Working Waterfront

Majestic eagle caught in awkward moment

Editor's note: This month's Observer is a reprise of an earlier published column. I'm not a bird watcher but I did notice, last week, an Eastern Phoebe light on a weatherstick outside my window. The stick was tiny and delicate but the Phoebe was even more so and the stick's… SEE MORE

Chris Warner explains the restoration design with John Hagan setting green crab traps in the background.

Working Waterfront

Beating the green crabs in Georgetown

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. "We believe, yes!" This is Georgetown clammer Chris Warner's answer to the question: Can a single shellfish harvester with a small up-front investment create a viable soft-shell clam farm and beat the green crabs? But you don't need to take… SEE MORE

Aaron Sprague and Karen Roper are adapting the yurt for visitor lodging.

Working Waterfront

Asian lodging goes Acadian

The first time Aaron Sprague and Karen Roper sat down in a yurt, owned by a friend in Maine, they experienced a deep sense of calm. "It was such a cool space and we thought, 'Wow, this is amazing!'" Sprague recalled. "I couldn't get over how nice it felt." Sprague… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Colors from the sea enliven ‘artifact art’

Nine years ago, a man who had no background or any interest in creating art became an artist. Not instantaneously, of course. Swimming along the bottom of Wiscasset harbor, 30 feet under water, bottle hunter Rick Carney, his Kevlar gloves digging in the muck, was hit with an idea that… SEE MORE

Lucas Milardo works with Frenchboro's two students.

Working Waterfront

Learning about island history from children

Luke Milardo is an Island Fellow, a participant in a two-year service program operated by AmeriCorps and the Island Institute, doing community development work on islands and remote coastal communities. He is serving on Frenchboro (Long Island) off Mount Desert Island. This fall, the Frenchboro School studied island history and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island museum celebrates Islesford’s lobster fishing heritage

ISLESFORD—When Leeman Gilley Ham, a lifelong lobster fisherman and well-loved resident of Islesford, died in 2012 at age 99, the island's entire fleet held a flotilla procession in his memory. Katrina Winfield-Howard, a summer resident, recently recalled how moved she was to hear about the ceremony. Adam Olearcek, Ham's great-grandson,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Islesboro, Isle au Haut postpone town meetings

Islesboro and Isle au Haut have each postponed their annual town meetings. In Islesboro, residents are considering an ambitious plan that would have the town build a broadband Internet network on the island. Selectmen had proposed borrowing $3 million through a municipal bond for the project, but the article on the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Henry Mowat’s little-remembered role in Maine history

I took history—American history, world history—in high school like most kids but now, 50 years later, nearly everything I've learned about Maine's own history I've learned from Maine authors like Harry Gratwick. More specifically, I think it may be true that much, if not most of what I've learned about… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Helen’s Restaurant rises from the ashes

MACHIAS—To Julie Barker, Helen's Restaurant is more than a building. It's a manifestation of the love she and her husband David have for Machias—the falls, the tides, the open ocean nearby, the woods and wildlife, the "Helen's family" and a close-knit community of families and friends. When the restaurant… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

From Castine to the world—again

Picture in your mind a cargo ship and an aircraft carrier, one 900-feet and the other 1,200-feet-long and both 20 stories tall, traveling through the ocean only 100 yards away from each other. Water shoots between them, causing suction and push forces that make the two vessels want to steer… SEE MORE