Working Waterfront

Keep doing art… every one of us

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 Mark Macey Originally, this column was going to be about Dear Elizabeth, a play I directed for Stage East, here… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Our island communities value our seasonal residents, but we worry

By Roger Berle and Donna Wiegle As co-chairs of the Maine Islands Coalition (MIC), we feel the need to collaboratively present our perspective on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting our island communities. And that is this: the pandemic has already landed on our islands, and we now wonder what… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Friendship family on its own for sea-level rise fixes

By Stephanie Bouchard When Tim Flood, 60, was a kid, the sea would find its way inside one of his family’s cottages on Muscongus Bay only once in a while during the winter. But within the last five years, the ocean has been a regular visitor to the two-story building… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Isle au Haut prepares to go solar, with new storage technology

By Stephanie Bouchard Living on an island fosters innovation. For the 50 or so year-round residents of Isle au Haut, innovation can look like using PVC pipe as a curtain rod because there are no real curtain rods at hand, or it can look like the future of the nation’s… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Maine: ‘Birthplace of Social Distancing’?

By Tom Walsh It seems there is no better time to be living in the middle of nowhere. In fact, Maine might consider rethinking its archaic “Vacationland” license plate slogan. Maybe instead, “Birthplace of Social Distancing.” Maine has a population of 1.3 million people scattered over 35,383 square miles, including… SEE MORE

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

Fishermen report changes they’re seeing on the water

We conducted very random interviews with fishermen at the annual Maine Fishermen's Forum in March, asking them what evidence of climate changes they are seeing on the water. PHOTOS BY KELLI PARK Terry Alexander of Cundy’s Harbor fishes for groundfish and squid out of Boston. “Stuff’s shifting, for sure,” he… 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

The joys of a ‘staycation’

By Courtney Naliboff Ah, staycation. That portmanteau word might seem like a consolation prize—a vacation born of a lack of funds or time, but it actually speaks to a period of relaxation and an opportunity to get to know your community as a person of leisure. My family and I… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Town meeting, painting lines, eating doughnuts, and throwing rocks

By Barbara Fernald Activity on the islands, at the end of February and into March, is like a mirror image of the action at the end of August into September. Just as the summer residents of the Cranberry Isles end their vacations right before fall, many year-round residents end their… SEE MORE