Articles
Ship Strikes, Plastic Bags and Education
Two dead sperm whales that appeared on the Maine coast this spring provided opportunities for scientists and students to learn more about them, but they are grim reminders of the threats marine mammals constantly face. The 10-foot pygmy sperm whale that washed ashore on Dyer’s Island, Vinalhaven, had died after ingesting a plastic trash bag.
The “Hermit of Manana”
Longtime visitors to Monhegan will remember Ray Phillips, the “Hermit of Manana” who lived on that island in a ramshackle dwelling for many years after leaving New York City in the 1920s. Filmmaker Elisabeth B. Harris combines contemporary footage with vintage still photographs, many from the archives of the Monhegan Museum, to explore why Phillips
Fuel and Ferries
The folks who operate Casco Bay Lines and the various state ferries must be relieved that mobs haven’t taken to the barricades over the prospect of a ticket price increase to pay growing fuel bills. Given the near-doubling of the price of diesel fuel, the state’s planned 10 percent ticket price increase is modest. Plans
“The future is yours if you get out there.”
We’re only halfway through it, but 2006 is beginning to feel like The Year Everything Changed. The price of energy is sky-high and showing no signs of returning to the levels we all planned on a few years ago; the pace of sprawl seems to be accelerating, even if some towns have thwarted Wal-Mart for
LNG
Word that the Canadian government is concerned about the passage of LNG tankers through Canadian waters on the way to Eastport or Passamaquoddy Bay shouldn’t be particularly surprising: Canada said the same things 20 years ago when the project being proposed was an oil refinery at Shackford Head near Eastport. What’s always changing as the
Chebeague Goes It Alone
Once again, a little Maine island community has shown its stuff to the world, convincing the Maine Legislature to allow it to secede from a mainland town. Chebeague accomplished its secession from Cumberland through careful planning, sober rhetoric and lots of hard work. History may have been on the island’s side — the character of
Ships, Old and New
Over the past two months Working Waterfront has reported on the launchings of two replica ships, DISCOVERY in Boothbay and GODSPEED in Rockport. Both reflect a growing and commendable willingness to invest in “living” history; both were built in Maine yards because that’s where the skills are. Meanwhile, Portland is about to welcome The Cat
Hard Work
It has been only a year since the directors of School Administrative District 51 proposed that fourth and fifth graders be removed from Chebeague’s school and sent to the mainland. Their obvious tone-deafness to island concerns produced results, and fast: within weeks, Chebeague’s secession movement organized itself and went to work. That the movement is
Future Fisheries
Two stories this month describe research into new technologies for fishing and aquaculture. Catching cod in traps, as we report in this April web-issue, could be a way to greatly reduce bycatch and mortality in that fishery. Traps have been used for cod for generations in Newfoundland, of course, but this method may have wide
Listening to an Island
Live oaks, Spanish moss, palmettos, armadillos, wild horses and feral pigs, grand ruins: Cumberland Island off the southern coast of Georgia has all of these things in abundance, as if to remind the visitor how different it is from the mainland or even other islands. It’s a mind-opening sort of place, a destination that seems