A wooden trap decays on the shore in Corea.

Working Waterfront

​A new, plastic threat to ocean health

By Charles A. Kniffen Twenty-five years of kayaking the Maine coast from Brown Cow ledge in Casco Bay to trailing minke whales off West Quoddy Light; one-quarter of a century picking up storm-tossed lobster pot buoys, ragged drapes of seine, wild tangles of beached trap-line, big, rubber mooring buoys, et.… SEE MORE
Stonington light

Working Waterfront

Secrets of a sunset chaser

Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. After living on Deer Isle for a year, I have a lot of sunset photos, and they… SEE MORE
Volunteers work at removing phragmites.

Working Waterfront

War on invasive plants relies on many weapons

Carolyn Walker first heard about invasive plants while taking horticulture classes 25 years ago. One summer when she arrived at her family home on Casco Bay’s Cliff Island, she noticed a lovely purple plant. It caught her eye not for its attractiveness, but because it had overrun the island’s marshes.… SEE MORE
Jamie Wyeth

Working Waterfront

Colby College comes to the coast

Both institutions see their missions as providing high-quality education to a relatively small group of students. Beyond that, Waterville’s Colby College and Port Clyde’s Herring Gut Learning Center would seem to have little in common. Beginning late last year, though, Colby and Herring Gut began a partnership aimed at enhancing… SEE MORE
A striped bass hooked on a lure.

Working Waterfront

Why not restore stripers to Gulf of Maine?

Michael J. LittleI read with interest the Fathoming column in the June issue of The Working Waterfront (“Signs of spring in our rivers and bays”) about the resurgence of fish migrations in the rivers and bays of the coast of Maine. I think it is very exciting that these populations… SEE MORE