Working Waterfront

Maine has an official merchant mariner flag

By Tom Groening As the state celebrates its 200th anniversary this year, Mainers are reflecting on their history. And John Worth of Belfast, who has spent his life on the water, is investigating and highlighting the maritime part of that history. Some years ago, Worth learned that Maine is one… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lobstermen rally to fight right whale ruling

By Laurie Schreiber For lobster fishermen, today’s uncertainties revolve not only around a tightening market during the pandemic, but a legal situation that questions the industry’s ability to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. In mid-April, a federal judge ruled, in a case brought by four conservation organizations, that the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Personal stories about sewage and pollution

By Albert Presgraves I started sailing as a youngster with my family in the 1960s. At that time, the only sewage disposal system in common use on boats was a marine toilet with a built-in pump that pulled in seawater and discharged the waste and water mix overboard. It seemed… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Let’s take a trip around some other waterfronts

By Tom Groening When I arrived at the Island Institute seven years ago, the newspaper featured a column that reported on working waterfront access issues around the U.S. The few times I wrote the column, my approach was to bop around the web, reading news stories about development and the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Blow the Man Down’ a salty, funny, Maine noir

By Jacqueline Weaver Movie tips in the time of coronavirus are like following crumbs through the forest, each promising some relief from the ennui of waiting for the confinement to end. Blow the Man Down, a film by directors Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy, could not have been released… SEE MORE

A cruise ship looms over a view of West Street

Working Waterfront

Cruise ship tourism appears grounded

By Tom Walsh The global, seven-seas cruise ship industry has run aground. The curious role cruise ships have played as global infection vectors for the COVID-19 pandemic has resuscitated the pejorative description of cruise ships as “floating Petri dishes” for disease incubation. “I think we’ve reached the point where we… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

COA grad leads expedition to find Amelia Earhart

By Laurie Schreiber Ocean explorer Allison Fundis has seen many amazing things on her journeys to the depths of the sea. Thousands of octopuses brooding along the warm-water vents of submarine volcanic systems. Rare Deepstaria jellyfish billowing like translucent ghosts, and weird gulper eels with mouths larger than their bodies.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fishermen report changes they’re seeing on the water

We conducted very random interviews with fishermen at the annual Maine Fishermen's Forum in March, asking them what evidence of climate changes they are seeing on the water. PHOTOS BY KELLI PARK Terry Alexander of Cundy’s Harbor fishes for groundfish and squid out of Boston. “Stuff’s shifting, for sure,” he… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Town meeting, painting lines, eating doughnuts, and throwing rocks

By Barbara Fernald Activity on the islands, at the end of February and into March, is like a mirror image of the action at the end of August into September. Just as the summer residents of the Cranberry Isles end their vacations right before fall, many year-round residents end their… SEE MORE

Ellen Cohill and Glen Charles outside Cohill's Pub and Inn in Lubec.

Working Waterfront

Bass Harbor Light will be transferred to National Park Service

By Laurie Schreiber Plans are in the works to transfer jurisdiction of the Bass Harbor Light Station from the U.S. Coast Guard to the National Park Service. The plan would include a provision that allows the coast guard to continue to access the light and maintain the mechanical connections for… SEE MORE