Tourists who plunk down around $35 to ride a boat for hours offshore on a whale watching tour expect to see some action. This summer’s tour operators promise not to disappoint – visitors are guaranteed sight of at least one whale bubble feeding, breeching (jumping out of the water), flipper slapping or just blowing air.
The Long View: University of Turmoil
Scoresby Sound, Greenland – We are at anchor in a deep little bowl near a passing flotilla of icebergs in Scoresby Sound, East Greenland. The expedition vessel, TURMOIL, is on her sixth voyage into Arctic and sub-Arctic waters since being launched in 1996 by its owner, Island Institute member Gary Comer of Somes Sound, Mount
Another Bad Idea
What’s remarkable about the federal government’s continual rumbling about making the Post Office “run like a business” is that this ridiculous idea lives on and on. The postal system was set up in the days of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin not to make money, but to bind the country together. It’s part of a
Lobster Shell Disease stretches DMR’s resources
Lobster shell disease “is a naturally occurring phenomenon,” says Terry Stockwell, liaison between lobster fishermen and the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR). It’s been found over the years in traps and lobster tidal pounds from New Jersey to Nova Scotia. The problem, though, is that in the past three years, the incidence of shell-diseased
Whose waterfront? Gouldsboro struggles with public access
Some Gouldsboro Point residents, tired of being subjected to various annoyances caused by out-of-town mussel draggers, submitted a petition to the Gouldsboro selectmen on July 3, demanding the non-resident fishermen “be told to cease and desist of all commercial fishing and leave the landing, the moorings and the bay to the residence [sic] of Gouldsboro
A pianist for all people
For the past four summers, Richard “Dick” Hankinson’s artistry at the piano has delighted the congregation at Popham Chapel 10:30 a.m. Sunday services. A few hum along as he performs preludes and postludes by composers like Chopin, Liszt and Rubenstein. Hankinson and his wife moved to Maine in 1985, after visiting with Phippsburg resident Ruth
Can’t buy a ticket to ride – just yet
Passenger trains from Rockland to Bath and beyond are unlikely to start rolling any time soon, a state official confirmed. Tracy Perez, policy specialist with the Maine Department of Transportation, said it could be a year or two before you can board a mid-coastal train. And it could be 2007 before passenger rail connects with
“The hour of the fisherman, the hour of the crow”
It’s no secret that retail lobster prices have been on the high side this season. But anyone unhappy about the increases should, perhaps, visit the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath where the L.L. Bean lobstering building is located. The visitor should then find his or her way to a corner of the upper floor where
Midcoast group proposes a community marine resource center
Three long-time supporters of Maine fishermen and Maine fish pitched their plans for a community marine resource center in Stonington at a gathering in North Haven. It was the first of several such meetings in fishing communities from Penobscot Bay to Blue Hill Bay and into the eastern Gulf of Maine. Robin Alden, Ted Ames
Journal of an Island Kitchen: A Moveable Party
A Moveable Party A neighbor just turned 60. At 8:00 on the morning of her birthday, her friends, all women of a certain age, clad in their p.j.s and bathrobes, drove down her driveway with their car horns blasting, to wish her a happy day. Car trunks were opened and out came four tables, tablecloths,