To the editor: Dave Barrett’s letter to the editor in the September 2003 issue of The Working Waterfront gives those of us in the land trust community an opportunity to talk about some of the many ways we “contribute to the people who maintain and inhabit this coast,” in Dave’s words, and join in the
The Sanford Casino
The proposal to build a casino-hotel complex in Sanford, an inland community, wouldn’t be of much interest on the coast if it weren’t so large. But at the scale its developers envision, the effects of a casino will inevitably spread far and wide, affecting communities hundreds of miles away. Coastal towns already hard-pressed by rising
Adopt-a-Boat
Through a classroom connection with commercial fishermen set up by the Adopt-a-Boat program, K-12 students across New England have been learning about lobster traps and lobsters, lobster and ground fishing techniques, numerous marine animals, mudflat critters and oxygen levels, ocean temperature fluctuations, the impact of groundfishing rules and regulations and a multitude of other topics
Working Waterfronts
“A private nuisance action may not be maintained against a person engaged in a commercial fishing activity or commercial fishing operation,” states Maine’s 2001 “right to fish” law, “so long as the activity or operation is undertaken in compliance with applicable licensing and permitting requirements …” The fishing industry, it would seem, is protected against
Island Teacher Conference to convene in Belfast
“Connections” is the theme of this year’s Island Teacher Conference, planned for Oct. 2-3 at the University of Maine Hutchinson Center in Belfast. The conference will open at 7:15 p.m. on Oct. 2 with remarks by state Rep. Hannah Pingree (D-North Haven), Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron and John Damien of the Mitchell Institute at
Message in a bottle
It’s not just the title of a rather silly movie filmed largely in Maine and starring Kevin Costner: the message in a bottle is also a time-honored method by which humans attempt to communicate. But with whom? Such a marine missive is often a class project or a lark in which the writer includes an
Looking for larval lobsters
For eight weeks this fall, the research vessel ALICE SIEGMUND of Rockland has been towing a plankton net once a week, searching for fingernail-size larval lobsters. Marine research staff from the Island Institute have been carrying out the fieldwork under the direction of Dr. Lewis Incze of the University of Southern Maine Biosciences Research Institute.
You never know
If there’s one thing for sure in the lobster business, it’s that you never know what’s going to happen next. Every year it’s a different story – no two years are alike. You’d never know it’s the fifth of August, supposedly in the height of lobster season, when there’s hardly a crate line to be
Court upholds ruling against salmon growers
The federal First Circuit Court of Appeals in August upheld a lower court decision ruling that will seriously curtail operations at pens belonging to Stolt Sea Farm and Atlantic Salmon of Maine. The ruling orders the two firms to phase out European hybrid salmon stocks and to “fallow” operations for the next several years. Exactly
At Bigelow Lab, the smallest things are the most important
In his unassuming way, Sandy Sage doesn’t look like the Bigelow Labs boss. But the quiet, friendly manner of this executive scientist mirrors the spirit of this 30-year old research center, where you can wear shorts and flip-flops so long as you rigorously pursue excellence in all things oceanographic. The work includes studies on climate