Working Waterfront

How many lightbulbs does it take?

When your community's electric rates are among the highest in the nation, it pays to consider ways to cut consumption. Work done on Monhegan Island, with help from the Island Institute (publisher of The Working Waterfront), was both simple and effective, and could reduce the island's collective annual electric bill… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Shellfish, kelp may join lobster as cash ‘crops’

As fall approaches, lobstermen are seeing 3,000-pound days with lobsters at $4-$6 per pound. Emerging Asian markets and increased competition for supply from processors are two of the many factors driving this trend. Consumers of the McLobster roll might have helped, too. All of this good fortune deepens our economic… SEE MORE

The members of the Edgecomb Community Solar Farm Association with their ground array. Another array is mounted on the barn behind them.

Working Waterfront

Maine’s first community solar farm signals trend

Lynne and Christopher Gilbert of Bristol had long been interested in solar power. Unfortunately, a solar array wouldn’t have worked on their roof, since it’s not the best angle for the sun and there are many trees around it. Last summer, they were at a meeting of the Midcoast Green… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Writer Paul Greenberg has vision for restoring fish, food link

By Catherine Schmitt Paul Greenberg is the author of American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood and Four Fish: The Future of Our Last Wild Food. A lifelong fisherman, Greenberg has written for The New York Times, National Geographic and GQ, among other publications. Greenberg received both a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A summer of learning, leadership along Maine coast

On Swan's Island, community leaders and nearly 200 residents debated the future of the Swan's Island Electric Cooperative, the ratepayer owned distributor of electricity on that island and nearby Frenchboro (Long Island). There is nothing so heartening as watching community members of diverse background and economic standing give stump… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Kelp as the new kale, and a possible carbon fix

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. “Blue carbon” is a term you might be hearing more often. It refers to marine vegetation that has an inherent ability to sequester carbon and mitigate the consequences of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Vegetated coastal habitats including seagrass meadows, mangrove… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

God bless the weeds

Islanders are lucky because they have a weed habitat—saltwater shoreline—that inlanders don’t, but no matter, we all have plentiful weedy places on which to graze. Like mainly our gardens. Well, maybe you don’t have a weedy garden but, Lord help me, I do. As luck would have it, the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Don’t trust potential losers in climate change war

Climate change and the infamous "Deflate-gate," the scandal involving NFL quarterback Tom Brady, may seem to have little in common. But bear with us, here, as we make the case. It's not something so cutesy as air pressure that the two issues share. No, it's about winning and losing. For… SEE MORE

The USNS Washington Chambers photographed from a helicopter.

Working Waterfront

Flying over the Great Barrier Reef

The morning dawned warm and clear. The waters around the USNS Washington Chambers were treacherous, even in this good weather. The shoals around Australia and the many reefs make the sea a dangerous place to travel. Between Australia and Papua New Guinea, there is a stretch of ocean only a mile… SEE MORE

Chebeague Island's Stone Pier is at risk of damage from sea level rise.

Working Waterfront

Grants address sea level rise, water pollution along coast

The Maine Coastal Program, part of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, announced on Aug. 4 that it has awarded nearly $250,000 to 11 municipal and county projects. The funds will provide support for the coastal economy through projects that increase public access to the coast, support shellfish harvesting, identify pollution sources that result in… SEE MORE