Working Waterfront

Belle elected head of national aquaculture group

Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, has been elected president of the board of directors for the National Aquaculture Association. Since 1984, Belle has established best practices and advised commercial aquaculture ventures around the world, bridging private and public sectors. He has dedicated his career to demonstrating… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Cape Cod dreams in Maine’s mud season

This time of year has me thinking about Cape Cod. I know the Cape is mostly a summer vacation destination, but for about 12 years my family spent the April school vacation there, always on the outer Cape. Let’s face it—Maine doesn’t do spring well. I become a bit dour… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Concept would eliminate Eastport causeway

Connecting America’s deepest Atlantic Coast seaport to mainland America is becoming a 100-year challenge. “It’s been said that there are only two things that Mainers here in Washington County hate,” says Chris Gardner, who oversees the Port Authority of Eastport. “Change, and the way things are.” For many years, Gardner… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Slavery’s ties to New England

Like many of us, I learned in school about the trade triangle based on the shipping of enslaved people from Africa to the West Indies—rum, sugar, and salt going from the West Indies to North America and Europe, and luxury goods, tools, and household items carried to white plantation owners,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Roux Institute envisions Portland as tech hub

Tucked between the shore and I-295 at the mouth of Portland’s Back Cove, the B&M Baked Beans cannery, built in 1913, was a landmark for city residents, tourists, and even mariners on Casco Bay, as well as the source of the aroma of cooking beans and molasses. For more than… SEE MORE

Francis Hamabe, Boat Yard, ca. 1960, watercolor and silkscreen on paper, 18 by 24 inches. Collection of Ellen Best and Geoffrey Anthony.

Working Waterfront

Francis Hamabe’s boat yard

In a 1965 article in the Newark (NJ) Sunday News, Francis Hamabe explained his attraction to his adopted home to the north and east. “Maine is like I thought Sweden would be,” Hamabe told the reporter, while the Penobscot Bay area was “very much like where my father lived in… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Farming scallops has big upside

These days, I’ve got scallops on the brain. It’s close to the end of the wild scallop fishery season, so I’m enjoying Maine day boat scallops while I can—and you should too. With the recent windy weather, I’ve lost some sleep thinking about how our 8,000-plus scallops, growing on our… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A visit to Prock Marine with Lois Dodd, Jeff Epstein

The Rockland waterfront is a busy place, with all manner of marine activities happening all the time. Among its most venerable businesses is the Prock Marine Company on the northern end of the harbor. Founded in 1938 and incorporated in 1963, Prock Marine provides construction engineering services ranging from dredging… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Charged winds blowing along East Coast

Scheduled to begin construction in 2024, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project launched by Dominion Energy is the largest of its kind in the country. A 2.6-gigawatt wind farm that will consist of 176 wind turbines, each standing at around 800-feet tall 27 miles off the Virginia coast, the project… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Living aboard: Damariscove Harbor was a family’s home for 16 years

This story first appeared in The Working Waterfront in 2003. John and Robin Hammond lived aboard their wooden 1936 Casey Cutter, at Damariscove Island for 16 years. There, beside a barren island known for centuries to fishermen, they raised their son, Tomas. They fished, tended a hidden garden, and got… SEE MORE