A summer afternoon on Swan's Island. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Institute implements resiliency program

The Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, will be working with Gouldsboro, Swan’s Island, and the Cranberry Isles to oversee implementation of the state’s Community Resilience Partnership (CRP). The CRP, a program of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, is designed for communities considering energy transitions… SEE MORE

Crustacean off Great Cranberry Isle. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Trends emerge on communities reliant on lobster

The value of Maine’s 2022 lobster fishery was $388 million, a decline of over $353 million compared to 2021. While this is a significant number, the total value of Maine’s lobster landings didn’t exceed $350 million until 2013. In addition, we know that the value of these landings is not… SEE MORE

Vinalhaven's lobster coop. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Lobster landings: catch remains high, price drops

Following 2021’s historically high values for Maine’s commercially harvested marine resources, harvesters in 2022 earned $574 million, an amount that is consistent with more recent history, according to preliminary data released from the Maine Department of Marine Resources on March 3. While overall value represents a 37 percent drop compared… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Working waterfronts ‘speak’ in podcast

Koch grew up on Deer Isle, where she was steeped in the stories and history of her community. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On the record with… Project Puffin’s Steve Kress

Last fall, Dr. Steve Kress, PhD, received a lifetime achievement award from the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Kress, 77, has a long list of credits to his name, but undoubtedly he is best known for the work he spent much of his career doing: restoring and managing breeding populations… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Bees crucial to blueberries are in good shape

Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm with sustained winds greater than 155 mph, passed over 15 percent of the nation’s hives... SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Towns fear, fight aquaculture expansion

There’s a new war brewing along the Maine coast, and the enemy is what some perceive as the uncontrolled spread of aquaculture. According to the Department of Marine Resources, between 2017 and 2021, aquaculture leases in Maine waters increased from about 110 to approximately 185. The total acreage encompassed by… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Climate is the real culprit in whale saga

In following the rollercoaster of how new regulations designed to protect the North Atlantic right whale will impact Maine’s lobster fishery and the communities the industry supports, two recent announcements stuck out to me. One is the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) five-year review of the species. The whales are… SEE MORE

A working pier in Jonesport. FILE PHOTO: LESLIE BOWMAN

Working Waterfront

Op-ed: Jonesport fish farm threatens Downeast waters

The pristine and productive marine environment in Chandler and Englishman Bays where Jonesport, Roque Bluffs, and Roque Island are situated is now threatened by the plans of Kingfish Maine to build an industrial-sized, land-based fish farm in Jonesport. I am part of Roque Island Gardner Homestead Corporation, a family community,… SEE MORE

Those attending the Island Institute's Climate Symposium listen to a presenter. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

Climate symposium centered on conversation

What if a conference for climate practitioners and problem solvers was based on conversation? We answered this question in September with around 140 gathered in Portland to hear—and discuss—climate-related presentations from a wide variety of those working on such issues. And we learned that it works. Equal time and focus… SEE MORE