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

Working Waterfront

Lobster industry is in ‘the fight of its life’

The outlook for Maine’s lobster industry for 2020, and likely beyond, is murky at best. That was the assessment by industry leaders during a panel discussion hosted June 24 by the Island Institute. See video of discussion here. Called “Let's Talk Lobster: Challenges and Opportunities of a Core Maine Industry,” the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

They name their boats after their daughters

By Tom Valleau No one can doubt that our commercial fishing industry is now suffering from a variety of problems, some long in the making and others quite recent. With each new development, Maine’s fishing prospects have grown smaller, going back to the establishment in 1984 of the Hague Line,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Casco Bay Lines board votes on new diesel/electric Peaks boat

It’s bit more complicated than putting pontoons on a Prius, but hybrid diesel/electric ferries are on the horizon for both the Maine State Ferry Service and the Casco Bay Island Transit Authority, which operates Casco Bay Lines. The board of directors of the Casco Bay Island Transit District voted June… SEE MORE

A hybrid diesel-electric ferry prepared for launch to serve isalnds in British Columbia.

Working Waterfront

Casco Bay Lines board votes on new diesel/electric Peaks boat

By Tom Walsh The board of the Casco Bay Island Transit Authority, which operates Casco Bay Lines, voted 7-5 on June 25 to proceed with detail design for a new car ferry to service Peaks Island for the next 30 years. That new vessel will be equipped with a diesel/electric hybrid propulsion… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Second, larger cruise ship bound for Eastport

By Tom Walsh A second massive cruise ship—the 11-deck Norwegian Sun—may soon tie up within the Bay of Fundy at a temporary berth being offered by the Eastport Port Authority. On June 14, the 785-foot cruise ship Oceana Riviera arrived from Miami without passengers, staffed by 131 crew members who… SEE MORE