In The News

In this weekend’s episode, Dr. Lisa Belisle talks with Jill Hinckley, owner of Hinckley Introductions, and Dr. Robert Snyder, president of the Island Institute.  

As Tollef Olsen throws a white buoy labeled “SEAFARM” into Portland, Maine’s Casco Bay on a cold, clear November day, he reminisces about talking to the Maine Sea Coast Vegetables founder Shep Erhart back in the early 1980s. During this conversation, the two discussed the environmental benefits of farming seaweed.

Scientists, municipal and state officials, consultants and concerned citizens gathered in Portland Tuesday to consider ways to protect against rising sea-levels and intense storms. Sponsored by the Rockland-based Island Institute, the daylong forum highlighted work up and down the coast documenting the dangers sea-level rise and other climate-change-driven events pose for vulnerable ecosystems and infrastructure. The 60-plus attendees discussed strategies and standards that would foster coastal resilience, and how to finance solutions.

The Island Institute will host a special evening conversation on Saturday, Dec. 9, from 5:30-7 p.m., with chef and author Barton Seaver, and Rob Snyder, Ph.D, president of the Island Institute, discussing Barton's new book, American Seafood. The event will take place at the Island Institute, 386 Main Street in Rockland, with a cocktail reception and book signing to follow in Archipelago, the Island Institute's store.

At last week’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Germany, an issue of vital importance to Maine fishermen and shellfish growers took the international spotlight. This issue is the increasing acidity of the sea, which is making it harder for some shellfish to grow their shells. The governors of Washington state and Oregon joined the fisheries minister of Fiji, the meeting’s official host nation, to announce the expansion of a year-old international alliance to combat the problem. It now includes four states, two Canadian provinces and nine national governments.

Gov. Paul LePage was on Capitol Hill on Thursday to testify against a House bill designed to support working waterfronts. HR 1176 is sponsored by Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine’s 1st District, but LePage takes issue with the role the federal government would play. Pingree’s bill, co-sponsored by Republican Rob Wittman of Virginia, offers two basic amendments to the 1972 Coastal Zone Management Act.

A Maine congresswoman is calling on the federal government to establish a grant program to preserve waterfront access for those who make a living on it. U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree testified at a House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans hearing Thursday, 2 November, in support of her bill, dubbed the Keep America’s Waterfronts Working Act. The Democrat said that commercial fishermen and others whose jobs are based on waterfronts are losing access to them because housing and other development opportunities.

The changing seasons bring new artists and a new selection of paintings and local works of art to Archipelago. The Island Institute’s store and gallery will host an opening reception for its fall gallery show Friday, Nov. 3, from 5-8 p.m. The public is invited to stop into the gallery’s 386 Main St. location during Rockland's First Friday Art Walk to enjoy light refreshments, see the new pieces and meet some of the artists. The show, which highlights the work of printmaker Kathleen Buchanan; painters Claudia Diller and Hélène Farrar; and fiber artist Anne Walker, will be on display through the winter.

Contemplating a future as a marine scientist working in the Gulf of Maine, Emma Christman is spending her senior year of high school helping kids at Peaks Island Elementary School grow kelp. Christman is a student at Baxter Academy for Technology and Science in downtown Portland, and is teaching the younger students about aquaculture, marine science, water quality, climate change and more through a special program offered in conjunction with the Island Institute.

Students in Maine who have been learning about marine science will conclude their project by dropping kelp-growing lines in the water at the start of the winter growing season. The Peaks Island Elementary students have been participating in a program called "KELP4KIDS." KELP4KIDS is a 12-week curriculum for second- through fifth-graders at the island school. Kelp is grown as a crop in Maine for use in food and other products.