An artist's rendering of the new facility planned for Great Wass Island.

Working Waterfront

Downeast Institute begins expanding facility on Great Wass Island

A $1.8 million gift from the Harold Alfond Foundation tops off the funding needed to complete a $5.8 million expansion of the Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education. The facility is the marine science field station of the University of Maine at Machias and is located on Great… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Portland pier dredge could use new technology

On a raw spring day at the beginning of May, a geotechnical team drilled into the ocean floor in the shallow waters just east of the U.S. Coast Guard station in South Portland. The team was getting borings to help determine if the site is appropriate for Maine’s first… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Right whales may be bypassing Gulf of Maine

The right whale, one of the world's largest and most-endangered marine mammals, is in a slow, precarious recovery. Population estimates hover around 500, a modest gain from the early 1990s, when the species numbered fewer than 300. International law prohibited hunting right whales beginning in 1949, and U.S. law designated… SEE MORE

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Paul Anderson succeeds Robin Alden at fishery nonprofit

The Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries (MCCF) has named Paul Anderson as its new executive director. Anderson will begin working at the Stonington nonprofit in September and will fully assume executive director duties Jan. 1. Anderson will succeed founder Robin Alden as executive director, who is stepping down after 14… SEE MORE

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Weather, The Great War and a homeward bound schooner

Let’s start with the weather. It’s April, that often cruelest of months, as this is being written. In Maine, April is a flirt, flashing a warm, beckoning smile one day, and spitting snow the next. This winter followed the pattern of last year’s, easier on the snow and cold—though in… SEE MORE

A map of Fort George at the failed Popham colony (property of the archive at Simancas

Working Waterfront

Mysteries of Maine’s first European colony

By Phil Showell It was one of those crazy thoughts people get in the dead of winter. It’s January of 1608. You’re a Popham colonist, teeth chattering, huddled against the cold in a half-built Fort St. George. Up drives a snow-splattered Jeep Cherokee with a license plate proclaiming “Maine–Vacationland.” Well,… SEE MORE

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Herring history at stake in Lubec

Some things just can’t be replaced, such as the historic brining shed—an integral element in Lubec’s once booming smoked herring business. The now empty and fragile structure was used as part of the process at McCurdy’s Smokehouse, which is the last standing herring smokehouse in the country. Rachel Rubeor, president… SEE MORE

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Safety training is what saves fishermen’s lives

By Xiaoxi Wang If you think the assertion that the most dangerous job in the U.S. can be found in New England sounds… well, a little fishy, you’re right. Commercial fishing has been considered the second most dangerous occupation in the U.S. for decades. In 2014, out of every 100,000… SEE MORE

Lobster boats in Vinalhaven's Carver's Harbor.

Working Waterfront

Lobster union buys processing facility

The Maine Lobstering Union’s recent $4 million purchase of the Seal Point Lobster Company, a wholesale lobster distribution business in Lamoine, is expected to net union members a share of the profits to be had throughout the entire supply chain, from trap to plate. But the purchase is about more… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Warmer waters pushing northern shrimp out of Gulf of Maine

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. This winter was the fourth consecutive year of a moratorium on fishing for northern shrimp. Management of the fishery remains a subject of discussion. The small, sweet northern shrimp are an Arctic species, and are at the southernmost extent of… SEE MORE