The Working Waterfront

09/17/2025

These men are keeping important local history alive. The real thing lies at the bottom of a cove between Searsport and Stockton Springs.

Wyman remembers the students working at making the sonar able to identify objects to the side rather than just downward. Passing over the location where the fisherman snagged his net, an unusual shape was identified.

09/15/2025

Good news for the seafood economy on the Downeast coast.

In the five years since East Coast Seafood quietly packed up and left town, no seafood has been processed at the plant.

09/11/2025

The Island Institute is hosting an event we hope readers of our newspaper and supporters of our work will consider attending in Belfast on Oct. 30. Colin Woodard, Robin Alden, and that Working Waterfront editor guy, what's his name, will be featured.

About this Event:

09/08/2025

We Mainers seem to be getting sentimental over the sardine, a.k.a. herring. Be sure to check out the Penobscot Marine Museum's "Sardineland" exhibit at its Searsport campus, but if you're way Downeast, you can learn about the fish and the industry it spawned from a primary source on Sunday, Sept. 14 at 3 p.m. when Capt. Bob Peacock speaks at the Eastport Arts Center.

Peacock is the owner of the R.J. Peacock Canning Company in Lubec, founded in 1917. It ceased sardine canning Downeast in 1992 but continued processing salmon in Lubec until 2001, and after that ran salmon-processing businesses internationally for another 12 years.

The sardine industry in Maine was born in Eastport with the Wabanaki people who harvested herring in the waters of Passamaquoddy Bay. Early colonists capitalized on the robust population of the first in the area surrounding Eastport and Julius Wolff built the first cannery in Eastport in 1876. Within a few decades Eastport became known as the world sardine capital.

09/05/2025

Is this island farmer a throw back to the past, or an exemplar for a better future?

"Everyone can get a taste of this farm"

09/03/2025

09/03/2025

09/03/2025

Build, build, build.

As places to live continue to be scarce throughout Maine, towns east of Ellsworth are looking for ways to bring in more affordable housing.

09/03/2025

Following the removal of the Maplewood Poultry grain mill located at the foot of Main Street, the city moved ahead with harbor upgrade plans. One of the projects was the improvements to the boat launch and breakwater. This photo was taken in September 1984.

09/02/2025

Labor relations, 17th-century style.

Toiling in brutal conditions, with their pay withheld for more than a year, six fishermen walked off the job and never came back.

08/28/2025

Philip Conkling remembers David Lunt.

Dean Lunt, David’s youngest son, presided over the solemn event, with spiritual comfort provided by the Maine Seacoast Mission pastor who arrived on the Sunbeam. Following the committal in the small cemetery that the Lunt family had donated to the town, guests boarded a solemn procession of lobste...