Category: Environment

The Bar Harbor Inn as seen from the town landing. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Acadia tourism contributed $479 million in 2022

A new National Park Service (NPS) report estimates that Acadia National Park’s 3.97 million visits in 2022 provided $479 million in visitor spending to the local economy. That spending supported nearly 6,700 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit of $691 million. “Since 1916, the National Park… SEE MORE
Artist David Hurley poses near his sturgeon mural on the Bayview Events Center, near Belfast’s harbor walk. PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Mural honors Belfast’s sturgeon story

Let’s get the pronunciation lesson out of the way first. The river that flows into Penobscot Bay in Belfast is called the Passagassawakeag, which in the native Wabanaki language means, “Place where sturgeon may be speared by torch light.” It’s pronounced: puh-SAG-uh-sa-WAW-keg. There don’t seem to be many sturgeon in… SEE MORE
Lanette Sigel inspects one of the intact gravestones. PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Saving a cemetery

It’s not hard to imagine the scene 250 years ago—a treeless headland where the Meduncook River meets Penobscot Bay, families gathered for the somber ritual of burying a deceased relative, the stone being carefully set. Today, that plot of land—known as Wadsworth Point—is shaded by a tangle of fir trees,… SEE MORE
Island Institute Fellows, including those returning for a second year and those beginning their fellowship this fall, pose for a photo during an orientation in St. George. Back row, from left: Katie Liberman, Lavinia Clarke, Olivia Jolley, Kaylin Wu, and Morgan Karns. Front row, from left: Alice Cockerham, Brianna Cunliffe, Grace Carrier, and Claire Oxford. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

Island Institute announces new Fellows

Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, has announced its new cohort of Island Institute Fellows who join a group returning for their second year. The Fellows program places recent college graduates in island and remote coastal communities to do service work. New Fellows include: [caption id="attachment_38241" align="alignnone" width="300"] Alice… SEE MORE
This image of the changing ocean colors was made by NASA and Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and MODIS data from LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response.

Working Waterfront

Ocean color changes illuminate climate change

Our blue planet is becoming greener, which may indicate that climate change is reshaping surface ocean ecosystems, says a global study co-authored by a University of Maine oceanographer that was published in Nature recently. The research team, led by scientists from the United Kingdom-based National Oceanography Centre and including UMaine… SEE MORE