Solution Example

Matinicus Volunteer Community Recycling Program

Matinicus Island had a junk car problem as well as a trash problem: old cars were rusting where owners left them in the woods and on the roadsides. Trash washed up on beaches, and the two biggest recent island structure fires were caused by out-of-control trash fires. In 2002, Eva Murray decided Matinicus needed a… Read more » SEE MORE

Community Infrastructure

Actor Martin Clunes of the TV show Doc Martin is flanked by Mikki Ames

Working Waterfront

Meeting Martin on Matinicus

By Shirley Barlow My friend Mikki owns a house on Matinicus Island. She and her late husband, a merchant marine seaman and lobster fisherman, spent most of their lives on the island where they raised their son and daughter. Matinicus is a working island and for years has had the image that lobstermen were akin… Read more » SEE MORE

Bajupa at Journey's End boatyard in Rockland.

Working Waterfront

The story of Bajupa is the story of lobstering and Matinicus

This story first appeared in Landings,the monthly publication of the Maine Lobstermen’s Community Alliance, and appears here with permission. By Melissa Waterman It’s rare to find a boat that nearly every fisherman would term “pretty,” but in the case of Bajupa, that phrase rings true. Built in 1946 by Robert Rich, proprietor of Bass Harbor Boat… Read more » SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Readers respond to Stonington, Matinicus photos

We asked for reader with information about old photographs we published in the May and June issues of The Working Waterfront, and you did not disappoint. First, the Matinicus photo, which depicted a woman playing an accordion-like instrument. Across the sepia-tone image, the date was hand-written. Several readers correctly pointed out that it was the… Read more » SEE MORE

1988 Island Journal – Volume 5

View and Download pdf Table of Contents – 1988 Island Journal – Volume 5 EDITORIALS — page 3 LOG OF THE FISH HAWK – Philip Conkling — page 4 FISHING Down and Dirty: The Intertidal Subculture – Mike Brown — page 7 Shark Alley – Jane Day — page 10 Farming Silver: Salmon Aquaculture – Philip… Read more » SEE MORE

1986 Island Journal – Volume 3

View and Download pdf Table of Contents – 1986 Island Journal – Volume 3 Letters From the Executive Director, Editors, and Art Director — page 3 Resource Management, Education, Projects, Publications, Membership — page 4 Log of the Fish Hawk, Island Institute Field Work — page 6 Seeing Woods for the Trees: Island Forestry –… Read more » SEE MORE

1984 Island Journal – Volume 1

VIEW and DOWNLOAD PDF Table of Contents – 1984 Island Journal – Volume 1 Letter from the Editor i The Mission of the Island Institute ii Membership iii Educational Programs iv The State of the State-Owned Islands v Photovoltaics vi Lunatic Power vii ALONG THE ARCHIPELAGO On the Lamb – Raising Sheep on… Read more » SEE MORE

Luke Maker, 8, of Machiasport runs the family skiff through a cove earlier this summer using an electric outboard purchased through a grant from Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. Luke and is father, Ryan, fish for lobster. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

Lobster season brings sense of normalcy

The 2024 lobster season has brought Maine fishermen something they haven’t experienced in recent years: A sense of normalcy. After several years of volatile price swings for their catches, unpredictable harvests, and increased costs for everything from bait to fuel, this year is shaping up to be unusually ordinary, lobstermen say. With the fall harvest… Read more » SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Unbridged’ Island Reader published

For almost 20 years, The Island Reader has featured the work of residents living on Maine’s unbridged islands. Each edition, published annually by Maine Seacoast Mission, contains a range of stories, prose, art, and photographs from a wide variety of island residents and is also edited by islanders. The recently published Vol. 18 is “the… Read more » SEE MORE

This image shows a dead whale in Vinalhaven’s Carver’s Harbor in 1918. PHOTO: MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

What created Maine’s brief whaling industry

Menhaden, also referred to as pogies or mossbunkers, are currently one of several species of bait fish used in the lobster industry. Historically, these fish were harvested for entirely different purposes: leather production and agriculture. By the mid-19th century, numerous oil processing plants were established in Maine to refine menhaden into fish oil for leather… Read more » SEE MORE