The Working Waterfront newspaper reports on the people and forces that shape Maine’s coastal and island communities. As publisher, Island Institute’s premise is that the cultural, environmental, and community assets here are rare and valuable, and are worth fighting for.
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January 30

The final years before an island got its bridge

Car ferries linked Sedgwick and Deer Isle
Sargentville’s wharf was bustling on a summer day around 1934 when Evie Kimball (Barbour) made a series of photographs using her 5-by-7-inch view camera. She had repeatedly photographed the area over several decades, always hunting for new “views” for her real-photo postcards. Of the hundreds of postcards she made around the Blue Hill peninsula between 1907 and 1940, the moment…
BY KEVIN JOHNSON
Journal of an Island Kitchen
January 30

All that is old is new again

Grandma’s kitchen is making a comeback
Writing for the New York Times, Kim Severson annually digs deeply into food trend predictions and comes up with what we ought to expect to see in the coming year.…
BY SANDY OLIVER
Cranberry Report
January 30

My space to be creative

Contemplating art studio inspires memories, projects
I look around as I sit at a freshly decluttered desk in my studio to write for the first time in 2026. This 8-foot by 10-foot room has been the…
BY BARBARA FERNALD
SaltWater Cure
January 30

Winter is time for ‘vertical swimming’

Island ski exploration provides sublime joy
My love of swimming is well documented. But while I don't turn my nose up at a cold dip, the salty miles I log in the Millstream and Pulpit Harbor…
BY COURTNEY NALIBOFF
January 30

Meaningful change in small town Maine

A promising young author concludes her trilogy
In a Distant Valley By Shannon Bowring (2025, Europa) Author Shannon Bowring describes her fictitious town of Dalton as in “the county”—a reference to Maine’s northernmost Aroostook County. With its…
January 30

Franklin Burroughs reflects

Essay collection highlights profound connections to nature
The View from Here: Reflections on the Deep North, the Wild East By Franklin Burroughs (Down East Books) In his 50-plus years in Maine, the South Carolina-born writer Franklin Burroughs…
REVIEW BY CARL LITTLE
January 30

Following the stars

A deep look at a wholly unique form of navigation
The Last Navigator: A Young Man, An Ancient Mariner, The Secrets of the Sea By Steve Thomas (Revised Edition, The Abbeville Press, 2023) I’ve never met Steve Thomas, but we’ve…
REVIEW BY DAVID PLATT
January 22

Port of Portland welcomes new harbormaster and vessel

In with the new at Maine’s busiest and most diverse port
Maine’s busiest and most diverse port has a new harbormaster as well as a new, 25-foot vessel for his office to use. Paul Plummer started as the Port of Portland’s…
BY CLARKE CANFIELD
Fathoming
January 22

Shrimp fishery moratorium continues

Federal cuts make collaborative research more important
It's hard to manage a fishery with little data. It's hard to collect data with few people. I attended the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission shrimp fishery meeting in Portland…
BY SUSIE ARNOLD
January 22

A half-century of fishing news comes to an end

Newspaper convened fishermen, scientists, officials
A longer version of this piece appeared in the last issue of Commercial Fisheries News, which ceased publication at the end of 2025. Commercial Fisheries News, the Northeast’s commercial fishing…
BY ROBIN ALDEN

Island Postcards

EPISODE 10: Keep the Light Shining

Two ambitious young women swam around the entire Island of Isle au Haut during the summer of 2019 to raise money for crucial renovations to the lighthouse.

WATCH ALL ISLAND POSTCARDS

 

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