Working Waterfront Heritage

The preservation of active maritime-industrial districts, where commercial fishing, boatbuilding, and cargo handling continue alongside their historic fabric rather than being converted wholly to leisure use. The term is used in US coastal policy; Maine enacted a Working Waterfront Covenant program and a 2005 constitutional amendment allowing current-use taxation of working waterfront land to resist conversion. Comparable districts include New Bedford, Massachusetts, the historic whaling port, and Gloucester. The aim is to keep water-dependent trades on the quay.