You’d think with a last name of Roberts that Robert would be a poor choice for a first. And you’d think too that Robert Roberts might have chosen a name other than Really for his own boy. But that was it, the boy’s name was Really Roberts. The story that went around most of course
Technical problems thwart Dimilin/lobster studies
A collaborative effort between fishermen and scientists to obtain conclusive data about the effect spraying for Brown Tail Moths has on Maine’s lobster population was thwarted this winter due to equipment failure at the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) in Boothbay. The problem occurred when a filter system broke down in tanks holding 100 lobsters
John Wulp
John Wulp: A man of many resurrections Introduction by John Guare New Canaan, CT: CommonPlace Publishing, 2003 “Looking back now, I often feel that instead of living my life, I survived it.” So writes North Haven islander John Wulp in the autobiographical essay that is the central text of this handsome monograph devoted to his
The Long View Cold weather warmth
The true hospitality of island life opens itself up to visitors in winter, since islanders are generally happy to see strangers once the frenzy of the summer is a distant and painless memory. And who in Maine doesn’t love to share with a hapless visitor the communal experience of northern New England privation? Last month
Safety Forum shifts to Maine Port Authority
On March 1, the United States Coast Guard formally becomes part of the Department of Homeland Security. Maine’s waterfront interests will be watching carefully as the agency balances its traditional marine safety and fisheries enforcement duties with the added responsibilities of countering terrorist threats in domestic waters. While the Coast Guard officially intends to maintain
Institute seeks herring spawning information
The Island Institute in Rockland is beginning a project to document inshore historic herring spawning sites. Any fisherman with recollections of herring spawning sites within about five miles of shore is encouraged to call Benjamin Neal, Marine Programs Officer, at 594-9209 ext. 102. The herring resource has seen a significant increase offshore, but in the
Journal of an Island Kitchen A Warm Relationship
Last summer food writer Molly O’Neill had a piece in the New Yorker magazine about Viking ranges – those big, honking multi-burnered, chrome and burnished steel, all-gas-and-gorgeousness kitchen stoves that wealthy and sophisticated people (or the wannabes) purchase and install in their homes. Trophy stoves, she called them, next to which these same folks eat
P.E.I., Magdalen Islands fishermen meet over disputed fishery
A boundary dispute between Prince Edward Island fishermen and fishermen from the Magdalen Islands of Quebec remains unresolved. The dispute is over a lobster fishery. The two sides met for the first time in mid-February. Hosted by the Magdalen group, the meeting did produce agreement on at least one point: that both groups of fishermen
Dragon Cement expansion could affect Rockland, Wiscasset
The news in early February that Dragon Cement has revived negotiations to purchase the Mason Station in Wiscasset for distribution of its product created a flurry of phone calls among lobstermen along the Sheepscot River. Dragon, New England’s only cement plant, has just begun a $50 million, 18-month modernization of its Thomaston facility that will
Southern New England lobsters in decline
Lobstermen and regulators are equally concerned about a continuing decline in lobster harvests in southern New England, but harvesters say they shouldn’t bear the brunt of blame for the sharp drop in stocks. The decline has been steady for the last three years for which final landings figures are available – 1999 through 2001 –