Working Waterfront

A great ocean, considered in great depth

Atlantic — Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories By Simon Winchester New York: HarperCollins, 2010 Hardcover, 495 pages This book came out five years ago and was well received, so why review it now, when parts of it feel a… SEE MORE

Brown's Head Light on Vinalhaven overlooks the Fox Islands Thoroughfare.

Working Waterfront

Vinalhaven transfers lighthouse to foundation

VINALHAVEN — Citing the burden of maintenance costs, the town has decided to transfer its ownership of Browns Head Lighthouse to a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve the historic beacons. An attorney for the island town is in the process of drafting a quit-claim deed through which ownership… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Electric grid, social grid and ‘energy nerds’

By Rob Snyder I am increasingly surrounded by "energy nerds" (their words) and if you live in an island or remote coastal community in Maine, you may be too. They love talking about kilowatt hours, light bulbs, appliances and the like. And as with most characters, they are easier… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

New phone app enhances Acadia, national park experiences

How many of us have toiled up a mountain to enjoy the view at the peak in Acadia National Park, only to play the guessing game of what the view is? Even with a paper map, it can be hard to determine which islands or mountains are part of the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine Sail Freight offers new way to think about trade

What do we who produce food from the land and sea have in common? For one thing, a changing climate. Changes in the weather have big impacts on the businesses and industries that straddle nature and the market. Another challenge is that farmers and fisher people are getting older, and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lobster futures uncertain, but efforts underway to boost demand

Bobby Beckman is just 22, but when it comes to the lobster business, he takes the long view. "I figure, lobsters have been here millions of years," he says, foot propped up on the console of his boat in Vinalhaven Harbor. "I think there'll always be lobsters." Some worry about,… SEE MORE

Protestors outside Bangor's federal building.

Working Waterfront

Environment is a wild card for lobster

In June, a battery of highly paid lawyers sat at a table in federal court in Bangor, the company they represent on the hook for dumping mercury in the lower Penobscot River decades earlier. It was easy to imagine them being anxious as they listened to an opposing lawyer explain… SEE MORE

A necropsy is performed on the whale that washed up dead on Mount Desert Island in early June.

Working Waterfront

Whale death signals ongoing entanglement problems

By Laurie Schreiber In early June, a 35-foot female humpback whale washed up dead on Mount Desert Island. The 11-year-old whale, known as Spinnaker to the whale research and disentanglement network on the East Coast, had been involved in three known entanglements in gillnet and lobster trap gear. Researchers believe… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fisheries, science are subjects of talks on Maine coast

The nonprofit fisheries policy organization Penobscot East Resource Center in Stonington is sponsoring (and co-sponsoring) three fisheries-related talks. “American Catch” Wednesday, July 29 6:30 p.m.—Paul Greenberg At College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor. Paul Greenberg is a lifelong fisherman and has written for The New York Times, National Geographic,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lobster coops use strength in numbers

Editor's note: This story was first posted on May 20, 2014. By Tom Groening VINALHAVEN — At the end of a typical summer day, an 18-wheeler will roll onto the mainland-bound ferry loaded with 300-400 crates of live lobster packed in seaweed. The lobster—40,000 pounds of it, provided by the… SEE MORE