First published in 1984, Island Journal, Island Institute’s annual print and digital publication, tells stories of life in Maine’s island and coastal communities, the character and livelihoods of the people who call the state of Maine their home, the history of how we got here, and the interactions between humans and nature.

  • 2024

Way Downeast, These Towns Face Waves of Change

Jonesport-Beals retain old coastal values, while navigating fish farms and climate change
People who live in Jonesport and on Beals Island love to talk about their towns’ histories, not unusual for those residents who can trace their roots to 18th century settlers. They speak about how each town came into its own. Everyone remembers the history-making high school basketball team. And one wall of the Heritage Center in Beals is devoted to “Tall Barney,” a resident believed to have been seven-feet tall when most locals were generally diminutive. But the steady state of affairs that has governed these two remote towns for over a century is in turmoil today.
BY Jacqueline Weaver
  • 2024

Sears Island’s Long Industrial Courtship

At the top of Penobscot Bay, island again figures into energy plans
It’s 3:58 p.m. on Dec. 21, and the sun is about to set over Sears Island, the forested, causeway-connected spot in upper Penobscot Bay where we’ve come to observe the Winter Solstice. It’s cold out there—20-something degrees and windy—and we’re parked with others along the road leading to the island, watching the sun dip over Mack Point to the west. The event we’re here for isn’t really the sunset but something called “Solstice by the Sea,” imagined and engineered by Friends of Sears Island, a conservation-minded group dedicated to protecting Sears Island in its current undeveloped state.
BY David D. Platt
  • 2023

How Far Can a Fish Run?

Sea-run fish and the fight for upstream access
It’s not rocket science. “Take a freshwater fish, put it in salt water, and you’ve killed it. Take a marine fish, put it in fresh water, and you’ve killed it.” So says Justin Stevens, a sea-run fish specialist at Maine Sea Grant while describing the wonder of sea-run—or diadromous—fish. Like most organisms, fish require a strict regulation of salt within the body to function, so if a fish’s habitat is either too salty or not salty enough, it dies. Diadromous fish, however, challenge this conventional wisdom in that they thrive in both salt and fresh water.
BY Jack Sullivan
  • 2023

Fisheries From 1973 to 2023 — How We Got Here

Former Marine Resources commissioner, fisheries editor reflects on changes
I have been looking back at what fishing was like in 1973, the year I founded Commercial Fisheries News. The differences are stunning, even to someone like me who reported on those changes, sold ads for the new gear, was part of creating the new lobster laws in the 1990s, and tried to connect fishermen so that they could contribute to better science and better rules.
BY Robin Alden
  • 2023

What We Saw Touring the Gulf of Maine Shore

Revealing kayak journey along 1,500-mile coast remembered 21 years later
In 2002, Natalie Springuel and Richard MacDonald, among others, embarked on a paddling expedition along the shores of the Gulf of Maine. What they learned reveals how dynamic and threatened is this “semi-enclosed sea.” The Gulf of Maine Expedition was a sea kayaking journey organized to raise awareness and caring about the ecological and cultural legacy of this vast international watershed and to promote low-impact coastal recreational practices, safety, and stewardship principles.
BY Natalie Springuel and Rich MacDonald
  • 2023

The Ebb and Flows of Maine’s Three-Port Strategy

Maine has a long and celebrated history of shipping by sea. It’s ingrained in our history, culture, and economy. Through the centuries, ships have transported granite, lumber, ice, shoes, canned sardines, and numerous other products from Maine to markets in the U.S. and around the globe. They’ve brought cargo to Maine as diverse as coal, cotton for our mills, guano for fertilizer, and even molasses for rum distilleries.
BY Clarke Canfield
  • 2023

The Legacy of Islesboro’s Charles Dana Gibson

Abe Goodale follows in the footsteps of his great-great-grandfather
Around the turn of the 20th century, Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944) was among the most famous illustrators in the world. His idealized modern woman, who came to be called the Gibson girl, brought him tremendous fame and fortune. Off the southern end of Islesboro lies an island, spruce-clad and sprawling—not precisely 700 acres as its name would have you believe, but close enough.
BY Carl Little
  • 2023

Island Enlightenment in a Glass

In which the writer seeks, deceives, and ‘At Last’ enjoys a libation
On a chilly evening last year, Elaine and I were invited next door to the Chambers’ to enjoy their company and that of a dozen or so others of our broadly interesting neighbors and island visitors, all gathered around an outdoor woodfire. After a while our host, David, offered me a martini, a “Killer Botanist Gin Martini,” to be precise.
BY Phil Crossman
  • 2023

Doing Door-to-Door Advocacy for Water

Noela Altvater, 20, helped bring clean water to the Passamaquoddy
Think of how many daily interactions you have with water—morning coffee or tea, washing hands, flushing a toilet, preparing food, watering plants or animals, showering. Now imagine each of those interactions being dangerous and tainted with harmful chemicals and toxins; instead of a simple turn of the tap, each of these interactions requiring bottled water or water sourced from as far as a 30-minute drive away paying 35 cents a gallon.
BY Casey Groening
  • 2023

Island Institute at 40 — Community Authenticity Remains Our Focus

The details have changed, but supporting community is the common thread
You’ve probably heard the term “elevator pitch,” right? It’s mostly used in business circles, capturing the idea that an entrepreneur needs to be able to explain a business concept in a timeframe equal to the average elevator ride. That journey provides the ultimate captive audience, and so a clever pitch in that short time might land an investor. Well, here at Island Institute, we sometimes crave an elevator trip up Burj Khalifa in Dubai, with its 163 floors, to give us time to explain where the organization has been and where it is going.
BY Tom Groening

About Island Journal

Life in Maine’s Island and Coastal Communities

Island Journal was first published in 1984 by Island Institute founder Philip Conkling, a writer, and co-founder Peter Ralston, a photojournalist. An early and key supporter, the late Betsy Wyeth, urged the two to produce a publication that stood out from the field of nonprofit reports and newsletters. More than 40 years later, Island Journal continues to meet that standard, gathering stories, photographs, and art that illuminate the rich culture of life on Maine islands and in its coastal communities.

The annual publication features the stories of those who live and work on the coast and islands, and reflects our history, the lessons learned, and continually looks toward our shared future. Today, many Mainers and Island Institute supporters keep a bookshelf in their home for their Island Journal archives, which collectively, contain the larger story of the beautiful, rugged, independent, and precious way of life in our island and coastal communities.

“It is, at the very least, bad manners to care about any aspect of an island and its phenomena, without caring also about its people—past, present, and future.” – George Putz, editor Island Journal (1984-1991)

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More Stories from Island Institute

Explore our collection of stories, including The Working Waterfront newspaper and Climate of Change film series

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