Working Waterfront

Native peoples should inform land use policy

Indigenous peoples should be part of land use decisions, asserts Darren Ranco, a University of Maine associate professor of anthropology and citizen of Penobscot Nation. “We have to be at the table,” he says. “When indigenous people are on the land and making decisions about land management, biodiversity increases.” An… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Machias dike project raises sea level, fish concerns

The Maine Department of Transportation is moving forward with plans to replace the 90-year-old dike and bridge that carries Route 1over the Middle River in Machias, but new concerns will mean a more careful consideration. Late in March, the department held a virtual public meeting to explain and solicit public… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Why CMP corridor is good deal for Maine

The op-ed piece by Tom Saviello in the April issue of The Working Waterfront opposing the CMP corridor requires a rebuttal. First, if Saviello has read the May 3, 2019 Maine Public Utility Commission 107-page order (docket No. 2017-00232) concerning the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) corridor, he would… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Downeast ‘oasis’ subdivision marketed for urban dwellers

A high-end housing development is being planned for a 1,000-acre peninsula on Howard Lake in Robbinston. Merriwood Sustainable Community is described on its website as “just beyond the edge of the paved world—a vibrant and comfortable oasis nestled within the splendor of the Maine wilderness. Completely off the beaten path… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lobster fishery’s history suggests a response

The current threats to the lobster fishery, and consequently our coastal economy, presented by pending federal regulations to protect the critically endangered right whale have me reflecting on my experience as an academic studying the fishery and my family’s experience within the fishery. It was almost exactly 100 years ago… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Organization within chaos is the ocean’s nature

Observing the ocean is to look for systems, myriad details in flux, each and every one, be it animal, vegetable, or data number, a microscopic part of a complex unit, each unit again a part of a system more complex. The ocean in a storm appears chaotic, in the air… 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

The whole story on scallops

Mussels used to grow nearby on rocks at the water’s edge, and now there aren’t many at all. And it was getting harder about 25 years ago, but we used to dig clams out of a tidal flat just down the road, enough for a meal of steamers. No more.… 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

Is ‘fishless’ fish next on the menu?

Millions of research and development dollars are being invested in a startup company in Singapore that has converted a high-rise parking garage into a production facility that manufactures lobster “meat.” For years the meat “analogue” industry has been busy profitably developing, creating, and marketing plant-based meatless “beef” patties for Burger… SEE MORE