Much has been reported over the past couple of months about the dire circumstances surrounding the Maine lobster industry. Boats prices are at record lows, the demand for both live and processed lobster is soft, and expenses relative to the harvesting and transportation of product are up. While the state’s action to acknowledge the current
A superb essay
Eva Murray’s November Working Waterfront essay “Having the right stuff is not enough,” was superb. Everyone would do well to heed her words, whether on the islands or the mainland, in Maine, or anywhere else. I thank her for taking the time to craft the message. Joanne McCartan Brunswick
Thank you for bycatch article
I wanted to write and applaud Working Waterfront for the article done on recent bycatch of haddock by herring midwater trawlers (“Haddock bycatch upsets groundfishermen,” November issue). I can speak for the just about every groundfish fisherman from the entire coast in saying that what those boats are doing is unacceptable and that something must
A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur’s Guide to Oyster Eating in North America
Bloomsbury USA, 2007 Hardcover, 304 pages, $24.95. Art on the half shell MFK Fisher, in her delectable book Consider the Oyster, begins with, “An oyster leads a dreadful but exciting life…” The poor thing beginning as a mere wisp in a vast sea, suffers sexual confusion as it reverts from a he to a she
Opinion
Midway in their yearlong discussion of developing Sears Island, a Joint Use Planning Committee began hearing from the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) about a new federal rule governing wetlands mitigation banking. The mitigation rule (33 CFR Sec. 332) is the mechanism under which MDOT proposes to register all of Maine in a federal Umbrella
The School on Heart’s Content Road
Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 2008 Hardcover, 352 pages, $24 A passionate, but bloated, critique of status quo I had an epiphany while reading The School on Heart’s Content Road, Carolyn Chute’s newest novel, which is set in a hardscrabble part of Maine, the same fictional location in some earlier work (most famously her first
A Face at the Window
Bantam Books, 2009 Hardcover, 320 pages, $22 New mystery is a departure for Graves Sarah Graves’s latest murder mystery, A Face at the Window, is a departure, both in title style and narrative point of view, from first person to third-and it’s far and away her best offering yet. The twelfth in her “Home Repair
Public health beckoned Peter Levandoski to Vinalhaven
It is not uncommon for people who study the “life” sciences to feel the tug between pure research and applications to the community and public health. In his senior year at Davidson College, while logging long hours in the lab as a biology and chemistry major, Peter Levandoski ran across Lobsters Great and Small, Philip
Machiasport students learn GPS, leadership skills through CREST
Student at Fort O’Brien Elementary School in Machiasport are learning what it means to become leaders, both in their school and in their community. In October, the 7 and 8 grade students participated in a geo-treasure hunt, in which the students used GPS (Global Positioning System) units to navigate to a series of specified locations
Fisheries council takes action on groundfish closed areas
The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) took action regarding groundfish closed areas at a November meeting. Under current regulations the National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) can take action if bycatch of groundfish in closed area by midwater trawlers is projected to exceed 1 percent of their catch. The council’s first action instructed NMFS to