An aerial view of House Island in Casco Bay.

Working Waterfront

Estuary Beat: A focus on monitoring

How blue is Casco Bay? Friends of Casco Bay is recruiting volunteers to help monitor water quality by observing the color of the water. The color of estuaries and bays can be an indicator of nutrient and sediment concentrations and phytoplankton production. With a simple smartphone photograph, volunteers can provide… SEE MORE

Channing Boswell at the dock off Thompson Wharf in Belfast

Working Waterfront

Rolling on the river aboard electric-powered whale boat

Whether it’s aboard a restored schooner or a retrofit lobster boat, there are plenty of opportunities for visitors and locals to enjoy the sublime experience of being on the saltwater in Maine. It may be for a few hours or a few days, but businesses abound offering such outings. Channing… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Into the Raging Sea’ details human failings that cursed El Faro

Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking ofEl Faro By Rachel Slade (HarperCollins, 2018) Reviewed by Tina Cohen In October 2015, the El Faro, a 790-foot American container ship owned and operated by TOTE Maritime, sank off the Bahamas, claiming the lives of all 33 crew, including… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Parking lot, new schedule drives ferry discussion

Despite the end of the busy tourist season, the Maine State Ferry Service has a full plate for the early fall. Members of the service’s citizen advisory board learned about maintenance, upgrade, scheduling, and legal matters at their Sept. 6 meeting in Rockland. Most visible will be work on the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

New family revives Abel’s in Somesville

By Laurie Schreiber LAURIE SCHREIBER Carmen Sanford shows off a pie she had baked. On a sunny June noon at a food truck called Ted’s Take-Out, Shae Stanley was taking an order for a chicken wrap from a frequent customer while her husband, Ted Stanley Jr., prepared the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Trapped on film in ‘Trap to Table’ promotion

“Trap to Table” is a four-part web-based video series by the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative to promote new ideas for new shell lobster. My husband, Bruce Fernald, was one of four fishermen paired with a chef for a day of fishing, cooking, and eating. You can see the video on… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Free screening of ‘This Changes Everything’ at Rockland Strand

It has been yet another summer of alarming temperatures, the aftermath of Hurricane Maria is still part of Puerto Rico’s daily reality, and news of dramatic wildfires in the west has people across the country and across the world wondering about their future. This Changes Everything, a documentary film about our… SEE MORE

Volunteers pick up trash on a Midcoast island this summer.

Working Waterfront

Microplastics are everywhere you are, and that’s not good

By Abby Barrows Plastic—we all touch, use, and throw it out every day. It is an amazing, lightweight, and durable material. That quality of durability, however, has made plastic into a worldwide pollution problem. We use items designed to last a few minutes, made from a material that lasts thousands… SEE MORE

An audience of about 120 listens to Beth Orcutt at Bigelow Laboratories for Ocean Science in East Boothbay.

Working Waterfront

Tech’s wave may rely on deep sea

Thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface, in the deep sea near hydrothermal vents, are increasingly coveted resources. As an international body met in mid-July to discuss how to manage these resources, members of the public met in East Boothbay to hear from a deep sea scientific researcher about what… SEE MORE

A drone view of the property the city has dubbed "Belfast Yards."

Working Waterfront

City wants development on waterfront lot

Like that of most coastal towns, Belfast’s commercial waterfront is a finite stretch of real estate. Mike Hurley defines it as the shoreline that extends from the Route 1 bridge south to what is known locally as the Boathouse. “There ain’t no more,” jokes Hurley, a city councilor and long-time… SEE MORE