“He’s like the typical old-fashioned banker: he’s willing to do business on a handshake,” said Michael Pugliese of David Eldridge, who, at only 39, is vice-president of commercial lending at Machias Savings Bank. Pugliese, a fish market owner from Stonington, Connecticut, who met Eldridge when he financed a lobster pound in Steuben, Maine, said he
SBA Loans Available
“The U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is a little-known federal agency, the nation’s bank for business and homeowner disaster,” said SBA District Director Mary McAleney. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), she explained, is the national agency for roads, bridges, and temporary shelter. “It does the early mop-up of disasters and stabilizes communities,” she
A scientist disputes conventional wisdom about mercury in seafood
News reports and government warnings about eating seafood that contains high levels of mercury have frightened many consumers into avoiding certain fish species altogether and prompted some consumer advocates to warn against eating any seafood, What’s more, fishermen and seafood processors go nuts every time they hear another expert warn people away from seafood, because
Needed: Shore Base for Island Access
Merchant’s Landing at Spruce Head is for sale, and a woman who has used it for years to reach her island home is hoping there is some way to save the place so that fishermen and others have access to the sea. The 2.5-acre property, including a house and deep-water dock, is listed at $1.4
Political correctness moves into Maine’s seafood restaurants
Ethical and practical concerns have altered the way Maine’s most prominent chefs choose to serve seafood. Only fish that can reproduce at the rate that they’re being caught make it onto their gourmet menus. At the height of this summer’s tourist season, chic restaurants are preparing politically correct seafood, educating as well as feeding some
Canada cuts herring quota, province divides agency
The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans cut this season’s spring herring quota for the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence almost in half — from approximately 9,000 tons in 2006 to 5,000 tons in 2007. What made the announcement more newsworthy than it might have been, however, was the fact that the DFO move was
Fish to FilletMike Coffill has cut fish for over half his life, but he struggles as his industry turns its back on quality and craft
Water drips from the shallow, stainless steel tank that stands at waist level on one side of the processing room. Three hundred pounds of haddock are stacked haphazardly in the icy water. Their eyes, grey and clouded, stare at the white concrete walls and their frozen mouths hang open. Mike Coffill stands above them, sharpening
The “Codfather”A Martha’s Vineyard fisherman works to restore a “foundational fish”
Once, as they were in so many places, the codfish that formed the economic basis for the early colonies were plentiful all around Martha’s Vineyard. “The migrating cod would come between the Vineyard and Nantucket, all the way to Buzzards Bay,” said Tom Osmers of West Tisbury, a lifelong resident of the Vineyard and a
Maine’s Casco Bay Islands: A Guide
Photography by Nance Trueworthy An Insightful Tour of the “Calendar Islands” David Tyler begins this new book by saying; “Growing up often means losing reverence for the places and people that were special during childhood, but that has not happened to me with Casco Bay. My knowledge of the bay moved beyond a place of
Basin Preserve protects habitat and public access
Bob Cummings, one of the founders of Phippsburg’s Land Trust, observes that Phippsburg recently acquired a status that is rare, possibly unique among Maine’s coastal towns. It can now boast of having 27 percent of the town’s property in protected status: about 900 acres at Popham Beach State Park, 300 to 400 acres owned by