Two dead sperm whales that appeared on the Maine coast this spring provided opportunities for scientists and students to learn more about them, but they are grim reminders of the threats marine mammals constantly face. The 10-foot pygmy sperm whale that washed ashore on Dyer’s Island, Vinalhaven, had died after ingesting a plastic trash bag.
Downeast volunteers keep jail residents connected
Judy Garvey spends a lot of her free time in jail. Since 2001, the Blue Hill resident has coordinated Volunteers for Hancock Jail Residents (VHJR), a program that offers classes and programs to residents of Ellsworth’s Hancock County Jail. Garvey founded VHJR after watching a family member go through the jail system. Since then, she’s
Listening for Change
I am standing on the shores of Timber Lake, a frigid tarn in Alaska’s Brooks Range. I and my team are camped here for two weeks to record the soundscape of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Two other crews are stationed at sites further north in the Refuge. Our goal is to capture the creature
An island film makes its screen debut in Rockland
“Islander,” a feature film starring Mainer Tom Hildreth and filmed last summer on Vinalhaven, will have its Maine Coast premiere at Rockland’s Strand Theatre July 15. Not surprisingly, the film and Hildreth’s role in it focus strongly on the lobster fishery and the communities that rely on it; Eben, the island fisherman Hildreth portrays, gets
The “Hermit of Manana”
Longtime visitors to Monhegan will remember Ray Phillips, the “Hermit of Manana” who lived on that island in a ramshackle dwelling for many years after leaving New York City in the 1920s. Filmmaker Elisabeth B. Harris combines contemporary footage with vintage still photographs, many from the archives of the Monhegan Museum, to explore why Phillips
“Less is Better” Keep those lawn pesticides out of Maine’s waterways!
The Friends of Casco Bay (FOCB) use the term BayScaping; the Maine Board of Pesticide Control (BPC) coined Yardscaping. Whatever it is called, it is a unified attempt to help Mainers understand that the herbicides, fungicides, pesticides and fertilizers they put on their lawns and in their gardens end up in varying degrees in Maine
What is a watershed?
A watershed is like a large funnel that carries the water that falls on it into a water body like Casco Bay. The water may flow along the surface in streams or rivulets or move underground, percolating through the soil or squeezing between cracks in rocks as groundwater, until it reaches the sea. The Casco
Scraping Paint, Catching Up with Old Friends and Obeying the Law
“When we started dating,” Kim Nicols, the mother of three young children, said, “the boat was part of the package.” She wasn’t speaking of her husband, Dan’s, kayak, but rather Bill Brown’s pinky schooner SUMMERTIME. That a man would feel such a sense of camaraderie to a boat not belonging to him needs some explanation.
DirigoChoice: Despite confusion, health care program works for many
The first two harsh-but-true statistics, compiled by Dirigo Health Reform, jump out as both stark and dismaying: Mainers spend more personal income on health care per person than 45 other states and Maine has some of the highest rates of cancer, heart and lung disease and diabetes. The next statistic is another heartbreaker: 130,000 Maine
Dental Center serves coast’s low-income patients
Not a month goes by that a patient doesn’t bring a flowering plant, doughnuts, or other such present to the staff at the Bucksport Regional Dental Center. It’s just another way of thanking the secretaries at the front desk: Alta Clapper and Lisa Gross, dentist: George Quitmeyer, dental assistant: Judy Davis, and dental hygienists: Beth