Rockweed ready for shipping on a ramp in Hancock. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Rockweed study not accurately explained

Rockweed is a slow-growing, wild seaweed on the rocky coast of Maine. It is highly valued as a commercial fertilizer and debates about how rockweed harvesting should be managed are contentious. To address questions about over-harvesting, academic researchers collaborated with commercial companies to test for effects of a single harvest… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A top-notch choice

I am writing to simply say I greatly enjoyed your column “My happy Maine anniversary” (Rock Bound, September issue). I was enjoying reading your essay—Deer Isle is my ancestral home, both parents born and raised there, and I got a tingle. But then you went and done it. You decided… SEE MORE

Passamaquoddy Tribe members gather at a ceremony. FILE PHOTO: LESLIE BOWMAN

Working Waterfront

Let’s return to a native view of resources

The Wabanaki nations have an excellent history of sustainable resource management. Before colonizers dominated the resources of this area in the 1600s, the Wabanakis had lived here for 12,000 years, self-regulating their consumption and relationships to the land and one another. In a fraction of that time, the society that… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Ban ocean-based finfish farms

Eric Jors, the CEO of American Aquafarms, the company that proposed a large sea-based fish farm in Frenchman Bay, recently said he saw continued opportunity to provide sustainable aquaculture in Maine that met global food demands while mitigating climate change and benefiting the local community and economy. Let’s explore those… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Buying a house is still your best investment

The path to homeownership can be bumpy. Buyers must withstand bidding wars, contingencies, complex tax laws, and an array of market factors beyond most anyone’s control. Still, buying a house is typically the single best investment a family can make. Homeownership is the largest source of wealth creation in the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Hybrid ferry is a ‘half attempt’

I was greatly disappointed to read that the new ferry being built for Islesboro has gone from an all-electric boat to a hybrid. With global warming affecting the Gulf of Maine faster than most other bodies of water in the world, I believe we need to make our best effort… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Why we must modernize the bottle bill

Step into your local redemption center and what you will see is the beating heart of Maine’s most effective recycling and litter prevention program. These hard-working businesses hand sort thousands and thousands of bottles and cans—perhaps redeemed by your child’s classroom or sports team—ensuring a strong, successful market for recycling… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Ocean acidification threatens blue economy

In a state renowned for its lobster and shellfish, Mainers understand the importance of a healthy ocean. But you don’t have to spend your mornings on a fishing boat hauling in the day’s catch or even live near the coast to be affected by our changing and warming seas. Ocean… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Making our ‘civic deserts’ more fertile

Like most of Generation Z, many of my early life milestones were bookmarked by incredible socio-political events. I graduated high school in 2016, the same year as a shocking U.S. presidential election and the second deadliest mass shooting in the country. When I graduated from college in 2020, the first… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fear of aquaculture not couched in reality

An article in the February/March issue The Working Waterfront outlined the fact that an increasing number of coastal towns in Maine fear, and are interposing regulatory measures that bar or limit, new and/or expanded aquaculture activities in their respective towns (“Towns fear, fight aquaculture expansion”). Similar (and somewhat stronger) views… SEE MORE