Island Journal

Way Downeast, These Towns Face Waves of 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. SEE MORE

Island Journal

Sears Island’s Long Industrial Courtship

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. SEE MORE

Island Journal

Fisheries From 1973 to 2023 — How We Got Here

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. SEE MORE

Island Journal

Fifty Years of Cleaner Water

The site of the Continental Mill in Lewiston on the Androscoggin River as seen from Auburn, the western bank. Textile mills like the ones in Lewiston as well as paper mills upstream contributed significantly to the Androscoggin’s degradation in the 1950s and 60s. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN Fifty years ago, Maine… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Penobscot Bay—Churning Waters, Changing Tide

It’s the largest estuary on Maine’s 3,500-mile-long coast, lying at the mouth of the storied river and watershed that bear its name, which in turn was taken from the native people who even today advocate for its ecological health. More than 400 years ago, Penobscot Bay drew European fishing boats… SEE MORE

boats docked in front of colorful buildings on cloudy day

Island Journal

How Two French Islands Recovered, Post-Cod

I am standing atop Le Belvédère, a commanding scenic viewpoint overlooking the town of Saint-Pierre, the population center of the French territory and archipelago known as Saint-Pierre et Miquelon. Beyond its harbor and breakwaters, over a mere 25 miles of North Atlantic seas, it is not the European foothills I… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Kristan Porter Remains Grounded as Fisheries Shift

Photos by Leslie Bowman Anyone who’s been to any confab in the various Maine fisheries over the past couple of decades will likely recognize Kristan Porter—a steadfast presence and an articulate voice in the thorny world of management and policy. That’s true now more than ever, since he took over… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Whelmed in Key Largo

In the fall of 2017, Hurricane Irma’s surge advanced toward my home in Key Largo, waves curling across the lawns of properties slightly closer to Largo Sound. After the storm passed, the neighborhood was excavated from beneath branches and trees that no longer provided shade, and piles rose in front… SEE MORE

three people shot from behind with shirts that say "I flood and I vote"

Island Journal

Coalition Building at the Water’s Edge

As the Gulf Coast waited for Hurricane Michael to make landfall in the fall of 2018, residents of the Tanyard a low-lying, low-income community in Pensacola, Florida, posted updates on their online neighborhood bulletin board. Gloria Horning, co-president of the Tanyard Association, wrote, “Folks, please check your storm water… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Resilience is the Response to Rising Waters

Resilience is the Response to Rising Waters Maine’s rocky shore protects, but doesn’t prevent sea level rise. BY STEPHANIE BOUCHARD The iconic rocky coast of Maine. It has awed and wooed people for centuries. It has also helped fuel the state’s economy, as those it has beguiled flock here. And,… SEE MORE

Climate Change