Working Waterfront

The world is watching our coast

Stockholm, Sweden, located in the midst of 14 islands, is home to the Resilience Center. Guided by island thinking, the Swedes are considering how to deal with a planet whose resources are overtaxed, and they are taking an approach to this challenge called resilience. What is resilience? It is a… SEE MORE

Fish prices in Portland in January 2015.

Working Waterfront

Obama should create marine national monument

By Peter Shelley A diverse group of marine-oriented businesses, hundreds of marine scientists, aquaria, faith-based organizations, conservation organizations and members of the public are calling on the Obama administration to designate the Cashes Ledge Closed Area in the Gulf of Maine and the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts off… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine seabirds on decline, says U.S. Fish and Wildlife

One of Maine's most amazing seabirds is the arctic tern (nicknamed "the champion globe-trotter" by those at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) because it has the longest annual migration of any known bird species. Every August, the birds leave their nesting grounds in Maine and fly northeast along the coast… SEE MORE

Environment

Roger Pielke at a reception at the University of Maine

Working Waterfront

Untangling the collision of science and politics

Roger Pielke had come to Maine to speak at the University of Maine's Mitchell Center for Sustainability, traveling to the state from Colorado, where he is director of the University of Colorado's Center for Science. After speaking, he hoped to head to Bar Harbor to see Acadia National Park and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Calling all fishermen!

The Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, is working to help fishermen and other business people diversify into shellfish and seaweed aquaculture on Maine’s islands and remote coastal communities. Are you interested in growing shellfish? Have you thought about gaining a new source of income through growing mussels, oysters… SEE MORE

Chris Warner inspects the restoration design or Manomet's pioneer soft-shell clam farming experiment.

Working Waterfront

Manomet lands $288,000 NOAA grant for clam farming work

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded Manomet a two-year, $288,000 grant to help Maine towns set up softshell clam farms. The grant comes from the NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service Saltonstall-Kennedy Grants Program, which funds projects that address the needs of fishing communities, optimize economic benefits by building and maintaining… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

For lobster, it’s location, location, location

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. This year’s lobster stock assessment confirmed what lobstermen have been seeing out on the water—there are a lot of lobsters in the Gulf of Maine! Yet, while the assessment aligns with the skyrocketing catch, it doesn’t predict the future of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The wonderful warmth of wood

Twenty years ago, late on a Saturday afternoon after I'd spent the day dumping firewood into the basement, you might have heard me proclaim: "Wood heat's great, but man, I don't want to be 50 and still doing all this work." Yeah, you guessed it. I'm 56 and still doing… SEE MORE

The team chalks pictures on the composting towers

Working Waterfront

Island life nurtures the best in team design

For a week during each of the past four summers, a group of college students and their instructors have been channeling the innovative spirit and nature-oriented sensibility of R. Buckminster Fuller in the design pioneer’s own habitat. Throughout his life, Fuller spent summers on Bear Island in Penobscot Bay. The… SEE MORE

A schooner sails past the tanks in South Portland on a late May Saturday.

Working Waterfront

New mailboat in the works for Isle au Haut

There's one more day of summer showing on the calendar as this column is being written, but the signs of autumn are everywhere on the coast of Maine. Along with the crisp, cool air that moved into place last weekend, we've been seeing the median age of sidewalk strollers in… SEE MORE