If it wasn’t for “Old Ducka” the clambake would have disappeared, never to be seen again. It was too much, having to deal with wind and rain and knocks on the fish house door. We were either going to get a reasonable facsimile of a restaurant, with a roof, or forget the whole idea. So
Great Waters: An Atlantic Passage
In this book, Deborah Cramer sought to take the view we are all familiar with, that of our own bay or cove stretching out horizontally to a not-too-distant horizon, and to expand our viewpoints both higher and deeper enough to carry that view out across and down into the whole Atlantic. This ocean, with the
All at Sea: “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose”
It was the spring of 1936, if you can imagine such an ancient date, when we received our inheritance from Grandmother Lizzie Winslow, late of Congress Street in Belfast: five shares of AT&T, market value five bucks per share, annual dividend $1.25. This bonanza allowed a college sophomore (who knew everything, and in Mark Twain’s
Canned, A History of the Sardine Industry, Part I
This comprehensive history of sardine packing plants along the Maine and Fundy coasts is the second effort of New Brunswick author John Gillman. His first book, Masts and Masters, a Brief History of SardineCarriers and Boatmen, dealt with the vessels that carried the herring to the plants, and with this book about the plants themselves
Salmon aquaculture: savior or sinner? | Fish and feedlots | Waterfront access
For ten years between the mid 1980s and the mid 1990s, the emergence of salmon aquaculture in Maine was hailed by many sate leaders as a clean new industry. The industry would, the conventional wisdom was, finally turn the economic tide in towns with long histories of entrenched unemployment in Washington and Hancock County. Because
Sea of Heartbreak
The full title of this book is Sea of Heartbreak: An Extra-ordinary Account of a Newfoundland Fishing Voyage This grim account of a 1998 turbot (halibut) gillnet fishing trip in northern Canadian waters is a condemnation of the “shocking systematic waste, destruction, and undeniable cruelty” associated with this industry. The author is not of the
Fishermen’s waterfront access continues to shrink
Maine’s commercial fishermen know first hand that their access to the ocean shrinks yearly as demand for residential shorefront property skyrockets. They’ll have a chance to talk about these issues at this year’s Fishermen’s Forum in Rockport. A new study on the loss of shorefront access and remedies will be the subject of at a
“Spokesfish” retires: In Ken Coons’ view, fishing and hockey aren’t that far apart
An era ended in the history of New England fisheries with the recent retirement of Kenelm Coons, the longtime executive director of the New England Fisheries Development Association, and the closing of the organization’s doors. Coons was the first and only executive director of NEFDA, the organization that worked for more than 20 years on
Property donated for Islesboro’s proposed Community Center
The recent donation of a barn and 13-acre parcel of land — contingent upon community support — has brought a proposed new community recreational facility for Islesboro much closer to reality. For more than two years, Islesboro’s Community Center Committee has been investigating the feasibility of — and gathering support for — a centrally-located facility
Study tracks lobsters’ travels, estimates adundance
The first season of a two-year lobster research project co-sponsored by Sea Grant and Island Institute was completed last fall. The aim of the study is to improve trap-based methods of quantifying lobster, by employing newly developed mark-recapture methods. Estimates of abundance by these new methods are to be ground-truthed against diver-based counts. The research