Category: Marine

Working Waterfront

UMaine gets new marine research vessel

A new teaching and research vessel at the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center is expanding student access to the largest ecosystem on Earth: the open ocean. The new 45-foot vessel is the biggest in the center’s fleet. Previously used as a commercial tuna fishing platform, it will support student… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine lobster scientist Bob Steneck elected to National Academy

In one of the highest honors in American science, the National Academy of Sciences has elected Robert S. Steneck, a longtime University of Maine marine ecologist whose work has reshaped understanding of coastal ecosystems. The academy announced on April 28 the election of 120 members and 25 international members, bringing its… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Comparing Maine and Mexico fishing communities

This piece first appeared in UMaine News.   More than 70 percent of Maine’s fishing value comes from American lobster. The fishery has delivered prosperity for decades, but it also leaves coastal communities exposed if lobster populations falter, ocean conditions shift, or markets change. That pattern is not unique to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

NASA data helps Maine oyster farmers

When oyster farmer Luke Saindon went looking for a place to grow shellfish in Maine, he knew that picking the wrong waters could sink the farm before it began. So Saindon did something oyster farmers couldn’t have done a generation ago: He used NASA satellite data to view the coastline… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The unlikely afterlife of a schooner

As much as we might like to think of ourselves as historically minded, much of our material past survives accidentally. Objects often endure not because generations carefully preserved them, but because they were forgotten in attics and barns. Others are saved because their value lies in continued usefulness—or in the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Startup wants to help lobstermen raise scallops

A Midcoast aquaculture startup wants to spawn a new way to cultivate Atlantic sea scallops and, in the process, create a lucrative source of supplemental income for Maine fishermen. Seascale is the brainchild of aquaculture veteran Charlie Walsh of Thomaston and lobster boat sternman Jon Steuber of Tenants Harbor. Today,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The continuing search for sturgeon

Right now, somewhere between the waterfronts of Bangor and Brewer, hundreds of shortnose sturgeon lie on the bottom of the Penobscot River, settled on the rocks like sardines, or the many logs that sunk during the region’s reign as Lumber Capital of the World. Soon the sturgeon will wake from… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Isle au Haut gets new power cable

The Isle au Haut Electric Power Co. is most of the way through a years-long project to install a new undersea electric cable to the unbridged island. Over several days in late February, contractors came together to splice together six spools of cable in Belfast, then use a barge to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Scallops and me

I have a short and complicated history with scallops. Growing up in Maryland, my fondness for seafood mostly extended to the basics: canned tuna; flaky white fish; some crab, shrimp, and shellfish; occasional lobster and salmon. I don’t remember starting to eat scallops until a decade ago, and they quickly… SEE MORE