When Friends of Casco Bay formed in 1989, the water was some of the most polluted in the nation. Today, the bay is far cleaner and healthier, with strong protections in place thanks in large part to Cathy Ramsdell, the organization’s executive director since 2003. Ramsdell ushered Friends toward a strong financial footing and organizational structure while leading staff and infusing programs…

When a Western Atlantic bluefin tuna takes the hook, the effect isn’t subtle. “They’re like a freight train hitting on your rod-and-reel,” long-time Portland fisherman Pete Speeches said of the…

My mother was possessed of a resolute conviction that people were good. Certainly, in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary, she felt my three younger brothers and I were…

Summer is here and it’s not only more human visitors crowding into the state. There are also reports that large numbers of lion’s mane jellyfish have been spotted in Maine…

It's like something out of science fiction. Research led by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences has revealed that a group of microbes, which feed off chemical reactions triggered by radioactivity,…

Once in a while my column ideas just don’t pan out. This is one of those months. I thought I would revisit the golf cart situation on Islesford. I started…

I enjoyed Tom Groening’s photo essay on “Historic Castine” (The Working Waterfront, June). He did capture the sense of the village today. There was, however, one thing that he got…

Sunday afternoons, starting the last Sunday in May, a small farmer’s market sets up next to the Up-Island Church (formerly the Free Will Baptist Church, now a preservation society) while…

Several years ago, I visited Ireland with my son, a musician, and one day we ventured to a small coastal village in search of the grave of a famous Irish…

I was working in my studio last week with the television on behind me when I heard one commentator say to another, “I think you win the background game today.”…