Working Waterfront

Penobscot Marine Museum hosts remote control lobster boat, America’s Cup sailboat model races

On Saturday, July 7, from 11 am to 2 pm, the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport will host a model boat race featuring lobster boats and America’s Cup yachts. The event will take place at the Searsport Town Dock. For more information call 548-2529. About Penobscot Marine Museum What inspires model makers to… SEE MORE

A view from the town landing—and not the former ferry terminal—of a cruise ship off Bar Harbor.

Working Waterfront

Ferry terminal purchase overwhelmingly approved

By a 1,380-213 margin, Bar Harbor residents voted June 12 to purchase the former ferry terminal on Eden Street from the Maine Department of Transportation for $3.5 million. The next step is for the town to decide what to do with it. The town council’s Ferry Terminal Property Advisory Committee… SEE MORE

Fuel tanks sit close to the water during a high-tide event in Lincolnville Beach.

Working Waterfront

Mounting weather disaster costs make case for preparation

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. There were 16 separate weather and climate disaster events topping $1 billion in recovery costs in the U.S. in 2017, with a cumulative cost exceeding $300 billion. It clear that it’s cheaper to prepare and minimize the clean-up rather than… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Estuary Beat: Thinking about upgrading river, stream standards

Frenchman Bay Partners talk rockweed, red tide, clam flat cleanup Frenchman Bay Partners held its annual meeting on May 5 in Winter Harbor and covered several topics related to the intertidal zone. Since 2016, Hannah Webber of the Schoodic Institute has led a working group to evaluate the status and… SEE MORE

Some of the bones still show evidence of flesh.

Working Waterfront

North Haven students, teacher rebuild minke whale skeleton

In August 2016, something unexpected washed up on a private beach in Wooster Cove on North Haven island—a whale carcass. PHOTO: JOE STONE The whale’s bones are dug out of a sand pile, where they’d been left to decay. Just what caused the minke whale, a young adult female, to… SEE MORE

Fisherman George Curtis and retired fisherman William Leaman talk fishing (of course) outside of Leaman’s fish house in Owls Head in 1957.

Working Waterfront

Penobscot Marine Museum brings Kosti home

COURTESY PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM In the summer of 1951, Ruohomaa received a call from his friend Andrew Wyeth inviting him to join in fetching an antique hearse from Loud’s Island. Ruohomaa documented the infamous trip from start to finish. In this view, sawmill operator, Ralph Cline, ro “Kosti Comes Home,”… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Islesboro’s Annika Rogers a two-sport standout

Annika Rogers has spent most of her life working hard to excel, both in school and in sport, competing locally in sailing and internationally in snowshoeing. The Islesboro Central School senior has been rewarded for her efforts with a $5,000 scholarship from the Maine Sports Hall of Fame. Rogers, 18,… SEE MORE

Colleen Francke aboard the lobster boat Linda Kate which fishes from Portland.

Working Waterfront

Sisters in recovery

By Kelli Park Planting and maintaining a garden can help those recovering from addiction. The recovering person learns responsibility while cultivating, nurturing, and investing time and effort, during which the individual grows along with the garden. Colleen Francke has taken this concept and adapted it to the ocean, planning an… SEE MORE

One of Fournier's tugs works alongside Maine Maritime Academy's State of Maine last summer.

Working Waterfront

Fournier family continues tug tradition in Belfast

If Belfast has an icon representing it to the wider world, it’s probably the three red tugboats docked at the foot of Main Street. As pretty as those boats are, with their clean decks and fresh paint, they are not props for tourism marketing. The Penobscot Bay Tractor Tug Co.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Legendary sea explorer Earle calls for respect for underwater life

Marine botanist Sylvia Earle opened her April 30 lecture at the University of Maine with a simple, but stunning fact—the surface of Mars, she said, is better mapped than the floor of the world’s oceans. Earle herself is stunning. She has spent 7,000 hours underwater, has lived under the sea… SEE MORE