Working Waterfront

Turning development theory upside down

What if the premise guiding most municipal economic development schemes were wrong? So wrong, in fact, that this basic assumption is to blame for much of the gap between tax revenue and infrastructure repair? That's the idea Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns, a Minnesota-based consulting firm, asserted during a session… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Jig’ gear: a better way to catch ground fish

When Darius Kasprzak, skipper of the Marona and president of the Alaska Jig Association showed up in Rockland, he knew that his biggest problem in convincing Mainers the merits of jig-fishing was the lack of… well, fish. “There ain’t ground fish in Penobscot Bay, and good luck finding them anywhere else,”… SEE MORE

The November light at dusk brings out unusual colors on this Stonington shore.

Working Waterfront

Stonington tops in lobster again, hitting $60 million mark

Maine's top lobster landing port each year is Stonington, and according to the Island Ad-Vantages newspaper, the value of landings in 2014 exceeded the previous year by $11 million, hitting a total value of $60 million. The port saw five million more pounds of lobster landed than in 2013. Given… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine’s first environmental reporter found ‘lost’ public lands

The story that would become reporter Bob Cummings’ legacy didn’t set his world on fire when White Nichols walked into the Bath Times office in the early 1960s with a story tip. Nichols—a Wiscasset resident who had “drifted out of the habit of earning a living,” as Cummings would later… SEE MORE

College of the Atlantic students who are part of the U.N.'s climate change negotiations.

Working Waterfront

College of the Atlantic students part of Paris U.N. climate talks

A delegation of 17 students from Bar Harbor's College of the Atlantic is in Paris this month to participate in the latest United Nations climate summit, a two-week session expected to yield an international agreement on carbon-emission reductions with a target of keeping global warming increases at or below 2… SEE MORE

Environment

Working Waterfront

What if we’ve been doing ‘growth’ all wrong?

It's always been a double-edged sword. As prosperity works its way up Maine's coast—often in sprints and then strolls—the commercial and residential building that comes with it threatens to taint what attracted that investment in the first place. We've all witnessed the rise of strip malls and big-box stores on… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Stonington’s Hagen Wharf slated for rebuild

A pending project to revitalize Stonington's Hagen Wharf is expected to boost a waterfront attraction central to the town's transient boater and tourist economy. Located downtown, Hagen Wharf comprises a granite pier with a ramp down to several floats, with some public parking. It’s home to the community’s Stonecutter Statue,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Arm Maine to fight ocean acidification and other climate challenges

The Portland Press Herald’s recent "Mayday" series on the effects of climate change on the Gulf of Maine called attention to a critical fact at the heart of the Island Institute's work: the economic future of Maine’s island and remote coastal communities depends on a healthy, productive Gulf of Maine. The… SEE MORE

Sen. Angus King speaks at the Island Institute's energy conference in South Portland on Nov. 6.

Working Waterfront

Islands lead in ‘energy revolution,’ says Sen. King

It was one of those occasions, Sen. Angus King admitted, in which he was speaking to people who knew more about the topic at hand than he did. But at the Island Institute's annual island energy conference on Nov. 6 in South Portland, King showed he had more than a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fathoming our tides

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. The coast of Maine and neighboring Maritime Canada are extraordinary in many ways, but there is one way in which we are truly unique on the planet—the height of our tides. What are tides? Scientists define tides as the back… SEE MORE