Going Home to Maine

— -- Here was my assignment: Go to Maine and see what the people who make their living farming the sea think about all this talk of off-shore drilling.

The issue is a particularly intriguing one in a state where so many people are struggling under the staggering increase in fuel costs and where people will be particularly hard hit this winter by the surging price of home heating oil.

Does the possibility of oil beneath that great Gulf of Maine cause the locals to chant "drill, baby, and drill?" I headed north to find out.

It was a treat this week to go home to Maine. The fact that I have now lived outside of the state longer than I ever lived in it makes little difference: Maine was home and always will be.