An older Cape Cod house on Isle au Haut's shore.

Working Waterfront

Hosting visitors helps bring island back in focus

Editor's note: Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, and AmeriCorps. Meghan Cooper works with the town office on Isle au Haut. As islanders know, summer is hectic.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Don’t trust potential losers in climate change war

Climate change and the infamous "Deflate-gate," the scandal involving NFL quarterback Tom Brady, may seem to have little in common. But bear with us, here, as we make the case. It's not something so cutesy as air pressure that the two issues share. No, it's about winning and losing. For… SEE MORE

Cargo Mate Dennis checks every piece of ammunition in the hold by hand.

Working Waterfront

Dangerous cargo aboard

The military has a lot of stuff to ship overseas for its missions: food, clothes, toiletries, cleaning supplies, paper and pencils, and even books and movies. But its first mission, of course, is remaining prepared to fight a war, should that unfortunate thing occur. The T-AKE class of U.S. Navy… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Can oysters save New York Harbor?

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. New York, New York is a lot of things to a lot of people. But it isn't a great place to harvest oysters. Eat them, yes. Harvest them, no. Turns out this is a recent phenomenon. In the 1890s, New… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

I’m Annie, but I’ve got no gun

By Courtney Naliboff As I write this, I've just started rehearsals for the Waterman Community Center's summer production of Annie Get Your Gun. I'm Annie. Along with the requisite singing, dancing and acting, the show requires a certain comfort and familiarity with guns. Although I grew up in rural Maine,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Oil, water and poorly considered science mix in Destiny

Reviewed by Tina Cohen The cover of Carl Howe Hansen's first novel presents some powerful allusions. The photograph by Peter Ralston features what we can assume is the book’s Pine Island, a typical Maine island of granite and spruce with raw exposure to the elements, a resistance to being tamed.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A great ocean, considered in great depth

Atlantic — Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories By Simon Winchester New York: HarperCollins, 2010 Hardcover, 495 pages This book came out five years ago and was well received, so why review it now, when parts of it feel a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Electric grid, social grid and ‘energy nerds’

By Rob Snyder I am increasingly surrounded by "energy nerds" (their words) and if you live in an island or remote coastal community in Maine, you may be too. They love talking about kilowatt hours, light bulbs, appliances and the like. And as with most characters, they are easier… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Busy town agenda coincides with busy island life

By Phil Crossman Vinalhaven is usually governed by a five-member board of selectmen, but this year—this month, anyway—we only have four. There were no candidates for the two vacancies in the May election and so the top two write-ins were invited to take office. I had 20-something write-in votes because,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

What you hear about lobsters, and what’s true

By Sandy Oliver There are oft-told stories that long ago lobsters were food fit only for the poor, that the prisoners at the Maine State Penitentiary (and apprentices in Boston) refused to eat them more than twice a week, and that they were so plentiful and poorly regarded that farmers… SEE MORE