Many a child comes back with arts and crafts from summer camp, but few can say his or her creation provides a link to a community’s history. On August 25, as a group of Cranberry Isles children launched a skiff they had built, they also helped reconnect the community to its boatbuilding legacy. For 10
Sustaining Storytelling
Linguists remind us that storytelling is as old as our ability to produce successive sounds to convey meaning — as if our hominid brains could remember a time when our ancestors first sat around a fire describing how they had gotten that mastodon to run into a cleverly disguised pit just prior to dinner. Actually
New Rules Coming for Upcoming Shrimp Season
After two consecutive years of early closures of the northern shrimp season, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is poised to implement new rules for the upcoming season to stop the overharvest of shrimp in the Gulf of Maine. By November, shrimp fishermen will have some idea of the new rules they may have to
Bait Transport Challenged by Rail Connections
The train doesn’t stop yet at O’Hara’s new fish bait warehouse. Frank O’Hara Sr., patriarch of the Rockland-based O’Hara Corporation, said his company’s expanded lobster bait business is going well, whether it’s two buckets for a fishermen’s pickup truck, or an 1,800-pound tote trucked to a fishermen’s co-op. But he said he is still trying
Migrations
When I look forward to the slowdown after August, I picture feeling peaceful, yet purposeful, during crisp autumn days. There are fewer distractions and more daily chores to help me prioritize the time I need for my own work. If I don’t have to go off the island, I try to manage an uninterrupted block
Energy for ME
Following a recent offshore wind energy seminar hosted by the Island Institute and attended by a motly mix of 40-or-so Midcoast residents from Boothbay to Belfast, one of the participants, a new (year-round) resident to Maine, asked me what in my wildest dreams I might hope for the future of offshore wind in the Gulf
The Art of Fine Lines
For centuries, boats have lured artists to their canvases just as surely as the sea has lured sailors onto boats. A juried exhibit running through Oct. 23 at the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport pays tribute to the relationship between artists and boats and the artistry of boatbuilding. “The Art of the Boat” features more
Waterfront Property Rights Questioned in Coastal Dispute
The Maine Supreme court has upheld a ruling of the lower court granting rights to scuba divers to cross the intertidal zone even if it is privately owned. This decision is being hailed as one more swipe at the Moody Beach case of 1989 that strictly limited the public rights in the intertidal zones as
Islesboro Votes to Tackle Tick Problem
“Once people heard guns, they didn’t hear anything else,” said Laura Houle, chair of the Islesboro Tick-Born Disease Prevention Committee. Concern about a special controlled hunt—with firearms—in a town accustomed to bow-hunting, in order to reduce the deer herd as a disease-prevention method, may have accounted for the solid turnout at special town meeting held
Four-Legged Waterfront Workers
It’s not just the two-legged creatures that work the waterfront and journey across the oceans, as a mini-exhibit at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath attests. “Fur, Feathers, & Hooves,” tells the story of the roles animals have played in the maritime industries. Over the centuries, animals have served as companions and many had real jobs