Fish prices in Portland in January 2015.

Working Waterfront

Obama should create marine national monument

By Peter Shelley A diverse group of marine-oriented businesses, hundreds of marine scientists, aquaria, faith-based organizations, conservation organizations and members of the public are calling on the Obama administration to designate the Cashes Ledge Closed Area in the Gulf of Maine and the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts off… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island family is balm for grief

Editor's note: Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. Sidra Nasir works with Chebeague Island's fire and rescue department and with the island council to network island-based non-profits.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Camping as career prep

For nearly 20 years, North Haven Community School's high school students have ventured into the woods for a week each year, usually in the fall. They canoe, hike or occasionally bike, most often breaking and making camp each day in a new spot. The trip, our fall expedition or fall… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The summer we built ‘The Camp’

Editor's note: Phil Crossman's brother, Dick, has written this remembrance from the boys' childhood on Vinalhaven. It was just a camp built by boys, because that is what we were back in 1959—boys in search of adventure where Brandy Brook empties its copper colored water into Carver’s Pond, an estuary… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Phil Crossman’s Vinalhaven Observations is history and opinion

Phil Crossman has a new book out called Observations: A Maine Island, a Century of Newsletters and the Stories Found Between the Lines. His name and writing will be familiar to readers of The Working Waterfront and Island Journal over the years as well as his popular book, Away Happens… SEE MORE

Looking north from the western shore of Islesboro

Working Waterfront

Yes, it is ‘so much work’

"You make your own bread? That's so much work!" "Look at your garden. That takes a lot of work." "Cooking a meal takes a lot of work." And so it goes. As if making an effort was not entirely worthwhile. As if we each were somehow entitled to ease and… SEE MORE

Roger Pielke at a reception at the University of Maine

Working Waterfront

Untangling the collision of science and politics

Roger Pielke had come to Maine to speak at the University of Maine's Mitchell Center for Sustainability, traveling to the state from Colorado, where he is director of the University of Colorado's Center for Science. After speaking, he hoped to head to Bar Harbor to see Acadia National Park and… SEE MORE

An unidentified ship with containers stacked high on deck.

Working Waterfront

Thoughts about ‘those in peril on the sea’

Maine is a state made up of small communities. When my parents chose to move from the big city of Baltimore to the small island town we now live in—Islesford—part of their decision came because of the tightly knit bond within a small community. That bond brings all Mainers together;… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

For lobster, it’s location, location, location

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. This year’s lobster stock assessment confirmed what lobstermen have been seeing out on the water—there are a lot of lobsters in the Gulf of Maine! Yet, while the assessment aligns with the skyrocketing catch, it doesn’t predict the future of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The wonderful warmth of wood

Twenty years ago, late on a Saturday afternoon after I'd spent the day dumping firewood into the basement, you might have heard me proclaim: "Wood heat's great, but man, I don't want to be 50 and still doing all this work." Yeah, you guessed it. I'm 56 and still doing… SEE MORE