http://www.workingwaterfront.com Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:56:28 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/images/ww_banner_bg.png http://www.workingwaterfront.com http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Where-are-the-herring/14023/ Landings of herring from inshore waters known as Area 1A are dramatically less than in years past, causing scientists, seine fishermen and lobstermen to shake their heads in confusion. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, Fisheries Statistics Division, herring landed from Area 1A comprised just 1,394 metric tons by July 31. Last year at the same time the cumulative landings were 12,270 metric tons. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Melissa Waterman) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Where-are-the-herring/14023/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/online-exclusives/Gubernatorial-candidates-discuss-island-issues/14025/ On Friday, August 13, gubernatorial candidates gathered at the Strand Theatre in Rockland for the first forum since the primaries. Candidates who attended include Senator Elizabeth (Libby) Mitchell (D), Eliot Cutler (I), Shawn Moody (I) and Kevin Scott (I). Mayor Paul LePage (R) was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict. Don Carrigan of WCSH Channel 6 moderated the forum hosted by the Maine Islands Coalition and the Island Institute. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Staff Writer) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/online-exclusives/Gubernatorial-candidates-discuss-island-issues/14025/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Peaks-Island-wind-testing-initiative-moving-forward/14007/ For the past two years, the Peaks Environmental Action Team's (PEAT) wind group has worked toward testing the wind resource on Peaks Island. The group has hosted community meetings and informational talks for island residents. Lead by Sam Saltonstall, this volunteer group spent hours exploring the issue, considering a variety of test options and looking at grant opportunities. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Mary K. Terry) Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Peaks-Island-wind-testing-initiative-moving-forward/14007/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/online-exclusives/From-the-Town-Landing-A-close-call-for-the-Gulf-of-Maine/13936/ Back in 1978, a couple of lawyers in a tiny organization called the Conservation Law Foundation-in common cause with a few courageous New England fishing organizations-swallowed hard and sued the United States government to halt the leasing of offshore oil drilling rights on Georges Bank. They argued that the potential of a small supply of oil from Georges in comparison to its value as a fishing ground posed unacceptable risks. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Anne Hayden and Philip Conkling) Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/online-exclusives/From-the-Town-Landing-A-close-call-for-the-Gulf-of-Maine/13936/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Journal-of-an-Island-Kitchen-The-Vegetable-Deluge/14002/ The Calm Phase The vegetables have me cornered by the middle of August. Several sorts of beans, summer squash, zucchini, and patty pans, pickling and slicing cucumbers, lettuces, spinach, chard, cabbage, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, late peas and early carrots all show up in the kitchen waiting expectantly, or else grow to extraordinary size on their respective vines and stalks. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Sandy Oliver) Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Journal-of-an-Island-Kitchen-The-Vegetable-Deluge/14002/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Swans-Island-explores-wind-feasibility/14004/ A formal study to determine the feasibility of wind power for Swan's Island and Frenchboro is set to begin in mid-September. The Swan's Island Electric Cooperative purchases power from Bangor Hydro and supplies both islands utilizing five undersea cables. The cost to residents, which averages around 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, is nearly three times the price paid on the mainland. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Donna Wiegle) Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Swans-Island-explores-wind-feasibility/14004/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Long-View-The-end-of-the-beginning/13998/ When seemingly unrelated news stories from around the country and the globe about the state of the natural world converge on each other, it is important to sit up and take notice. Island Earth is trying to tell us something. One story is global, one is regional and one is local, but their interconnected meaning is inescapable. Let's begin with the big picture. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Philip Conkling) Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Long-View-The-end-of-the-beginning/13998/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Fathoming-Oil-in-the-Gulf-of-Mexico-Not-as-far-away-as-you-think/13980/ Hundreds of sea turtles, more than sixty porpoises and a sperm whale have been found dead in the Gulf of Mexico region since the BP oil disaster began. As of mid-July, an area of almost 84,000 square miles, over one-third of the Gulf of Mexico, was closed to fishing. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Dr. Heather Deese and Catherine Schmitt) Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Fathoming-Oil-in-the-Gulf-of-Mexico-Not-as-far-away-as-you-think/13980/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Volunteers-students-work-to-restore-an-island-with-a-long-history/13974/ What happened nearly 70 years ago on Little Chebeague Island is hard for us to imagine today: a quiet summer colony on an 86-acre island in Casco Bay that included the site of a summer hotel and farmed fields, suddenly taken over by the federal government for the use of the U.S. Navy. But around that time, in fact, such things happened in many places; in 1943 the United States was in the midst of World War II, and much of its North Atlantic fleet was based in Casco Bay. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by David D. Platt) Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Volunteers-students-work-to-restore-an-island-with-a-long-history/13974/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Maine-to-solicit-bids-for-offshore-energy-development/13970/ In response to recommendations made by the Governor’s Ocean Energy Task Force, Maine’s Public Utilities Commission will release a solicitation by September 1 for an offshore commercial wind farm. In April, the legislature passed a law implementing the recommendations of the task force (public law 2010, chapter 615), which directs the utilities commission to solicit proposals for a power purchase agreement from an offshore energy developer. