The Working Waterfront

05/28/2026

It takes about 20 turns, spanning the time from post-winter hard shell season, through the warmer soft shell season, and back to hard shell. Although gear sabotage is a harsh reality of fishing culture, that element was carefully kept out of the game play.

“I had a lot of experience with friends whose parents were lobstering,” Birgfeld said. “It’s a culture within a culture. I was familiar with the weather,

05/24/2026

Jim made his debut on Route 1 in Kittery in 1959, courtesy of the Maine Sardine Council, welcoming visitors “to both sardineland and vacationland." He originally was made of plywood, with the image of an oilskin-clad fisherman painted on both sides.

Big Jim isn’t what he once was. At least for now.

05/01/2026

As important as the Artemis II mission was for space travel, it should also reinvigorate humanity’s efforts to protect our own planet. That’s according to Susie Arnold, Island Institute’s senior ocean scientist. In her new column she argues that honoring our planet and oceans is particularly important now, given the federal government’s deprioritization of science.

Partly, these holidays—on April 22 and June 8, respectively—help us recommit to conserving our planet, a task made even more urgent as the federal government

04/17/2026

From Island Journal: After growing up in Belfast, Gary Lawless has spent his life working to protect some of Maine's most distinctive natural and literary wonders.

While living with Gary Snyder in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the mid-1970s, Gary Lawless remembers the celebrated poet and the people around him becoming excited about the idea of watershed politics and bio regionalism “and trying to figure out how best to live in a place while doing the least ...

04/09/2026

Anyone has spent much time on the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers knows that, while sturgeon may be endangered, they’re still around, stunning anyone lucky enough to see them leaping out of the water. Maine researchers are trying to better understand the recovery of shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon—and how sightings of the ancient fish are helping connect people to their local waterways.

Right now, somewhere between the waterfronts of Bangor and Brewer, hundreds of shortnose sturgeon lie on the bottom of the Penobscot River, settled on the

04/02/2026

Rather than trying to lure a new cadre of scallop farmers, Seascale’s vision is to create a viable complementary source of income for the 5,000 lobstermen who already ply the waters of the Maine coast.

A Midcoast aquaculture startup wants to spawn a new way to cultivate Atlantic sea scallops and, in the process, create a lucrative source of supplemental

03/06/2026

While the boat price and overall value for lobster remained relatively high, buoyed by strong consumer demand, inflation took its toll on the industry.

Maine lobster harvesters landed 78.8 million pounds in 2025 and again topped all other fisheries with an overall landed value of $461.4 million on the

03/05/2026

A debate has flared up in Augusta over just how many fishermen should be allowed to catch menhaden, a prized alternative lobster bait to herring.

Like the schools of menhaden that roil the summer waters off the coast of Maine, a proposed law that would open that lucrative fishery to more participants

02/26/2026

This recent selection of photos from Maine bird guide and writer Bob Duchesne shows off the unique fowl that inhabit Maine’s frigid coastal waters in winter. It’s a wondrous bunch, from the amusingly named bufflehead, to the red-breasted merganser with its black mohawk, to the goldeneye with its—well, you should see it for yourself. See all the photos and read why these birds are drawn to this section of the coast in winter: https://www.islandinstitute.org/working-waterfront/maines-coast-is-a-birders-delight-in-winter/

02/26/2026