Last week thousands of Maine lobstermen kept their boats securely tied to their moorings and didn’t go fishing for a week, hoping to reduce the glut of lobsters in the market that has led to prices as low as anyone can remember for the past 30 years. The great wonder of Maine lobster fishing is
The Great Silent Lobster Tie Up
This morning on Vinalhaven was eerily silent as the sky lightened in the east. No gulls keened, no ravens croaked and no muffled diesels thrummed on their way out of Carver’s Harbor. On the way to the morning ferry, little knots of lobstermen stood on the post office steps, in front of the Odd Fellows
EPA Tells State to Open St. Croix to Alewives
In a July letter to Maine Attorney General William Schneider, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned that the state’s efforts to block alewife access to the St. Croix River violate the Clean Water Act. The letter states that blocking the fish at dams on the St. Croix constitutes an unauthorized change to the
Great Cranberry Island Ultra Marathon to Host 2013 Nationals
Road Runners Club of America has selected the Great Cranberry Island 50K Ultra Marathon to host the RRCA’s 2013 National Ultra Championship, an event that could draw elite ultra marathon runners from around the world. Great Cranberry Island is also the venue for this year’s RRCA Eastern Region U.S. Ultra Championship. An ultra marathon is
Lobstermen Stop Fishing Due to Low Prices
Lobstermen along much of the coast have voluntarily stopped hauling in an effort to offset a glut of lobsters in the market. A combination of an unusually early season and large catches of shedders before peak demand has driven prices down to their lowest levels in decades. On Tuesday, July 10, fishing stoppages were either
Three Islands Enter Lobster License Program
Two years ago the state Legislature passed a law allowing a limited entry program for lobster licenses to be established on year-round Maine islands. LD1231: An Act To Protect the Long-term Viability of Island Lobster Fishing Communities, introduced by North Haven Rep. Hannah Pingree, arose in response to concerns among islanders that the ever-lengthening waiting
Smoked Alewives
Sky Graham is busy splitting alewives as fast as their headless bodies are handed to her. She has been cutting fish for years: “I learned it from my grandfather,” she explains. Graham and the rest of her eighth-grade class are smoking alewives in order to raise money for their graduation trip to Boston and, at
Island Independence Day
The naturalist and occasional amateur weatherman hunched over the animated radar display on the Weather Underground website the morning of the fourth to determine what kind of day he could expect on this rock in the ocean on which he stood. He had only to look toward the gathering gloom on the western horizon to
Classic and Modern Marine Tales
This is Harry Gratwick’s fourth book on Maine topics, and like its predecessors, it is well illustrated and a good read. It is not exhaustive in its coverage—no one book could be—but it provides representative glimpses of coastal life, past and present. Divided into four parts, the first is devoted to skippers: the Lane family
Army Corps Assessment
A proposed liquid propane gas (LPG) terminal at Mack Point in Searsport would only add six to eight new ships to a Penobscot Bay shipping lane that already can see more than 175 large commercial vessels pass through annually, according to a recently released U.S. Army Corps of Engineers environmental assessment of the project that