial communities to ward off soilborne potato pathogens. The novel shell-to-spud combination may connect two cornerstones of Maine’s food system and enhance the state’s circular economy. Potatoes are Maine’s top agricultural commodity with a value… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

More hands on the wheel for young adults

In the weeks before Christmas, two tragedies hit close to home. Four Maine Maritime Academy students were killed in a vehicle crash while returning to the Castine campus in the early morning hours, and a University of Maine at Presque Isle student’s body was discovered on the shore of Sears… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Ferry hurdles don’t stop island competitors

Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. Over the course of three months, I worked with nine elementary/middle school students to build and program a LEGO robot… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Building community by starting small

The music blasting from the preschool alternated between the Islands and Mamma Mia! soundtracks. The cast of Little Women, our fall show, sang along as they got into costume, makeup, and hair in the Waterman’s preschool, our de facto green room. There were 13 of them, plus a handful of… SEE MORE

A working pier in Jonesport. FILE PHOTO: LESLIE BOWMAN

Working Waterfront

Op-ed: Jonesport fish farm threatens Downeast waters

The pristine and productive marine environment in Chandler and Englishman Bays where Jonesport, Roque Bluffs, and Roque Island are situated is now threatened by the plans of Kingfish Maine to build an industrial-sized, land-based fish farm in Jonesport. I am part of Roque Island Gardner Homestead Corporation, a family community,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Speeding the flow in the workforce pipeline

Visitors to Maine this summer were greeted with signs in storefront windows saying, “Now Hiring,” “Limited Hours due to Staffing Shortages,” or simply “Closed.” From the County to the coast, anyone who has been living in, working in, or visiting Maine could see the acute lack of workforce. A one-size-fits-all… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

What keeps this teacher on the job

The number 18 has a certain significance in Jewish numerology. The letters used in writing the Hebrew word chai—life—are assigned the numbers ten and eight. Monetary donations and gifts are often given in multiples of 18, and 18 is associated with life and luck. This is the 18th year we’ve… SEE MORE