Capt. Mike Flanagan.

Working Waterfront

Long-time merchant mariner reflects on sea lessons

By Isabel Reddy The ship, a 100,000-ton, 750-foot-long cargo transport, was in heavy weather. The anchor was banging away against the bow. Weighing around 1,600 pounds, it could do considerable damage. The captain, Mike Flanagan, responded to the emergency by telling a crew member, “Secure the anchor.” The crew member… SEE MORE
The Schwörers look up and out of their home on the Pachama.

Working Waterfront

The Swiss family climatologists

In the Arctic, islanders are being forced to abandon the land where they’ve lived for generations, because eroding coastlines and rising sea levels have made their homes uninhabitable.​ As permafrost melts and the ice retreats, they are losing the fishing and hunting on which their livelihood depends. In Nova Scotia… SEE MORE
Melissa Sweet

Working Waterfront

E.B. White was indeed ‘Some Writer’

E.B. White was a writer’s writer. He wrote poetry, columns for magazines like The New Yorker and Harper’s—essays, really, and in a style that remains in vogue 70 years later—and, of course, children’s books like Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web. He literally wrote the book on writing, too, building on… SEE MORE
Prof. Gayle Kraus

Working Waterfront

UMaine Machias students grows her own coral

Coral reefs make up less than 1 percent of the ocean floor, yet they provide shelter for as much as a quarter of sea life. “They’re a huge keystone ecosystem for the ocean,” explains Clair Aldrich, a senior at the University of Maine at Machias. “They’re so important.” So important—especially… SEE MORE