Working Waterfront

Thinking conservatively about kitchen energy

It boils down to this: whose energy are you going to use, your own or the energy you buy from the power or gas company? A few weeks ago, we had a half-day conference on Islesboro devoted to energy issues—how to conserve it, how to find alternative sources. While I… SEE MORE

Oyster restoration on Mobile Bay in Alabama.

Working Waterfront

Restoring wild oyster beds, one acre at a time

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. New York City has its Billion Oyster Project, and now New Hampshire's Great Bay has its own 25-acre project, with help from fishermen in Phippsburg. Like many estuaries along the U.S. Atlantic coast, Great Bay was once a maze of… SEE MORE

Students disembark from the ferry on Islesboro.

Working Waterfront

Wishing for life-changing memories for our youth

A good friend recently introduced me to the work of writer Annie Dillard. She is now an even better friend. In one of Dillard’s short stories, she writes some of the most beautiful reflections on memory I’ve encountered. One passage in particular stuck with me. Writing as a woman in… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Nantucket as symbol of undesirable island fate

By Tom Groening A year ago, my wife and I returned to Nantucket to celebrate our 35th anniversary. It was our first time back since I began working at the Island Institute, and so it was with different eyes that I took in the beauty, the history, the wealth, and… SEE MORE

Rockweed landed at a boat yard in Hancock.

Working Waterfront

Compromise possible in rockweed harvesting lawsuit

By Merritt Carey, Sean Mahoney, Tim Glidden, and Shep Erhart Lawsuits have a tendency to box parties in; they don’t allow for the nuances, complexities, and compromises that make up the realities of life, particularly life on Maine’s working waterfront. A lawsuit filed by three landowners in Washington County in… SEE MORE

Students are recognized at an Eastern Maine Skippers program event in Ellsworth.

Working Waterfront

Education out of the classroom, onto the water

We Americans are generous about offering our children educational opportunity. In some European countries, high school graduates are “sorted” toward different post-graduate options based on test results. Those options dictate very different fates, which seems cruel, especially if one’s child is a late bloomer or has suffered through some trauma… SEE MORE

The 2017-2018 Island Fellow class; Ken Gross is at far left.

Working Waterfront

How to see Millinocket as an island

Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. Millinocket is not an island. Henry David Thoreau, who visited here three times in the 1840s and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A good read about the early years on Vinalhaven

Ken Reiss’ new book, From The Beginning: Vinalhaven from 1760 to 1850, has given me a clearer sense of where I came from and, more importantly, how and why my ancestors chose this remote island to make a new life for themselves, why they stayed, how they survived, and why… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Facebook feedback: What our readers say about Maine and hurricanes

Maine may be relatively safe from hurricanes, but warming waters could change that status. We certainly are not immune from sea level rise. So, what should Maine's response be? We asked those who follow The Working Waterfront on our Facebook page to weigh-in: Should the state implement a comprehensive approach?… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

In praise of pollock

Recently, I learned that pollock is underappreciated in Maine, and probably elsewhere, too. Poor old pollock; that has been its life story. The main problem with pollock is and has been that it is not cod, haddock, or salmon, and it’s a tad gray or blueish, and not pure white.… SEE MORE