Amid rising costs and depleted fish stocks, fishermen are dropping out, quitting their traditional work because it no longer pays to fish. Even as fish stocks begin to recover, independent fishermen are swamped by strict regulations and the high cost of doing business. Glen Libby, president of the Midcoast Fishermen’s Cooperative (MFC) in Port Clyde,
Lobstermen say sinking line “just doesn’t work”
“It’s a very poor plan they’ve come up with here,” said Vinalhaven Co-op manager Carol Hamilton of the new sinking rope for lobstermen. “It’s chafing, they’re parting lines off, losing gear. It’s endless. It’s costing them a lot of money.” Although it’s not a problem to the westward due to gradual depth changes and milder
Eastport City Council president’s letter on LNG safety generates controversy
The Eastport City Council on July 20 authorized Council President Brian Schuth to send a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rescinding a controversial letter that had been sent to FERC on July 6. The July 6 letter dealt with a proposed LNG facility by Downeast LNG in Robbinston and was sent by
Sculptor inspired by islanders and the sea
The rusted prow of the Chebeague stone sloop Alletta L. Hamilton has sailed straight out of the history books and onto the clapboards of the Chebeague Island Historical Society this spring. The sloop cuts through the shimmering waves, burnished reds and blues gleaming from the depths of the stainless steel and has stayed it course
Year-round general store opens on Frenchboro
On an island, a general store is a precious commodity. Beyond a means to stretch out visits to the mainland by providing basic groceries, a store becomes a place to meet and socialize, talk over the events of the day and perhaps get a meal cooked by someone else. This summer, for the first time
Waiting for the Alchemist
Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge (2008) Paperback, 59 pages, $17.95 A map of life Mark Perlberg, a summer poet of Vinalhaven, died last year in June at the age of 79. He left behind a deeply moving self-portrait in the form of a slender collection of his last book of poems-his fourth-titled Waiting for
Seacoast Maine: Photographs by George Tice
Timeless photos “I think all of my books of place,” George Tice tells me, “all have the atmosphere of that place…it’s one thing you can do with photography-capturing the atmosphere.” In this latest of his books about place, from the fogs of Lubec to the lobster boats off Monhegan, from the grain elevators of Portland
Notes on a Lost Flute: A Field Guide to the Wabanaki
Carbon emission cutting made easy
A group of Mount Desert residents are making the world’s leaders look like environmental lightweights. While leaders from the world’s leading industrialized nations are hoping to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, the members of the Mt. Desert group ROOTS plans to achieve the same goal in just five years. Don’t laugh; most
Maine Birding Trail
Bob Duschesne has traipsed into a lot of remote and remarkable areas across our state to assemble an attractive list of some 260 places to watch and hear birds, as well as to enjoy the view. About the only place he writes about that he hasn’t actually been to, he said, is Matinicus, Maine’s outermost