A lobster boat in an early 20th century image.

Working Waterfront

Just the stats—Lobster by the numbers

The American lobster is the single most valuable species of fish landed in the United States. Over 80 percent of the catch comes from Maine (source: NOAA fisheries reports from 2014 and 2015). Thirty percent of all commercial fishing trips on the East Coast are taken by Maine fishermen—469,000… SEE MORE

A turn-of-the-20th-century photograph of a lobster boat.

Working Waterfront

Lobster worries: Record harvests, but fewer juveniles

Despite an abundance of egg-bearing adult lobsters and record-breaking harvests, the number of young lobsters continues to fall in the Gulf of Maine. That’s the 2016 update from the American Lobster Settlement Index, an international monitoring program founded in 1989 by University of Maine marine scientist Rick Wahle. The settlement… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Islands of the South Atlantic tell stories of people, nature

By Dwight Gertz Strung between Antarctica and the Equator, a thin chain of islands in the South Atlantic Ocean lies almost abandoned by commerce. Once valued for whaling or as stopping points on the way to the capes at the tip of Africa and South America, these islands exist mostly… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The fall and rise of the Great Lakes is a cautionary tale

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan; W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2017; 280 pages, hardcover, $27.95. The federal budget that President Trump proposed to Congress in March of this year reduces funding for practically everything in it except the military. And among federal departments,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Signs of spring in our rivers and bays

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. As the warmth finally starts seeping into our bones, the grass greens up and flowers bloom, other signs of spring emerge in our harbors and rivers: the migratory and river-run fish. As anglers dig out rods, reels, lures, and flies—or… SEE MORE

The map shows the approximate route the undersea electric cable will follow from hydro and wind power projects in northern Maine

Working Waterfront

Proposed undersea cable would cross Gulf of Maine

The parent company of the electric utility Emera Maine hopes to establish an undersea cable linking electricity generators in northern Maine, Newfoundland, Labrador and Nova Scotia with users in Massachusetts. The 350-mile-long cable would cross through the Gulf of Maine from Coleson Cove, just west of Saint John, New Brunswick,… SEE MORE

An artist's rendering of the new facility planned for Great Wass Island.

Working Waterfront

Downeast Institute begins expanding facility on Great Wass Island

A $1.8 million gift from the Harold Alfond Foundation tops off the funding needed to complete a $5.8 million expansion of the Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education. The facility is the marine science field station of the University of Maine at Machias and is located on Great… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Portland pier dredge could use new technology

On a raw spring day at the beginning of May, a geotechnical team drilled into the ocean floor in the shallow waters just east of the U.S. Coast Guard station in South Portland. The team was getting borings to help determine if the site is appropriate for Maine’s first… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Right whales may be bypassing Gulf of Maine

The right whale, one of the world's largest and most-endangered marine mammals, is in a slow, precarious recovery. Population estimates hover around 500, a modest gain from the early 1990s, when the species numbered fewer than 300. International law prohibited hunting right whales beginning in 1949, and U.S. law designated… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Paul Anderson succeeds Robin Alden at fishery nonprofit

The Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries (MCCF) has named Paul Anderson as its new executive director. Anderson will begin working at the Stonington nonprofit in September and will fully assume executive director duties Jan. 1. Anderson will succeed founder Robin Alden as executive director, who is stepping down after 14… SEE MORE