“Fisheries Management isn’t about managing fish, it’s about managing people,” said William J. Brennan, Ph. D., Maine’s former DMR [Department of Marine Resources] Commissioner. Asked in a 1995 interview if he thought his background in fisheries science and marine biology had adequately prepared him for the job, he remembers replying that he would have been
Selling the Catch, Keeping the Money
n days of dwindling stocks and dwindling access to stocks, fishermen should be thinking of marketing their product directly to consumers to get the greatest value for their catch. A large variety of experts at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum offered a wide range of marketing ideas during a Feb. 28 panel entitled “More Bang for
New Things
The coast of Maine figures prominently in the imaginations of many desk-bound, traffic-trapped city dwellers, which is probably why products from Maine carry such cachet. The appeal of Maine’s food products is obvious: the state’s seafood, blueberries, potatoes and the value-added products made from them taste good. Lobster is a luxury item prized around the
For fishermen, Midcoast Marine is a snug fit
In Waldoboro, Midcoast Marine operates in a former auto parts store near Moody’s Diner, and store manager Jeremy Young knows most customers by name. He jokes with them, allows them buy on credit and sometimes he delivers their purchases if it’s not too far out of his way. “I take stuff up to the house.
New device helps haul moorings
arbormaster Steve Pixley has been hauling mooring chain in Camden harbor for the past seven years, one short section at a time, to see if it needs replacing. There’s got to be a better system, he remembers thinking. “I was tired of hauling chain the old way.” So he invented The Harbor Master Tool, a
The Crown Pilot Cracker Escapade
Keep eating those crackers, folks. Nabisco wishes this product would just go away, and if you like this cracker in your chowder, keep eating them. Teach your young to eat them too. Chief agitator Donna Damon on Chebeague Island, the epicenter of the famous Crown Pilot Escapade, reminded me recently that we islanders took on
“The best defenseman in the entire nation”
Here on the coast of Maine Caitlin Cahow may be relatively unknown, but in the world of women’s ice hockey, the part-time Vinalhaven resident is a virtual superstar. Cahow finished her collegiate career March 20 as a tri-captain for Harvard College when the Crimson lost in the first round of the Frozen Four to reigning
Rising Green
While Hannaford Brothers has been the subject of bad-news stories concerning compromised credit and debit card numbers, the supermarket chain has also been showing up frequently in good-news EPA press releases. Amidst the usual EPA blotter of oil spills and hazardous waste fines, the Massachusetts-based grocery chain quietly has been making headlines for being an
Swan’s Island as in other communities, the definition of “sustainability” is evolving
Katie Chapman, Swan’s Island Alternative Energy Fellow, describes her position as “thrilling all the way around.” Catalyzed by some of the highest electricity prices in the nation and a cost of raw power that has doubled since 1998, Swan’s Island Electric Co-op is measuring the island’s wind resources and using the collected data to begin
The Long View: Cloudy With a Chance of Belief
Maine economists used to say that when Boston caught a cold, Maine got pneumonia to emphasize our dependence on the region’s economy. And economists are still fond of reminding us that what happens on Wall Street is not what happens on Main Street. And since Maine is more Main Street than Wall Street, we should