“This is like the grocery store charging you a fee for tomatoes you grow in your garden. It’s just wrong.”

—Dylan Voorhees

A day-long conference devoted to beaches on the coast of Maine, in July, might seem like, well, a day at the beach. In fact, beaches here are at the center of threats and debates.

It’s about more than Netflix and Amazon Prime. It’s essential to community and economic vitality.

Bureaucrats, academics, and advocates develop talking points, position papers, and policies to address the problems of our coast. Galen Koch has chosen a different approach.

“We should be talking about the horizontal shoreline changes that come from the sea level rise.” —Carol White

Invasive green crabs responsible for decimating Maine's soft-shell clam industry are being investigated for possible culinary purposes. Art conservator Jonathan Taggart, marine biologist Marissa McMahan, and Georgetown lobsterman Chris Jamison traveled to Venice last year to learn the secrets of harvesting green crabs for gourmet dishes.

Not going to college doesn’t mean the recent grad must go to work flipping burgers.

“This is about public health and our economy," said Ivy Frignoca, the Casco Bay baykeeper.

The elements that would fill the magazine he has published for 30 years were all at hand. John Hanson remembers that day in the late 1980s clearly, sailing with artist friends through the Fox Islands Thoroughfare, eating a gourmet lunch, watching dinghy races.