Bay Ferries has announced plans to move the Cat high-speed ferry from Bar Harbor to Portland for summer weekends in 2006. The Cat will offer daily ferry service from Portland to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia on the weekends while still maintaining its Bar Harbor-to-Yarmouth weekday schedule. Don Comier, vice president of Cat operations, says Portland offers
High Seas Task Force issues report on world overfishing
The HSTF member nations are Australia, Canada, Chile, Namibia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, as well as directors-general of World Wildlife Fund International, the World Conservation Union and the Earth Institute. It was formed in December 2003 to “develop an action plan to achieve comprehensive solutions to the global IUU fishing problem.” Loyola Hearn,
Journal of and Island Kitchen: Dandelions
When my down-the-road neighbor Lydia Rolerson was a child, there were lots of dandelions on our island, many more than today. Land had been cleared for agriculture, so there were expanses of grass where dandelions could poke their sawtoothed leaves out of the ground as soon as it warmed enough to encourage growth. And when
Mabe’s: Seafood Dreams on the Internet
It’s the sort of place every tourist dreams of: the slightly funky, clean, down home, locally run small seafood restaurant that uses only the freshest, cooked to order Maine seafood, with a few specialties like seafood cakes and homemade biscuits and pies. Mabe’s Seafood Restaurant and Lobster Pound, located about halfway between Freeport and Brunswick
Trapping Cod Technology shows promise, but could run afoul of whale regulations
The cod fishery may be going to pot. But in this case, it’s a good thing: at the March Fishermen’s Forum in Rockport, scientists and gear manufacturers unveiled experimental gear that could improve fishing, reduce bycatch and help conserve regional stocks, including a pot to catch codfish. Michael Pol, a biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries,
Advice to Maine Shrimpers: “Follow the Farmers”
Maine shrimpers were granted a longer fishing season this year than they’ve had in several years, the stocks were plentiful and the shrimp were large and high-quality. A perfect year? Hardly. Markets were small, buyers were few and many fishermen earned as little as 25 cents a pound for their catch, when they could sell it at all. A
Future Fisheries
Two stories this month describe research into new technologies for fishing and aquaculture. Catching cod in traps, as we report in this April web-issue, could be a way to greatly reduce bycatch and mortality in that fishery. Traps have been used for cod for generations in Newfoundland, of course, but this method may have wide
Organic Aquaculture Standards Proposed
The National Organic Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released a report proposing organic standards for aquaculture. Seafood from certified aquaculture enterprises could be sold with the “USDA Organic” label, and products not meeting the national standard would be prohibited from sale with an organic label in the United States. The USDA
Project teaches skills through boatbuilding
The Compass Project, started four years ago by Pat Ryan and John McDonald, is a boatbuilding school for 12- to 14-year-olds in Portland. It serves “at risk” students who attend middle schools in Portland and the neighboring communities. Students attend two-hour classes weekly for 12 weeks, where they build Bevin skiffs, dinghies or small sailboats.
GODSPEED recreated in Rockport
The GODSPEED sailed from England to what became Jamestown, Virginia, nearly four centuries ago. Now a replica of the little two-master has been launched in Rockport, and will make its way south after sea trials. But in 1607 the boatload of would-be settlers had no modern navigation gear and certainly no diesel engines. All of