Working Waterfront

Estuary Beat: Storm surge, stripers, and the oyster trail

Good news about striped bass, salmon All reports indicate that migratory fish had a strong season. Striped bass runs contined in Maine rivers into August, according to Bruce Joule of the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Hot striper fishing spots included jetties at Camp Ellis and Wells, Pine Point, Goosefare… SEE MORE

A wooden trap decays on the shore in Corea.

Working Waterfront

A new, plastic threat to ocean health

By Charles A. Kniffen Twenty-five years of kayaking the Maine coast from Brown Cow ledge in Casco Bay to trailing minke whales off West Quoddy Light; one-quarter of a century picking up storm-tossed lobster pot buoys, ragged drapes of seine, wild tangles of beached trap-line, big, rubber mooring buoys, et.… SEE MORE

Rylee Knox of Turner poses for a “selfie” with his mother

Working Waterfront

MMA’s ‘family cruise’ last leg of 90-day journey

There were hugs, handshakes, and smiles as parents, siblings, and girlfriends joined Maine Maritime Academy students aboard the training ship State of Maine in Searsport on July 30. The academy offers this “family cruise” for the last leg of the 90-day training voyage, docking the 500-foot-long ship in Searsport to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Colby College comes to the coast

Both institutions see their missions as providing high-quality education to a relatively small group of students. Beyond that, Waterville’s Colby College and Port Clyde’s Herring Gut Learning Center would seem to have little in common. Beginning late last year, though, Colby and Herring Gut began a partnership aimed at enhancing… SEE MORE

Galen Koch at work on the Airstream trailer that will serve as her mobile recording studio.

Working Waterfront

‘First Coast’ project aims to tell our stories

Bureaucrats, academics, and advocates develop talking points, position papers, and policies to address the problems of our coast. Galen Koch has chosen a different approach. The 28-year-old Stonington native and Skidmore College grad has dedicated her professional life to storytelling. Or, more accurately, letting others tell their stories. Her newest… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Why not restore stripers to Gulf of Maine?

Michael J. LittleI read with interest the Fathoming column in the June issue of The Working Waterfront (“Signs of spring in our rivers and bays”) about the resurgence of fish migrations in the rivers and bays of the coast of Maine. I think it is very exciting that these populations… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Estuary Beat: Casco Bay and oil, hydro-acoustic in PenBay

Casco Bay prepares for oil spill potential Millions of barrels of oil flow through the pipeline that runs from South Portland to refineries in Montreal. While this is less oil than in the past (because of the supply coming from the Alberta tar sands), it is still enough to pose… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Into The Lantern’ illuminates lighthouse story

Inhaling the salty smell of the sea, feeling the wind blow across your skin, hearing the calls of seabirds and crashing surf—there is nothing like standing on the catwalk outside a lighthouse’s lantern room. Before this summer, you had to actually climb the tower stairs of a bona fide lighthouse… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Could green crabs become a Maine delicacy?

Invasive green crabs responsible for decimating Maine's soft-shell clam industry are being investigated for possible culinary purposes. Art conservator Jonathan Taggart, marine biologist Marissa McMahan, and Georgetown lobsterman Chris Jamison traveled to Venice last year to learn the secrets of harvesting green crabs for gourmet dishes. Young, soft-shelled green crabs are harvested… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Searsport’s Penobscot Marine Museum chronicles ‘evolving fisheries’

One of the more telling components of the Penobscot Marine Museum’s summer exhibit is a collection of headlines from the fisheries trade magazine, National Fisherman, pasted to a wall above a timeline that begins in 1954 and ends in 2014. Visitors reading the headlines will come away with at least… SEE MORE