Island Journal

How Far Can a Fish Run?

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. SEE MORE

Island Journal

What We Saw Touring the Gulf of Maine Shore

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. SEE MORE

Island Journal

The Unique Environment of Island Forests

photos by Jack Sullivan Imagine being at sea for weeks, months, or years, seeing only blue, gray, and the foaming white of cresting waves. Imagine smelling only salt, minerals, fish, and then, one day, catching the faintest scent of something different, like honey mixed with cinnamon and turpentine. On the… SEE MORE

Island Journal

The Misunderstood Shark

“Bastid took m’ hook!” Carts, a wiry guy with a cockeyed green cap and gaps in his smile, looked down at me from his precarious perch on the gunnel of the boat. I was about nine years old, and taken aback by his anger about the hook. We were on… 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

Island Journal

Changing Fisheries on Narragansett Bay

Quahoggers rake in their catch while fishing in Narragansett Bay near Warwick, R.I. Photo: David Wells / Alamy Stock There’s a small-state joke in northern Rhode Island that goes like this: If you’re headed to South County, you better pack a lunch for the road. Of course, South County is… SEE MORE

Island Journal

All eyes on the Chesapeake

The Chesapeake Bay’s past is the stuff of legend: Pocahontas and Capt. John Smith (well, actually John Rolfe), the rockets’ red glare and the anthem it inspired, the Monitor and the Merrimack, oyster pirates and the “Oyster Navy.” The future, though, is shaping up to be the stuff of hard… SEE MORE

Island Journal

The Strange Nature of Horseshoe Crabs

Ages ago in the sea-green clear water of Chandler’s Cove on Chebeague Island, strange dark shapes were scuttling around the bottom. My seven-year-old face peeked out over the edge of the wharf, watching them. I remember my hands gripping the splintery planks. Horseshoe crabs, the big people called them. Gliding… 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

Workshop participants inspect a shell midden in the Damariscotta area

Island Journal

More Than a Pile of Shells

More Than a Pile of Shells A new understanding of Maine’s shell middens BY CATHERINE SCHMITT “These oyster beds were so productive that it gave a supply to all that wished for the period of many times 70 years, so that the shells of this food fish was piled… SEE MORE