Working Waterfront

Right place, right time—marine patrol officer saves fisherman

Marine Patrol Officer Benjamin Burnes, 23, who graduated from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in May, has already put his training to good use, saving the life of a man whose canoe capsized while fishing recently on the York River. At about 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 16, Burnes and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Kathleen Reardon promoted to lead DMR lobster biologist

Kathleen Reardon, who has coordinated the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ lobster monitoring programs for the past ten years, has been promoted to the position of lead lobster biologist. Reardon succeeds Carl Wilson who previously held the job until he was promoted to director of the DMR science bureau in February.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Can oysters save New York Harbor?

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. New York, New York is a lot of things to a lot of people. But it isn't a great place to harvest oysters. Eat them, yes. Harvest them, no. Turns out this is a recent phenomenon. In the 1890s, New… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A great ocean, considered in great depth

Atlantic — Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories By Simon Winchester New York: HarperCollins, 2010 Hardcover, 495 pages This book came out five years ago and was well received, so why review it now, when parts of it feel a… SEE MORE

Brown's Head Light on Vinalhaven overlooks the Fox Islands Thoroughfare.

Working Waterfront

Vinalhaven transfers lighthouse to foundation

VINALHAVEN — Citing the burden of maintenance costs, the town has decided to transfer its ownership of Browns Head Lighthouse to a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve the historic beacons. An attorney for the island town is in the process of drafting a quit-claim deed through which ownership… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine Sail Freight offers new way to think about trade

What do we who produce food from the land and sea have in common? For one thing, a changing climate. Changes in the weather have big impacts on the businesses and industries that straddle nature and the market. Another challenge is that farmers and fisher people are getting older, and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lobster union approaches three-year anniversary

Formed in the midst of the price crisis during the summer of 2012, the Maine Lobstering Union will mark its third anniversary in September. The prices fishermen get have rebounded, but the union remains strong and growing. The group has over 600 members, and its leaders believe it has become… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Lobster futures uncertain, but efforts underway to boost demand

Bobby Beckman is just 22, but when it comes to the lobster business, he takes the long view. "I figure, lobsters have been here millions of years," he says, foot propped up on the console of his boat in Vinalhaven Harbor. "I think there'll always be lobsters." Some worry about,… SEE MORE

Protestors outside Bangor's federal building.

Working Waterfront

Environment is a wild card for lobster

In June, a battery of highly paid lawyers sat at a table in federal court in Bangor, the company they represent on the hook for dumping mercury in the lower Penobscot River decades earlier. It was easy to imagine them being anxious as they listened to an opposing lawyer explain… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

What you hear about lobsters, and what’s true

There are oft-told stories that long ago lobsters were food fit only for the poor, that the prisoners at the Maine State Penitentiary (and apprentices in Boston) refused to eat them more than twice a week, and that they were so plentiful and poorly regarded that farmers used them for… SEE MORE