Amy and Andy Barstow on the dock of Monhegan Boat Lines.

Working Waterfront

Monhegan Boat Lines rebuilding on waterfront

By Tom Groening In theory, the home base of Monhegan Boat Lines in Port Clyde is much like a bus station. There’s an office to sell tickets, a passenger waiting room, parking, and a designated site to board. But that’s where the similarities end. Amy and Andy Barstow, who have… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Women on the working waterfront, and on our pages

By Tom Groening If newspaper readers could be proverbial flies on the wall during meetings at which editors plan news coverage, most conspiracy theories about bias and political agendas would fade away. I’m reminded (yet again) of a Jerry Seinfeld comedy bit, in which he notes, “It's amazing that the… SEE MORE

Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative’s new executive director

Working Waterfront

Podcasts and webinars—lobster marketing goes 21st century

By Laurie Schreiber The new executive director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative aims to increase product value and tackle messaging around issues that affect the lobster industry. In April, the collaborative’s board of directors appointed Marianne LaCroix as executive director. She had been serving as interim chief since Matt Jacobson, who… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Merritt Carey fights for a waterfront way of life

By Tom Groening She’s sailed around the world with an all-female crew and competed in the America’s Cup with the first all-female team. She earned a law degree, worked for a Canadian seaweed processing firm, and lived for a time in New Zealand. But for Merritt Carey, the small coastal… SEE MORE

A North Atlantic right whale breaches in the Bay of Fundy.

Working Waterfront

A scientist’s view on right whale challenge

By Stephanie Bouchard The first time Nick Record saw a North Atlantic right whale was in 2007. He was out on a boat in Cape Cod Bay with a guy named Stormy (seriously), when the water around them began bubbling and churning. Up through the water came a huge right… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Puffin population strong, but now threatened by climate change

By Nancy Griffin It took years of painstaking effort to restore seagoing puffins to a Maine island where they had historically nested but had long ago disappeared, victims of human hunting for their meat and feathers. Now, the results of those years of effort that began in 1973 have reached… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The man, the rock, and the light

By Donna Miller Damon Located literally halfway between Cape Elizabeth and Cape Small, Halfway Rock not only marks Casco Bay’s midpoint, but also its outer limits. When you hear mariners say they are going fishing “outside,” you know they are headed out beyond “the Rock.” On July 26, as part… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Safety systems worked when ship lost power off Eastport

By Tom Walsh Moving 600-foot ships through a narrow passage known for its raging tides seems like dangerous work. Especially when things go wrong. But Capt. Gerry Morrison of Perry doesn’t think so. Morrison, a port pilot for Eastport, was commended at a recent meeting of the Eastport Port Authority… SEE MORE

A glass creation that suggests algae and phytoplankton by Krisanne Baker

Working Waterfront

How art can make science understandable

By Stephanie Bouchard Ecological artist Krisanne Baker of Waldoboro focuses much of her art work on water, so she spends a lot of time in and around it, but one night a couple of years ago really blew her away. She’d been working in a hot glassblowing studio. When she… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lobstering women: Heroic haulers of traps

By Carl Little The first painting in Susan Tobey White’s exhibition “Lobstering Women of Maine” at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport is a tour-de-force: a woman wearing an orange Grundéns bib dumps a crate of herring into holding bins. The fish form a kind of wriggling waterfall as the red-haired… SEE MORE