Working Waterfront

Ocean acidification threatens blue economy

In a state renowned for its lobster and shellfish, Mainers understand the importance of a healthy ocean. But you don’t have to spend your mornings on a fishing boat hauling in the day’s catch or even live near the coast to be affected by our changing and warming seas. Ocean… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

An insider’s artist view of Casco Bay

Hundreds of Roberta Ricker’s colorful paintings depicting coastal and island life hang in homes in Maine and beyond. The paintings are a kind of artistic documentary of... SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A marriage story, viewed from one side

A delightful compatibility has marked our marriage from day one. Not simply because she routinely anticipates my every need, including the many I did not and do not anticipate or the many others I wasn’t even cognizant of—until I become repeatedly and dimly aware that something has become easier or… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Out of my lane—pinch-hitting as art teacher

As I settle into middle age, I find I can enjoy a sense of easy competency in most of the things I do. After 18 years of teaching and directing plays, I no longer fret over every detail, but can plan more generally and pivot and problem-solve as needed. I… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Adventures in art

As I sit in my 8-foot by 10-foot studio on a sunny afternoon in the fourth week of February I think about the strange winter we’ve experienced. The islands have not had more than 3 inches of snow at a time and that hasn’t lasted. There have been days in… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A paddling partner remembered

A friend, Jack Waterbury, was a former military pilot and had retired to the island a few years earlier. Charming but woefully disorganized and chaotic, he continually misplaced things. Many years ago, when in his 50s, he was my date on a canoeing trip with two other couples on Lobster… SEE MORE

The Machigonne II on its way to Peaks Island. FILE PHOTO: MICHELE STAPLETON

Working Waterfront

New ferries on the way for Maine

[caption id="attachment_35572" align="alignnone" width="700"] The Margaret Chase Smith on Islesboro. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING[/caption] New ferries, the vital link between Maine islands and the mainland, are in the pipeline. In recent months, construction has started on ferries to serve Peaks Island in Casco Bay and Matinicus off Penobsot Bay, and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Kim Hamilton named Island Institute president

The Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, named Kim Hamilton as its president, effective April 1. Hamilton has served as the organization’s interim chief programs officer since September, overseeing the Institute’s climate, economic resilience, and leadership programs and serving on its senior leadership team. The Rockland-based nonprofit’s board of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Shrinkflation, reformulation, and recipe extinction

Shrinkflation and reformulation are messing with our recipes. This past year, inflation along with supply chain problems sharpened our attention to price increases. Did you notice, though, the few ounces sucked out of a package of your favorite products? Coined around 2009 or so, “shrinkflation” refers to the reduction of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Childhood by neighborhoods and houses

On Nov. 14, 1948, Mom, Dad—the man she’d married in Massachusetts four years earlier and who’d just been discharged from the army after a grueling couple of years in Germany—four-year-old me, and my two-year-old brother, moved back to her island home on Vinalhaven. We moved into a second story downtown… SEE MORE