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Gillian Garratt-Reed ) Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Maine-to-solicit-bids-for-offshore-energy-development/13970/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/St-Croix-Alewife-plan-angers-many/13945/ A proposal released in June to restore alewife habitat slowly in the St. Croix River has drawn criticism from all sides. Under the plan put forth by the St. Croix board of the International Joint Commission, alewife blockades would be removed at two new locations along the river, specifically chosen to avoid impacting West Grand Lake and Spednic Lake, prime fishing ground for smallmouth bass. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Craig Idlebrook) Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/St-Croix-Alewife-plan-angers-many/13945/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Fathoming-One-fish-two-fish-The-virtual-reality-of-counting-lobsters/13930/ In many ways, the ocean is still a mystery. We take things out of it, things like food and fuel, that we call "resources." We almost never directly observe what is going on beneath the surface of 70 percent of the planet, and yet US fishing rules and regulations demand that scientists predict how many fish are in a given sea.So scientists and fishermen and everyone else rely on computer models that mimic what is known about fish. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Dr. Heather Deese and Catherine Schmitt) Wed, 23 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Fathoming-One-fish-two-fish-The-virtual-reality-of-counting-lobsters/13930/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Essay-Summer-of-tears-A-fishermans-reaction-to-the-Gulf-oil-spill/13909/ The boat ride out, from Lafitte, Louisiana on Sunday, May 23 2010 to our fishing grounds was not unlike any other I have taken in my life as a commercial fisherman from this area. I have made the trip thousands of times in my 35-plus years shrimping and crabbing. A warm breeze in my face, it is a typical Louisiana summer day. Three people were with me, my wife Tracy, Ian Wren, and our grandson, Scottie. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Michael Roberts) Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Essay-Summer-of-tears-A-fishermans-reaction-to-the-Gulf-oil-spill/13909/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Kathie-Fiveash-a-guide-to-Isle-au-Hauts-flora-and-fauna/13914/ Kathie Fiveash is so passionate about understanding and teaching others about the natural history of Isle au Haut that last year she became "The Island Naturalist." Fiveash takes groups of up to four people on guided tours of the flora and fauna of the island. I think of nature as the teacher and myself as the guide," says Fiveash, who gave 20 tours in her first summer of business in 2009. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Kate Taylor) Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Kathie-Fiveash-a-guide-to-Isle-au-Hauts-flora-and-fauna/13914/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Opinion-Community-impacts-of-the-Gulf-Coast-BP-oil-spill/13910/ I've just returned from a week long tour of the small towns and fishing communities of the Gulf of Mexico with the Gulf Coast Fund, an organization that has been working since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to support and interconnect the underserved of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas and to encourage community self-sufficiency. During my stay, oil from the BP spill was just beginning to come ashore in Louisiana and Mississippi. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Michael Herz) Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Opinion-Community-impacts-of-the-Gulf-Coast-BP-oil-spill/13910/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Tensions-run-high-over-fate-of-Machias-dike/13919/ Marshfield farmer Chris Sprague is dressed in colonial garb for the Margaretta Days Festival in Machias, an event that commemorates a naval battle that occurred in local waters in 1775. Sprague sits at a picnic table and quietly expounds on the threat of governmental intrusion on personal liberty and property. But Sprague isn't channeling a Revolutionary War character; he's talking about the fate over the bridge known as the dike on Route 1 in Machias. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Craig Idlebrook) Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Tensions-run-high-over-fate-of-Machias-dike/13919/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Returning-alewives-to-North-Haven/13903/ Years ago, when Adam Campbell first moved to North Haven, he heard stories about folks like John Emerson and Foy Brown, who went down to the Damariscotta River to get alewives and brought them back across Penobscot Bay to try to jump-start a population of the anadromous or “sea-run” fish on the island. While those efforts were unsuccessful, Campbell didn’t forget about the alewives. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Catherine Schmitt) Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Returning-alewives-to-North-Haven/13903/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Long-View-Cheap-energy-is-our-birthright/13900/ As the sickening tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico plays out inexorably day after day, shutting down working waterfronts, encircling and choking island communities and poisoning fish, shellfish and wildlife across four states sharing that Gulf; it is worth taking a moment to reflect on what this national disaster means for the Gulf of Maine and the three states-and two Canadian provinces-that share our Gulf. The first lesson is a reflection on a course not taken. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Philip Conkling) Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Long-View-Cheap-energy-is-our-birthright/13900/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/online-exclusives/Drilling-vessel-to-arrive-in-Rockland/13891/ According to a press release by Cianbro, Cianbro crews are preparing for a job that will be visible to thousands of Mainers who look out to sea in the Rockland area. On or about June 17th, the 750-foot drilling vessel Stena Forth will appear on the horizon, approximately a mile and a half off the Rockland breakwater. For about one week, Cianbro team members will be working around the clock to remove and reinstall three of the giant drillship's six propulsion thrusters. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Staff Writer) Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/online-exclusives/Drilling-vessel-to-arrive-in-Rockland/13891/ http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Unregulated-hagfish-industry-creates-conflict-and-opportunity/13890/ Westport Island fisherman Jon Williams dedicates part of each year to go after hagfish, but that doesn't mean he likes it. He finds reasons not to be on his boats when it's time to haul up barrels of the slimy fish.  "I'm glad it's not my regular fishery," Williams said. His crew shares the sentiment. "They'd much prefer to fish crabs...but everyone needs a paycheck. ... info@workingwaterfront.org (by Craig Idlebrook) Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0100 http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Unregulated-hagfish-industry-creates-conflict-and-opportunity/13890/