Workshop participants inspect a shell midden in the Damariscotta area

Island Journal

More Than a Pile of Shells

Up a tidal river, around a blue-green bend where the banks begin to steepen, the wooded shoreline is interrupted by a tall white cliff. Weathered bits of shell and dust tumble down the exposed face, revealing layer upon layer of oyster shells. Pockets of charcoal and fire-cracked rock are signs of human activity from millennia ago, when ancestors of the Wabanaki people came together to harvest oysters from the warm, brackish river in what is now known as Damariscotta and Newcastle. On both banks, they deposited the shells, one at a time, basketful by basketful, season after season. Eventually, the piles grew into small mountains some 30 feet tall. Around 2,000 years ago, the local people stopped adding to the piles. Soil and trees grew over the tops, but the middens were massive and the river kept the edges washed clean, and they continued to attract attention after Europeans came on the scene. SEE MORE

Island Journal

Arctic Observations

Last summer, photographer and Island Institute co-founder Peter Ralston boarded a friend's yacht just above the Arctic Circle on the west coast of Greenland to explore that area, as well as the heart of the high Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It was the trip of a lifetime among some of the world's most remote islands, offering a front-row seat in the planet's most dramatic theater of rapid climate change... After our first stop in Greenland at Qassiarsuk, where the temperature on July 25 was a near-record 72˚F, SY Rosehearty visited a couple of Greenland’s smaller ports before dropping the hook off Ilulissat, home of the northern hemisphere’s fastest moving glacier, the Jakobshavn. Our proximity to Big Ice here set the stage for our upcoming month of constant exposure to unexpected indicators of climate change. SEE MORE

man pushing luggage through ankle-deep water

Island Journal

Along the American Archipelago, Signs Are Everywhere

When Maine islanders meet islanders from other American coastlines, you might notice a bit of deference in the air. Maine’s 15 year-round island communities have standing around the country, in part for having persevered while so many others have gone extinct elsewhere. To add to Maine’s island luster, our island… SEE MORE

Island Journal

Aquaculture’s Next Wave

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 and seaweed farming. “It’s a really interesting area for aquaculture in the state,” said Sarah… SEE MORE

windmills in the distance behind a body of water

Island Journal

Song of the Samsingers

Landing on Samsø Island, part of Denmark, we were greeted by a kind of rock star. “Hello! My name is Søren,” exclaimed the man. “I am the lead singer of the Samsingers,” he smiled, echoing a local pun (the residents of the island are known as “Samsingers”). Søren Hermansen was… 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

Island Journal

A Secret Threat

At this very moment, every pool of water on the planet—from the Pacific Ocean to the puddle in your driveway—is undergoing an invisible, inexorable change: It is becoming more acidic. Every day, human beings pump 21 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere from the burning of… SEE MORE

An artist's rendering of the three proposed wind turbines off Block Island

Island Journal

The Cable Is the Key

Block Island, 13 miles south of the Rhode Island coast, is a postcard of beaches, quaint shops, and wild conservation land. With a year-round population of 1,000 residents and a summer population that can reach 10,000, it follows the seasonal ebb and flow of many New England islands. The place… SEE MORE