Working Waterfront

A new energy future in Eastport

As a child in Eastport, I often heard stories about the Quoddy Project, then not 20 years in the past. The project was going to generate electricity from tides using dams and impoundment pools. A workforce village and a causeway to the island on which Eastport is located were built,… SEE MORE

The view from Little Deer Isle. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Finding Maine

Editor’s note: In our last edition, a letter writer suggested that islanders other than the four who write regular columns for us might contribute to our coverage of life in places surrounded by water. Challenge accepted here! I arrived here in Maine three years ago on May 1. More accurately,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

It’s time to fix the Indian land claim act

Legislation aimed at modernizing and fixing what is broken in the 1980 Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement Act is working its way through the Maine Legislature. LD 1626 came through the work of a bipartisan task force that also included tribal chiefs and leaders as well as representatives from the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine delegation can lead to climate safety

Both my wife and I grew up in Maine, but it wasn’t until we married that I adopted her family’s tradition of buying pounds of wholesale Maine shrimp and spending New Year’s Day (my mother-in-law’s birthday) shelling and freezing them for the coming months. It was an annual ceremony straight… SEE MORE

Landscape with Drying Sails, Stuart Davis

Working Waterfront

Jazz harbor: Stuart Davis in Gloucester

Located 25 or so miles northeast of Boston on Cape Ann, Gloucester is among the busiest fishing ports on the East Coast. An important shipbuilding center dating back to the early 1700s, over time the town became the hub for a fishing fleet that frequented the Grand Banks. Gloucester was… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Circulation, temperature data reveals future

Before COVID, this time of year would see the fishing and marine science community gearing up for the annual Maine Fishermen's Forum. It's a venue to share information about the Gulf of Maine—pretty much everything that helps and hinders those who rely on it to make a living. This will… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Our readers write: Street people, pinch-hitting, and Mueller

Street people thoughts To the editor: I just wanted to thank you and all the other writers (Cranberry Report columnist Barb Fernald is a friend) for your continued hard work on The Working Waterfront. I just finished reading your Rock Bound column, "Who do we want to see on our… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A Maine island take on Candlemas

On Feb. 2, many Americans look to Pennsylvania to see if the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil emerges to see his shadow or not. If he does, it means there are six more weeks of winter. Folks, on Feb. 2, there will be six more weeks of winter no matter what. Some… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A wintry slice of island life

It’s the afternoon of Jan. 6 and I’m in my studio on Little Cranberry Island, wondering if I have an island tale to tell on the day before my deadline. I usually have some idea by now, but not this week. I would have started writing this morning but I… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A different kind of book in gestation

In 2014 I had a baby, and in 2019 I wrote a song about it. It’s called “Tear Me in Two,” referring not just to the physical act of childbirth, but of the feeling I had as a new parent of this second person, an extension of myself and also… SEE MORE