Robert F. Bukaty / AP

A barge motors through arctic sea-smoke on its way out of Portland Harbor, where the temperature at sunrise was about minus 5 degrees, Thursday, in Portland, Maine. Arctic air kept a cold blanket of misery over the Northeast Thursday as the region experienced the kind of temperatures that have left the Upper Midwest shivering for days. Continue reading.

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Slideshow: Deep Freeze

John Gress / Reuters

Arctic air has descended over the Northeast as the region experiences the kind of temperatures that have left the Upper Midwest shivering for days.

Launch slideshow

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

Olivia Trankina of Marietta, Ga., and Liz Archibald of Clarks Summit, Penn., leap from the bowsprit of the schooner Mary Day in Bucks Harbor in South Brooksville, Maine.

The 90-foot Mary Day, the first schooner in the Maine windjammer fleet built specifically to accommodate passengers, celebrates its 50th season this year.

Associated Press photographer, Robert F. Bukaty, created these images on Aug. 3, and were made available to NBCNews.com today.

• Tall ship Mary Day celebrates 50th birthday

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

The schooner Mary Day, right, sails in a schooner race with other members of Maine's windjammer fleet off Rockland, Maine.

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

Passenger Paul Ernest of Lynnfield, Mass., left, takes a turn at the helm during a three-day cruise on the schooner Mary Day on Penobscot Bay off Camden, Maine.

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

Captain Barry King, on the guitar, joins passengers Sarah Washburn, playing violin, and her husband, Ryan Jesperson, during a musical evening aboard the Mary Day off Ilseboro, Maine.

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

The schooner Mary Day sits at anchor in the morning fog off South Brooksville, Maine.

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Tony Lacasse / New England Aquarium via AP

This photo provided by the New England Aquarium in Boston shows a rare calico lobster that could be a 1-in-30 million, according to experts. It was caught off Winterport, Maine, and was discovered by Jasper White’s Summer Shack and is being held at the New England Aquarium for the Biomes Marine Biology Center, a science center in Rhode Island.

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Robert F. Bukaty / AP

Bruce Steeves uses a lantern while dip netting fort elvers on a river in southern Maine, March 23, 2012. Elvers are young, translucent eels that are born in the Sargasso Sea and swim to freshwater lakes and ponds where they grow to adults before returning to the sea.

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

A handful of elvers are displayed by a buyer in Portland, Maine, March 23, 2012. The baby eels are shipped to Asia where they will grow to adults. Adult eels are sold for food in Asia.

AP reports:  Tiny translucent elvers - alien-looking baby eels the size of toothpicks, with big black eyes and spines - are mysterious creatures, floating thousands of miles from their birthplace in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean before ending up each spring in Maine's rivers and streams.

But there's no mystery about what's drawing hundreds of fishermen to riverbanks to catch the creatures during the two-month fishing season. The price of the eels has skyrocketed to unparalleled levels, with catches bringing up to $2,000 a pound.

A worldwide shortage of the prized dinner fare, imported in infancy from Maine to Asia to be raised in farm ponds, has buyers paying top dollar for the baby American eels. A pound of eels should be worth around $30,000 on the open market once grown to market size, according to one dealer. Continue reading...

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Reuters: "All the weight is in the claws, it would break your arm," said Elaine Jones, education director for the state's Department of Marine Resources.

Reuters

Maine State Aquarium Manager Aimee Hayden-Roderiques is pictured holding "Rocky", the 27-lb lobster donated by a shrimp dragger to the Aquarium in this handout photo obtained by Reuters February 23, 2012. The lobster, the largest ever recorded caught in Maine, was released into the ocean Thursday.

The 40-inch male crustacean, about the size of a 3-year-old human, was freed in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Read the rest of the story.

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Pat Wellenbach / AP

Airboats seach the Kennebec River in Waterville, Maine, on Jan. 11, 2012, for 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds who was reported missing since December.

AP reports: WATERVILLE, Maine - Divers searched a half-mile stretch of an icy river Wednesday for any sign of a toddler who's been missing for more than three weeks, and authorities said investigators are considering all possibilities related to the girl's disappearance.

The number of tips on the possible whereabouts of 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds has now topped 600, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

"We have ruled out no scenario. We have ruled out no one," McCausland told reporters gathered at a command post alongside the Kennebec River Wednesday. Eighteen divers searched the river while trying to avoid floating chunks of ice.

Pat Wellenbach / AP

A diver maneuvers around sheets of ice as he signals to a Maine Warden while searching the Kennebec River in Waterville, Maine, on Wed., Jan. 11, 2012, for 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds who was reported missing since December.

Related:

Maine toddler reported missing from home

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Robert F. Bukaty / AP

Occupy Maine protesters warm their hands while brewing coffee on a fire pit at their encampment across from the State House in Augusta, Maine, early Friday morning, Oct. 28, 2011. About 30 protesters camped out in near-freezing temperatures as they continue their protest against Wall Street.

As the East Coast prepares for some serious cold weather, bringing up to 12 inches of snow, I wonder how much longer the Occupy Wall Street protests will continue. Will their numbers be affected by the coming cold weather? 

Here are stories about the forecast for snow in the northeast and the protesters facing the cold.

For more images, check out our Occupy Wall Street tag stream.

Bebeto Matthews / AP

Christopher Guerra, from San Franciso, Calif. is wrapped in a blanket to stay warm as he participates in the Occupy Wall Street protest at the Zuccotti Park encampment on Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 in New York. City fire department officials seized at least one generator from the site during an early morning inspection. "They say they were looking for extra gasoline but took the generator," said Guerra, "then they left and came back with cops to search around tents."

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

The tail lights of a car traveling down a road during a spring snowstorm leave a light trail in this 30-second time exposure in Freeport, Maine on Friday, April 1.

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

Motorists make their way north during a spring snowstorm on Interstate 295 in Freeport, Maine on Friday, April 1.

 Photographer Robert Bukaty of the Associated Press tells us how he made the picture (top):

Outside the Frame: 30 seconds in the snow

FREEPORT, Maine — The last time I covered a snowstorm, I made a decent photo of an SUV that was straddling a guard rail after it went off the interstate. I figured I’d probably end up taking pictures of cars off the road again today (which I ultimately did), but I tried to think of something different to shoot to start the day. I started thinking it would be cool to do some time exposures of red tail lights in the blue, pre-dawn darkness, leaving the shutter open for several seconds to capture the moving lights. The trouble is, when it’s snowing this hard, it can be difficult to find a safe place to pull off the road.  So I just walked down my driveway and set my camera on a tripod. After taking a test shot, I decided to go with a 30-second exposure. Then I waited for somebody to drive by — three cars and one plow passed in a half-hour, and I got my shot.  I was out just long enough for me and my camera to get soaking wet.

Click here for the full story on the April Fools spring storm that knocked out power for thousands and gave kids a surprise reprieve from school.

I would definitely have to have a hot cocoa waiting for me after enduring such cold temperatures, but the Snodeo looks like fun to me. Giddyup!

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

Snowmobilers watch fireworks explode over frozen Rangeley Lake during the Snodeo, an annual snowmobiling celebration, Saturday, Jan. 22, in Rangeley, Maine. The temperature was 4 degrees F during the show but is expected to drop to well below zero on Sunday, the final day of the event.

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

Seth Bell, 20, of Waterford, Maine, performs an aerial stunt during the Rave X Outer Limits freestyle tour show at the Rangeley Snodeo, Saturday, Jan. 22, in Rangeley, Maine.

Robert F. Bukaty / AP

A snowmobiler rides a trail into the woods, Saturday, Jan. 22, in Rangeley, Maine.