Working Waterfront

LD 1 would help coastal towns prepare

To support this effort and align it with the state’s climate initiatives, Island Institute leveraged the Governor’s Office of Policy, Innovation, and the Future’s Community Resilience Partnership (CRP) opportunity, which provides individualized vulnerability assessments for community projects. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Listening for leadership

I don’t see many leaders. I see individuals running organizations and businesses, chairing committees and boards of directors, but just because they sit in the chair at the head of the table doesn’t make them leaders. Not only do we need leaders, but we need compassionate leaders who can hold… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Hopeful persistence

It is important every now and again for an organization to test its values. The process reinvigorates the idea that how an organization works is as important as what it does. It engages new team members in the fundamentals of the mission. It reminds us that values are more than… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Preserving our island and coastal history

Ideally, you should be able to pick up an Island Journal from 15 years ago and find something interesting to read. Early in my tenure editing the magazine, I leaned too heavily on stories that were newsier, and I heard from some readers that this was not their preference. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Cooke is not minding its Maine pens

Forty-three years ago, anglers from five fish and game clubs in Washington County formed the Downeast Salmon Federation. Today DSF employs 12 staff and conducts a variety of conservation activities to recover all species of sea-run fish in Maine. Over the years, DSF has taken positions on many fisheries, land… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

It’s time for an honest conversation about aquaculture

In the last few years we have watched the promise of an innovative and dynamic seafood industry be picked apart by groups flying a false flag of environmentalism or “fishing heritage.” SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Writing prompts personal revelations

It's impossible to not be moved by someone opening up this way, and the only way it can fail is when it is overwrought, pretentious, or over-written. There are a few pieces that slide into these sins, but the bulk are honest in their aim. SEE MORE

Harvested rockweed at a boat launch in Hancock. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

A life in seaweed, seen from inside

For the past 50 years, I have harvested seaweeds for food, medicine, and fertilizer, working within a five-mile radius of a home cove on Gouldsboro Bay where I keep my four little wooden boats which I built for $1,000 over 40 years ago. There’s no “floating mortgage” in my business.… SEE MORE

Pauline Inman's “Fisherman’s Boots,” 1943, wood engraving, edition eight of 40. COURTESY TIDES INSTITUTE AND MUSEUM OF ART, EASTPORT

Working Waterfront

Pauline Inman engraves Downeast shore

Inman belongs to a diverse and exceptional line of printmakers who have found inspiration in Maine, from Frank Benson, Ernest Haskell, Rockwell Kent, Stow Wengenroth, Carroll Thayer Berry, and Peggy Bacon to Thomas Cornell, Marvin Bileck, Holly Meade, Alison Hildreth, Susan Groce, and Siri Beckman—to name (quite) a few. SEE MORE

A boat arrives at the Monhegan pier. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Building higher on Monhegan

Facing the community now is the decision of how to move forward—forward toward a response to the increasingly powerful winter storms and the growing summer traffic. The main thing I am considering is how the changes will last for generations and affect the function of the island in every season. SEE MORE