Category: Business

woman standing on a dock during winter

Island Journal

Making It Here: The Island Lobster Marketer

Making It Here: The Island Lobster Marketer Vinalhaven’s Emily Lane works the phone to build demand for Maine’s signature seafood. By TOM GROENING Photos by WILLIAM TREVASKIS Without the work that connects lobster with customers around the country and world, Maine’s iconic seafood would be a local, seasonal snack. And… SEE MORE
old man looking directly at camera sitting in dimly lit room

Island Journal

Making It Here: The Island Hotelier

Making It Here: The Island Hotelier Phil Crossman’s Tidewater Motel represents the important tourism sector. By PHIL CROSSMAN Photos by WILLIAM TREVASKIS One day this past summer one of my guests, visiting with his wife and enjoying a waterfront berth here at the Tidewater Motel on Vinalhaven, answered my customary… SEE MORE
woman in artist studio

Island Journal

Making It Here: The Island Artist

Making It Here: The Island Artist Islesford potter Kaitlyn Duggan embraces both business and creativity. By TINA COHEN Kaitlyn Duggan sees her life on Little Cranberry Island, also known as Islesford, as a seamless proposition. In exchange for the challenges of living and running a business on an island, she… SEE MORE
lobsterboats at the end of a dock

Island Journal

Making It Here: The Island Retailer

Making It Here: The Island Retailer Swan’s Island store owners reach beyond shelves to make profit. STORY AND PHOTOS By Laurie Schreiber On a late autumn, hard-charging Thursday, Brian Krafjack starts the morning on the computer, spreadsheets open for inventory and bookkeeping, social media posts about freight arrivals and specials… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Aquaculture’s Next Wave

Aquaculture’s Next Wave Mussels, oysters, and kelp emerging along Maine’s southern coast. By Nancy Griffin Casco Bay, dotted with hundreds of islands and stretching over 25 miles from Cape Elizabeth to Cape Small, is seeing an upswing in what could prove to be a new economic engine for the area—shellfish… SEE MORE
man with fuel tanks

Island Journal

Cornering the Island Fuel Market

Cornering the Island Fuel Market Pete Pellerin took on fuel delivery for Casco Bay islands, and consumers won. By Jennifer Van Allen Photos by Gabe Souza When Pete Pellerin moved to Chebeague Island in 2009, he expected some basic necessities to cost more. But he wasn’t prepared for the expense… SEE MORE
man working on building bottom of wooden boat

Island Journal

The Highliner’s Choice

The Highliner’s Choice Peter Kass boats are the Rolls-Royces of the lobster fleet. By Laurie Schreiber Photos by Michael O’Neil For a fisherman—on the water daily, subject to the vagaries of weather—a boat is the thin membrane between life and death. Aesthetics in a fishing boat aren’t the most important… SEE MORE
oysters on a bed of ice with a menu board in background

Island Journal

An Oyster Story

An Oyster Story The source of that slurpy, salty goodness is the ‘taste of place’ BY CATHERINE SCHMITT At three in the afternoon on a Friday in January, all the seats are full at Eventide Oyster Company in Portland. Outside, the temperatures are plummeting, but inside the sun shines through… SEE MORE
The seafood producers plant in Sitka.

Island Journal

Alaska’s Silvery Gold Rush

Alaska’s Silvery Gold Rush   Every ounce is valuable. So valuable, in fact, that those difficult first cuts, if done poorly, will leave dollars on the floor. It’s mostly a mechanized process, but the head and tail are removed with a handheld knife. Then the fish’s glistening body is placed… SEE MORE
June Hopkins of North Haven

Island Journal

A North Haven Gift—June Hopkins

  A North Haven Gift—June Hopkins   The sign on the front of the 19th-century frame building is very much like the woman who has run the business inside for the last 60 years. gift shop, it reads. No more, no less. June Hopkins, who turned 90 on November 2,… SEE MORE