Working Waterfront

Offshore aquaculture offers promise, may avoid conflict

Aquaculture, once seen as a viable alternative to chasing declining wild fish stocks, is rebounding. But fish farming is taking shape in locations and using technology far different from the floating pens seen just off the coast back in the early 1990s. One new area entrepreneurs are exploring is… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

L.L. Bean gives Maine Island Trail $100,000

FREEPORT — In 1987, long before “public/private ventures” became fashionable, L.L.Bean issued a small grant to create a Maine Island Trail Association, in partnership with the Maine Department of Conservation and the Island Institute. With this, the grassroots Maine Island Trail Association (often known as “MITA”) and the Maine Island… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Ogunquit lawns go organic

It will be a spring like no other in the small oceanside community of Ogunquit, after voters passed an ordinance in November banning the use of non-organic pesticides and herbicides on private lands. Voters passed a similar ban on synthetic pesticide and herbicide use on public lands in 2009. The… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Spotting whales from buoys and other scientific wonders

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. This month, we decided to highlight some of the new science we heard about at the 40th Maine Fishermen's Forum in early March. * * * The Eastern Maine Skippers Program, a regional collaboration among high schools including Deer Isle,… SEE MORE

A bike rack near the shore in Harpswell.

Working Waterfront

Bath, Brunswick thinking bike links

With summer (believe it or not) approaching, many coastal communities are gearing up for road projects. Increasingly, these projects incorporate components for bicyclists, but coastal towns and cities often have to get creative to make their communities bicycle friendly. Take Bath and Brunswick, both designated "bike friendly communities" by the… SEE MORE

The fishing vessel Westward being towed off a ledge by Fuller Marine Services in Boothbay Harbor on Jan. 9.

Working Waterfront

The Wrack Line

Compiled by Tom Groening In baseball, the hitter gets three strikes. But when it comes to a 136-foot fishing boat wandering off it's mooring, there is no third strike. The Boothbay Register has been following the saga of the Westward, a steel-hulled, Dutch-built vessel that has been moored in Boothbay… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Oil price dip is Alaska’s pain

Sitka, Alaska is firmly anchored to the western shore of snow-capped Baranof Island. At just under 9,000 people, it is the fifth largest city in a state of 750,000. Alaska's rural libertarian character echoes Maine's. A welcome dinner invitation immersed me among community members who had come together to share… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Environment-based job market alive at career fair

UNITY — Almost 70 organizations were represented at an environment-based career fair at Unity College on Feb. 10. Is that a sign of a rebounding economy? Maybe. Many of the organizations were recruiting for summer jobs, such as counselor positions at camps, or for limited duration internships. But for the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Ticks are winning in invasion of Maine

Ticks. Even now, with snow, ice and frigid temperatures holding them in abeyance, the very mention of the little critters can make your skin crawl. But it gets worse, because those critters carry diseases like Lyme, anaplasmosis and babesiosis, illnesses that are debilitating as they are, at times, baffling to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Marketing lobster, restoring old ships and the winter of 1914

Waterfronts and those coastal towns that bustle with visitors in the summer tend to go quiet after the new year dawns. But that doesn't mean decisions affecting those waterfronts and towns aren't being made. In banks, in local and state government meeting rooms, and around conference tables at nonprofits, things… SEE MORE