The Port Clyde waterfront in St. George.

Working Waterfront

Seeking community, and time by the water

Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. I never thought I would find myself craving less alone time. Last year I longed for stretches… SEE MORE

The HELIO group tries rowing a local "dragon" boat.

Working Waterfront

College of the Atlantic inspires ‘human ecology’ model in Japan

In 2014, a group of residents of the town of Ōsakikamijima, Japan, invited the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor to help them start a college. Ōsakikamijima is on a small island in the Seto Inland Sea, off Hiroshima. It has a population of 7,800 that’s trending up in… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

New master of MMA’s Bowdoin has global experience

Capt. Will McLean recalls sailing the 134-foot steel brigantine Corwith Cramer in 15-foot seas. He was working as senior chief mate and relief captain for Sea Education Association, an undergraduate ocean education school in Woods Hole, Mass., which takes students on research expeditions to places as far apart as the North… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

DMR wins grant to study right whale protection

The Maine Department of Marine Resources has been awarded a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to improve the data used to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. The $714,245 grant will support a three-year project beginning this summer to improve and add data on fishing gear that… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine native battles Trump on climate resilience

When you are young and you’ve done something that has you pumped, it’s often your parents’ reaction that sobers you up. This is true, scientist Joel Clement found out, even when you’re middle-aged. Clement, the former director of the U.S. Interior Department’s Office of Policy Analysis, took on the Trump… SEE MORE

A right whale bearing the wounds of an entanglement with fishing gear.

Working Waterfront

DMR wins grant to gather more data on right whales, fishing gear

The Maine Department of Marine Resources has been awarded a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to improve the data used to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. The $714,245 grant is administered by NOAA. The three-year project, which begins this summer, will support work on fishing gear that… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Wet feet in problematic places

The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World By Jeff Goodell Reviewed by David Platt We live on a tidal river in southern Maine, on the western side of the Gulf of Maine. We rebuilt our dock a decade ago, raising it a few… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Contrary survey results are puzzling scientists

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. Given the talk on the wharves all year, it was no surprise to hear the official 2017 numbers on Maine’s lobster fishery—110.8 million pounds with a value of $433.8 million, down nearly 22 million pounds from 2016. With this large… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lyme disease rates spur Swan’s Island deer hunt

With as many as half the ticks on Swan’s Island infected with Lyme disease, state officials approved a special hunt to reduce the deer population, the primary host animal for the ticks. The hunt concluded on March 1. Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife biologist Thomas Schaeffer said a study… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Estuary Beat: Flooding, fish migration, and salt marsh restoration

Nor’easter brings more flooding, damage to coast A northeasterly storm in early March brought another spate of flooding and damaging waves to Maine bays and estuaries. For three days, heavy winds pushed lunar high tides into roadways and parking lots. Along Saco Bay, water was knee-deep in Camp Ellis, a… SEE MORE