Ready Seafood’s 52,000-square-foot lobster processing facility in Saco, built in 2019, is the largest such operation in Maine. Front row, from left are Curt Brown, Francisco Bumba, and Lori Talbot. Back row, from left, Van Bo, Pamela Lukasa, Lee Stafford, and Korina Costanzo. PHOTO: KELLI PARK

Working Waterfront

‘New Mainers’ are key to seafood industry

Welcoming immigrants to Maine is more than just the polite, hospitable thing to do. It’s critical to the state’s economic future. That’s the view of the authors of Maine’s community development strategy for 2020-2029, who assert that the state will lose 65,000 workers to retirement by 2029 and that to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The strange tale of a would-be chicken king

The Island Institute, publisher of this newspaper, has done a lot of work with small island schools and one of its best efforts was helping form the Outer Islands Teaching and Learning Collaborative, or TLC, which facilitates links between students from those small schools. Recently, the Institute’s education team asked… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Deer Isle, Stonington affordable housing breaks ground

Fundraising is nearly complete and construction will soon start on the first phase of an affordable housing project, called Oliver’s Ridge, that’s designed to serve workforce housing needs in Deer Isle and Stonington. Island Workforce Housing, a nonprofit organization formed in 2018 by Deer Isle and Stonington residents to address… SEE MORE

Long-time Mount Desert Island fishermen Davie Horner and Holly Masterson are launching Acadia Vendors Market in Southwest Harbor.

Working Waterfront

Acadia Vendors: affordable space in high-price area

Long-time Mount Desert Island fishermen Holly Masterson and David Horner were busy recently prepping a site in Southwest Harbor for a completely new endeavor—an outdoor vendors market for entrepreneurs of all stripes. [caption id="attachment_25454" align="alignleft" width="300"] Brown Family Farm had a spot at Acadia Vendors Market last year and will… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Properties of ‘significant value’ conserved on Chebeague

March was a banner month for the Chebeague & Cumberland Land Trust (CCLT) as the organization protected two properties with significant value to the Chebeague Island community. On March 3, the trust purchased a 24.3-acre forest in the center of the island known as Littlefield Woods, and on March 15… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On the record with… Sebastian Belle of the Maine Aquaculture Association

When it comes to aquaculture, it would be hard to top Sebastian Belle’s resumé. Belle, 62, earned a degree in fisheries and wildlife at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, fished offshore for a time, then moved to Europe. “I was able to get a job in Norway on an… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

What World War II meant to Monhegan

The Second World War had a dramatic impact on the everyday lives of people across the country, and while far from the fighting, the residents of Maine’s remote offshore islands also were profoundly affected by the war overseas. The multimedia online exhibition World War II: On-Island and Abroad incorporates oral… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Walking back the memories

I suppose this is a little island. I mean, look at Greenland. On the other hand, Vinalhaven is the same size as Manhattan and it is the largest island in Penobscot Bay. Still, in the scheme of things or if one lives here for eons and is in the habit… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island life through the eyes of COVID refugees

When Andrei Pogany, his wife Deborah Gorman, and their two young daughters, Klara and Amalia came from Los Angeles to stay on Islesford last September, they planned to be here for about three months. The island internet was fast enough to work from home and Klara could start her L.A.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Food is an anchor of normalcy

It’s very close to the one-year anniversary of “quarantimes” as I write this column. On March 13, 2020, our students had their last day of in-person school for the year, although we didn’t know it at the time. We shut everything down—for two weeks, then for a month, then for… SEE MORE