Working Waterfront

Estuary Beat: Casco Bay and oil, hydro-acoustic in PenBay

Casco Bay prepares for oil spill potential Millions of barrels of oil flow through the pipeline that runs from South Portland to refineries in Montreal. While this is less oil than in the past (because of the supply coming from the Alberta tar sands), it is still enough to pose… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Into The Lantern’ illuminates lighthouse story

Inhaling the salty smell of the sea, feeling the wind blow across your skin, hearing the calls of seabirds and crashing surf—there is nothing like standing on the catwalk outside a lighthouse’s lantern room. Before this summer, you had to actually climb the tower stairs of a bona fide lighthouse… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Could green crabs become a Maine delicacy?

Invasive green crabs responsible for decimating Maine's soft-shell clam industry are being investigated for possible culinary purposes. Art conservator Jonathan Taggart, marine biologist Marissa McMahan, and Georgetown lobsterman Chris Jamison traveled to Venice last year to learn the secrets of harvesting green crabs for gourmet dishes. Young, soft-shelled green crabs are harvested… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Searsport’s Penobscot Marine Museum chronicles ‘evolving fisheries’

One of the more telling components of the Penobscot Marine Museum’s summer exhibit is a collection of headlines from the fisheries trade magazine, National Fisherman, pasted to a wall above a timeline that begins in 1954 and ends in 2014. Visitors reading the headlines will come away with at least… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Trump EPA cuts would have Maine fisheries navigating ‘blind’

Science and research are being targeted for deep cuts in the Trump administration’s proposed budget, and if those cuts are made, Maine’s fisheries will be navigating blind into an uncertain future. That was the message from a panel that gathered on Thursday, June 29 at the University of Southern Maine… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Magazine celebrates the best of coastal Maine

The elements that would fill the magazine he has published for 30 years were all at hand. John Hanson remembers that day in the late 1980s clearly, sailing with artist friends through the Fox Islands Thoroughfare, eating a gourmet lunch, watching dinghy races. “This is what I want to write… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Are the mussels really gone? Depends on where you look

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. There has been a lot of curiosity about the reported decline of blue mussels along Maine’s coast. Over the last year, we have visited 32 coastal towns and islands, from Portsmouth to Eastport, sharing our Climate of Change documentary film… SEE MORE

The upper tidal reaches of the Medomak River have been cleaned.

Working Waterfront

Estuary Beat: Cleaning the Medomak, a beach conference, and fish passage in the Bagaduce

Beaches Conference to address access, erosion The 2017 Beaches Conference takes place July 14 at Wells High School. In addition to a new location, the biennial event has expanded to include coastal New Hampshire. The program for the day is packed full of presentations, workshops, field trips, demonstrations, and exhibits,… SEE MORE

Swan's Island students on the deck of the State of Maine with their boat

Working Waterfront

Swan’s Island students drift from Maine to Europe

The advantages of attending a small, island school are many. But often, educators must work to combat the insularity and isolation of those schools. For the Swan’s Island School, a ticket off the island to the larger world came through Educational Passages, a long-established program that helps students learn about… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Harpswell facility critical to saving seal pups, other marine mammals

Ever since she was a young girl, Lynda Doughty has wanted to work with stranded marine mammals. Today, Doughty is executive director of Marine Mammals of Maine, a federally authorized marine mammal response organization that responds when seals, dolphins, porpoises, and whales are stranded or injured on the coast from Rockland south to… SEE MORE