Working Waterfront

The other side of Land for Maine’s Future

This summer, $40 million was added to the state budget for the Land for Maine’s Future program, normally funded by a bond submitted to voters. No reason was given by the legislature for this change, but recent history may have been a guide. In 2019, a similar LMF bond was… SEE MORE

A lobster boat cruises past some of Portland’s wharves in late fall. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

GMRI to buy Portland’s Union Wharf

The past and the future of Portland’s working waterfront will be melded together when the Gulf of Maine Research Institute completes its purchase of Union Wharf from the Poole family, owners of the historic wharf since at least 1861, later this year. GMRI announced the impending purchase on Nov. 15.… SEE MORE

Nordic Aquafarms' new facility in Fredrikstad, Norway.

Working Waterfront

Salmon facility critic says technology unproven

I wish to thank The Working Waterfront for allowing me to comment (op-ed, November issue) on technologies being promised for new large scale aquaculture facilities in Maine. The federal Environmental Protection Agency refers to these as concentrated aquatic animal production facilities. As an individual, it has been extremely difficult to… SEE MORE

Václava "Vendy" Hazuková poses withi senors used in her research.

Working Waterfront

UMaine student studies Greenland lakes

Next April, Václava “Vendy” Hazuková will go to an arid, treeless area in West Greenland to solve a puzzle. It’s not known how lakes there contribute to Arctic carbon cycling — the process in which carbon atoms move from the atmosphere to the Earth and back. Where carbon is —… SEE MORE

A fishing boat cruises past some of Portland's wharves. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

GMRI to buy Portland’s Union Wharf

The past and the future of Portland’s working waterfront will be melded together when the Gulf of Maine Research Institute completes its purchase of Union Wharf from the Poole family, owners of the historic wharf since at least 1861, later this year. GMRI announced the impending purchase on Nov. 15.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Contagiously positive’ Saltonstall honored

When it comes to climate change and our progress in addressing it, sometimes all we hear is how bad things are. It is, after all, a formidable situation which requires a serious attitude. Unfortunately, seriousness often takes the form of grimness, but that’s not how Sam Saltonstall, the Natural Resources… SEE MORE

Capt. David Gelinas prepares to jump from the pilot boat onto a moving ship.

Working Waterfront

On the record with… Penobscot Bay pilot Dave Gelinas

Without Maine’s shipping ports, many home heating oil tanks would run dry this winter. Without trained pilots, who take the "con" of tankers, guiding their navigation as they make their way up Penobscot Bay, the cargo would not be delivered. And without their extensive training, that fuel could be at… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

UMaine launches ‘blue economy’ program

The Maine Business School at the University of Maine will launch a graduate education and collaborative research initiative to support Maine’s marine economy with the help of a $50,000 award from the William Procter Scientific Innovation Fund. Together with UMaine’s Darling Marine Center, the Maine Business School is launching the… 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

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