Working Waterfront

It’s time for an honest conversation about aquaculture

In the last few years we have watched the promise of an innovative and dynamic seafood industry be picked apart by groups flying a false flag of environmentalism or “fishing heritage.” SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Cape Cod fishing boats add water sensors

Within the next year, some 150 Cape Cod fishing boats will be equipped with sensors to collect vital information about ocean temperatures and water oxygen levels off the northeast coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The information collected will help researchers better understand the changing conditions of the Atlantic Ocean in… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fishing photos: ‘What’s going on here?’

Crowley has chosen dozens and dozens of images from the museum’s collection and explains what is being depicted. In 2012, Diversified Communications, publisher of National Fisherman, donated its thousands of pre-digital (that is, film) photo archives to the museum. SEE MORE

Harvested rockweed at a boat launch in Hancock. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

A life in seaweed, seen from inside

For the past 50 years, I have harvested seaweeds for food, medicine, and fertilizer, working within a five-mile radius of a home cove on Gouldsboro Bay where I keep my four little wooden boats which I built for $1,000 over 40 years ago. There’s no “floating mortgage” in my business.… SEE MORE

Pauline Inman's “Fisherman’s Boots,” 1943, wood engraving, edition eight of 40. COURTESY TIDES INSTITUTE AND MUSEUM OF ART, EASTPORT

Working Waterfront

Pauline Inman engraves Downeast shore

[caption id="attachment_46124" align="alignnone" width="650"] Pauline Inman, Abandoned Quarry, ca. 1956, wood engraving. COURTESY TIDES INSTITUTE AND MUSEUM OF ART, EASTPORT.[/caption] When we think of Maine’s working waterfront, images of lobsterboats, stacks of traps, busy wharves, tied-up dinghies, and the like are apt to come to mind. The printmaker Pauline Winchester… SEE MORE

Dave Brayton prepares to harpoon a swordfish on the Georges Bank. PHOTO: PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

Capturing the kill

He used a polarizing filter to help lessen the glare on the surface so the swordfish could be clearly seen; those preparations, coupled with some savvy darkroom work, produced the cover shot. SEE MORE

Central Wharf in Portland. FILE PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

Portland’s ‘Big Dig’ gets underway, finally

Work has begun on a long-awaited project to remove hundreds of millions of pounds of contaminated muck from around wharves, marinas, boatyards, and public boat launches in Portland Harbor. For decades, wharf owners and vessel operators have watched helplessly as sediment has slowly piled up along the Portland and South… SEE MORE

A boat arrives at the Monhegan pier. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Building higher on Monhegan

Facing the community now is the decision of how to move forward—forward toward a response to the increasingly powerful winter storms and the growing summer traffic. The main thing I am considering is how the changes will last for generations and affect the function of the island in every season. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A poor report card from Maine’s ocean

Arctic warming and accelerating ice melt are leading to changes in global ocean circulation. With a northward shift of the Gulf Stream and a retreat of the Labrador Current, more warm, salty, low-nutrient Gulf Stream water is entering the Gulf of Maine. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Went scalloping, caught a porter

“For those struggling to decipher the imprinted text, I believe it reads as ‘Jones's — Ale & Porter Merchant – 20 & 22 Wilton Street – Liverpool – Established 1831.’” SEE MORE