In The News

The nonprofit Island Institute is teaming up with the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs to launch the "Fishing Plus Accelerator." "The Fishing Plus program is really about helping fishing families explore new business opportunities to diversify their income," Jeff Frank, a senior community development officer with the Island Institute, said.

Maine lawmakers Angus King and Chellie Pingree are among those introducing legislation to offer a disaster mitigation tax credit to working waterfronts located on the coasts and on navigable waterways. Island Institute’s president, Kim Hamilton, spoke to the importance of the tax credit for Maine’s working waterfront communities.

Island Institute is proud to be part of the team that launched Heron—Maine’s first fully electric commercial aquaculture workboat of its size. Years in the making, this project showcases what’s possible when partners come together to deliver climate-friendly, innovative solutions for Maine’s working waterfronts.

Islands with year-round residents need emergency responders, gas station attendants, postal workers, store clerks and teachers. When there's nowhere for vital workers to live, they turn elsewhere. It's eroding a storied way of life.

Shellfish farming is a small but fast-growing segment of Maine’s seafood sector. Now these enterprises — and more broadly the aquaculture industry — are emerging as first movers in the quest to electrify Maine’s working waterfront.

When a US firm saw the seaweed was making their shellfish the ‘biggest and best’ scientists realised they’d hit upon a natural way to combat ocean acidification.

Maine groups toured a Kittery-based aquaculture business to explore the potential of Maine kelp crops. Island Institute hosted local and state leadership, students, and aquaculture farmers on a tour of Cold Current Kelp.

Reduced federal funding and staffing could hinder the Maine Climate Council's ability to prepare for and track climate change, as well as the state's ability to meet greenhouse gas reduction goals.

As conversations about the future of Maine State Ferry Service are progressing, Island Institute’s Nick Battista emphasized that the Ferry Service is a vital component of civic infrastructure that connects island communities to essential services and opportunities.

Good seasons and bad. The ups and downs of government regulations. The growing threat of warming seas. But this year, the state’s thousands of lobstermen, and the thousands more whose livelihoods depend on the industry, are staring down a storm the likes they’ve never seen before. As President Trump wages an unprecedented protectionist campaign to impose or tease steep tariffs on nearly every trading partner, an industry that thrives on the free flow of global trade — and disposable cash in Americans’ wallets — could suffer disproportionately.