Christine Soto founded the start-up Monoclonals Inc. to develop novel antibodies for certain strains of bacteria and virus.

Working Waterfront

Innovation incubator heats up in Ellsworth

By Laurie Schreiber At any given moment, inventive entrepreneurs are busy working on an astonishing array of start-up activities at the Union River Center for Innovation in Ellsworth. In a small laboratory, Monoclonals Inc. founder Christine Soto is developing novel antibodies for certain strains of bacteria and viruses. In a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The embrace of island life is like no other

Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. By Stevie Kowalczyk Sometimes I hate living on Swan’s Island. Really hate it. The island can be nosey. Everyone knows everything… SEE MORE

One-room school teachers who participate in the Teaching and Learning Collaborative: from left

Working Waterfront

One- and two-room schools celebrate ten years of collaboration

By Yvonne Thomas What has allowed the Outer Islands Teaching and Learning Collaborative, or TLC, to survive and thrive? For 10 years, the one- and two-room schools on Cliff Island, the Cranberry Isles, Frenchboro, Isle au Haut, Matinicus, and Monhegan have banded together through this network, creating, according to its… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Swan’s Island institutions find mutual support

Story by Jennifer Helman//Photos by Dale Joyce A landmark building from the 1890s and a historical society in need of a new home found each other on Swan’s Island. The Swan’s Island Historical Society, established in 1972 as part of the Swan’s Island Educational Society, has had its ups and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Women on the working waterfront, and on our pages

By Tom Groening If newspaper readers could be proverbial flies on the wall during meetings at which editors plan news coverage, most conspiracy theories about bias and political agendas would fade away. I’m reminded (yet again) of a Jerry Seinfeld comedy bit, in which he notes, “It's amazing that the… SEE MORE

Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative’s new executive director

Working Waterfront

Podcasts and webinars—lobster marketing goes 21st century

By Laurie Schreiber The new executive director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative aims to increase product value and tackle messaging around issues that affect the lobster industry. In April, the collaborative’s board of directors appointed Marianne LaCroix as executive director. She had been serving as interim chief since Matt Jacobson, who… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Merritt Carey fights for a waterfront way of life

By Tom Groening She’s sailed around the world with an all-female crew and competed in the America’s Cup with the first all-female team. She earned a law degree, worked for a Canadian seaweed processing firm, and lived for a time in New Zealand. But for Merritt Carey, the small coastal… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Remembering the sedition trial of Scott Nearing

By Jacqueline Weaver Scott Nearing may be best known in coastal Maine as an inspiration in the back to the land movement. He and his wife Helen and their book Living the Good Life are cited by hundreds—if not thousands—who came to Maine in the early 1970s, seeking a more simple, rural… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

An eye that sees an island sharply, wryly

As the Crow Flies By Phil Crossman Review by Tina Cohen A new collection of essays by Vinalhaven’s Phil Crossman features on its cover a bird’s eye view of the island’s Carver’s Harbor, with a bird whose eye is appropriately airborne. That bird is a crow, and not incidentally, the nickname… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Puffin population strong, but now threatened by climate change

By Nancy Griffin It took years of painstaking effort to restore seagoing puffins to a Maine island where they had historically nested but had long ago disappeared, victims of human hunting for their meat and feathers. Now, the results of those years of effort that began in 1973 have reached… SEE MORE