Working Waterfront

COA grad leads expedition to find Amelia Earhart

By Laurie Schreiber Ocean explorer Allison Fundis has seen many amazing things on her journeys to the depths of the sea. Thousands of octopuses brooding along the warm-water vents of submarine volcanic systems. Rare Deepstaria jellyfish billowing like translucent ghosts, and weird gulper eels with mouths larger than their bodies.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Telling Vinalhaven student stories a worthy exercise

By Nancy Lloyd The joy of teaching lies in seeing the whole class come alive, with everyone on target and enjoying the work. Working with the Telling Room process makes that happen more often than not. The Telling Room is a Portland-based educational nonprofit that works with students from 6-17… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Focus and action during the pandemic

My recent conversations with local leaders reinforce the urgency with which I believe towns must act to secure the health, economic viability, and social fabric of their communities. One of the highest priorities is to ensure that children’s needs are met. In addition, there is a range of scenarios that… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Which is more accurate—a mirror or a painting?

By Meghan Grabill When I moved here over a year ago, people asked me what connection I had to Maine. What brought me here? My response: I had visited once as a teenager on a family trip and when a job opportunity presented itself on the coast of Maine I… SEE MORE

Arrowsic's Sukey Heard greets the Island Institute's Nick Battista at the Jan. 30 event.

Working Waterfront

Four coastal communities land federal broadband funding

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $9.87 million investment in four infrastructure projects that will create or improve rural e-connectivity for 4,527 households and 215 businesses in rural Maine, part of the first round of USDA’s Reconnect Pilot Program. The announcement was made at the Arrowsic fire station on… SEE MORE

A view of the shore near Schoodic Point.

Working Waterfront

Schoodic Institute names new president

Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park has announced the appointment of Dr. Nicholas Fisichelli as president and CEO. Fisichelli had been serving as interim president and CEO since August. “We are absolutely delighted that Nick has agreed to lead Schoodic Institute,” said David Ellwood, Schoodic’s board chairman. “The board has been… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

With endowment, Haystack looks toward the future

By Laurie Schreiber One of the most defining characteristics of the legendary Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, an international craft school in Deer Isle, is the campus itself, designed by American architect Edward Larrabee Barnes and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. When the campus opened in 1961, 11 years after the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island life teaches me the ‘focal’ way of understanding

Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. By Caroline Carrigan Swan’s Island is a place of true simplicity. There are just three to five main roads, depending on… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Bar Harbor man is helping an anxious world

By Jacqueline Weaver Between out of control bushfires in Australia and rising sea levels isolating neighborhoods in Key Largo, Florida, it’s difficult not to be preoccupied by changes in climate around the world. Concern, though, can become obsessive and almost debilitating, which is an issue Dennis Kiley is addressing in… SEE MORE

The Island Institute's press conference on the Cranberry Isles getting a USDA grant.

Working Waterfront

Rural communities continue to find paths to broadband

By Tom Groening Public spending to bring high-speed internet—also known as broadband—to rural Maine is not on the horizon. Not yet, anyway. Broadband proponents argue that bringing this infrastructure to remote corners of the state is comparable to how electricity was brought to pockets of the country in the 1930s.… SEE MORE