Working Waterfront

Report: Aquaculture workforce must grow rapidly

A report by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute identifies the labor needs of Maine’s growing aquaculture industry and charts a course for the state to establish a comprehensive workforce training system to meet the demand. The report—produced in partnership with the Maine Aquaculture Association and Educate Maine, with support… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Research shows plastic is impacting larval lobster

Microplastic fiber pollution in the ocean impacts larval lobsters at each stage of their development, according to new research. A study published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin reports that the fibers affect the animals’ feeding and respiration, and they could even prevent some larvae from reaching adulthood. “In today's ocean, organisms are exposed to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Remembering the lessons of the slave ship Amistad

L’Amistad, ironically Spanish for “friendship,” was a 19th century schooner engaged in the slave trade, transporting human cargo, Mende people, from Sierra Leone to Cuba for work on the Spanish-owned sugar plantations. In 1839, with 53 slaves aboard, those imprisoned passengers revolted, under the leadership of Singbe Pieh, also known as… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Group works to recycle ‘ghost’ lobster traps

Lobstermen call it “ghost gear”—the remnants of lost, costly lobster traps to snags, storms, trap wars, and damage by both sailboats and power boats, all hazards inherent in fishing the Gulf of Maine. It comes with the territory, and the out-of-pocket costs are significant for those who now fish an… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A summer of uncertainty for the lobster industry

Lobstering is a dangerous, difficult business, and not just for the harvesters who risk their lives to bring their catch to shore. Many factors influence how lucrative the lobster industry will be in any year. Ultimately, these factors influence the profits throughout the supply chain, from dock to dinner plate.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Cruise ship departs Eastport

Hoping to avoid the June 1 arrival of hurricane season in southern Florida, the Oceania Riviera, a 785-foot, 15-deck Norwegian Cruise Lines vessel with no passengers, only crew onboard, sailed nearly 2,000 miles to tie up at Eastport’s deep-water breakwater on June 14. With computer models showing that Isaias—sometimes hurricane, sometimes tropical… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Portland Fish Exchange manager reflects on strategies, struggles

When Bert Jongerden took a job as operations manager at the Portland Fish Exchange in 1991, the quasi-municipal nonprofit auction house handled 30 million pounds of fish that year. Jongerden stayed five years, then moved on to other endeavors. In 2007, when he returned to the exchange as general manager,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Strained relations with the ferry service

On a late spring morning in 1920, the steamboat Governor Bodwell was docked at Tillson’s Wharf in Rockland and preparing to depart for Vinalhaven. Shoveling coal below decks was my grandfather, Edwin Maddox. His eleventh great grandparents, William and Mary Brewster, had arrived on the Mayflower 300 years earlier. Unbeknownst to him, he… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine’s climate work must aim for equitable impact

When it comes to confronting climate change, how can we design responses to meet the needs of Maine’s rural and natural resource–based communities? How can we expand these considerations to ensure that climate action will serve all Maine people equitably—particularly those who have been excluded in the past, and who… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The Sunbeam holds its course

Built in 1995 and operated now by the Bar Harbor-based Maine Seacoast Mission, the 75-foot long, steel-hulled Sunbeam V clears harbors of ice in the winter months, and in all seasons serves as a place of fellowship and communion for those unbridged islands of Maine that support year-round populations. Douglas Cornman, director of… SEE MORE