Working Waterfront

Lobster Institute names new director

Since 1987 the Lobster Institute has been a center of discovery, innovation and outreach at UMaine with the goal of promoting, conducting, and communicating research focused on the sustainability of the American lobster fishery in the U.S. and Canada. SEE MORE

Staff with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute prepare to launch a drifter buoy.

Working Waterfront

Maine Maritime crew will deploy ‘drifter’ devices

When the Maine Maritime Academy training ship State of Maine sailed from Castine May 8 for the start of the annual summer cruise, she carried 202 students, 25 faculty members, and a crew of 20 professional mariners. She also carried a unusual cargo: six high-tech drifter buoys to be launched… SEE MORE

A sign warns visitors away from the shore in Roque Bluffs. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Do ‘fishing, fowling, and navigation’ ring a ‘Bell’?

But what if “fishing, fowling, and navigation” was never intended to be so restrictive? What if the long-abandoned Colonial Ordinance was only ever intended to preserve the public’s right to use the intertidal land in a way that balances the upland owners’ interests in accessing the sea with those same interests shared by the public? SEE MORE

Downed trees in Acadia National Park after the strong winter storms. PHOTO: CATHERINE SCHMITT

Working Waterfront

Storms have lasting impact on coastal forests

At Seawall, crews removed some 700 fallen trees that blocked roads and created safety hazards in a popular picnic and camping area, but otherwise the blowdowns at Otter Point and other locations are being left in place. SEE MORE

Hancock Street in Portland. PHOTO: MICHELE STAPLETON

Working Waterfront

The transformation of Portland’s eastern waterfront

Along the eastern waterfront, even more changes will come. A development company plans to build hundreds of housing units, retail space, a luxury hotel and a huge parking garage on land that formerly housed the historic Portland Co. at the end of Thames Street. SEE MORE

University of Maine doctoral candidate Phoebe Jekielk, right, works with students from Islesboro Central School in Stonington.

Working Waterfront

Students contribute to ‘archipelago of knowledge’

The crew of high school students and Hurricane Island educators joined Dr. Carla Guenther, chief scientist at the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, who is the principal investigator. The focus of this project is to understand where to find juvenile scallops... SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Casting line, casting words

Tributaries: Essays from Woods and Waters By Ryan Brod; Islandport Press (2023) Years ago I had a friend who liked to fish. Actually, it went way beyond “liking.” He was obsessed with it. He hounded me to go with him. He recited dreams he had of plodding around in marshes… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Blue Butterfield’s paean to Maine

Maine, A Love Story Self-published, hardback, 192 pages Standing in line at a community lunch at the Neighborhood House in Northeast Harbor back in February, I overheard two neighbors talking excitedly about Blue Butterfield’s book Maine, A Love Story. They spoke of the personal quality of the narrative and the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

No surprise: Bad weather causing outages

Severe storms (other than tropical cyclones) and winter weather accounted for nearly three-quarters of these outages. Hurricanes and tropical storms accounted for 14% of outages... SEE MORE

A panel discussion on small-scale aquaculture in Stonington on April 24 included, from left: Marsden Brewer, Mike Talhauser, Abby Barrows, Christian Brayden, Jaclyn Robidoux, and Kyle Pepperman.

Working Waterfront

A way forward for marine economy: Small-scale aquaculture

Near the end of an April 24 panel discussion in Stonington, a speaker described what he hoped the harbor would look like 50 years from now. Today, early mornings see fishermen heading out in skiffs to their boats, off to haul traps in this top-landing lobster port. But in the… SEE MORE