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.
Please join us to support this important nonprofit journalism.

April 3

Two journalist memoirs get personal

When the reporter is the story
Boat Baby: A Memoir; By Vicky Nguyen (2025, Simon & Schuster) The Uncool: A Memoir; By Cameron Crowe (2026, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster) Sometimes, the best stories journalists tell don’t make it to print or broadcast. Maybe it’s a source’s off-the-record revelation, off-topic confession, or angry outburst. Two journalist memoirs—Boat Baby, by NBC News correspondent Vicky Nugyen, and The…
REVIEW BY TOM GROENING
April 3

The unlikely afterlife of a schooner

Saved by reinvention
As much as we might like to think of ourselves as historically minded, much of our material past survives accidentally. Objects often endure not because generations carefully preserved them, but…
BY KELLY PAGE
Cranberry Report
April 3

Tales from a Town Meeting moderator

Advice for those managing an annual rite of Maine towns
Our annual Town Meeting is March 14 at the Islesford Neighborhood House. I’ve attended more than 40 of these and no two are alike. Some wrap by lunch. Others go…
BY BARBARA FERNALD
April 3

Forever friendships

The decades-long bonds formed by island life
I like to imagine North Haven as a hub at the center of the world. A glowing dot on a map, it sends out pulses of energy, drawing people to…
BY COURTNEY NALIBOFF
Journal of an Island Kitchen
April 3

My best kitchen utensils

A set of tools for home cooks to live by
Periodically, some august publication sets forth a prescription for The Best Kitchen Utensils. Sometimes I even agree with them, though their emphasis is usually on new single gadgets while my…
BY SANDY OLIVER
March 25

Startup wants to help lobstermen raise scallops

Approach will require new state policies
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 income for Maine fishermen. Seascale…
BY PAUL KAROFF
March 25

Boats along Maine’s coast inspired painter Janice Moore

Light, perspective, and scale
One day, painter Janice Moore recalls, she was out driving with her son Joseph Coleman who was scouting locations for his short film Vacationland (2022). Moore relishes these opportunities to…
BY CARL LITTLE
March 25

The continuing search for sturgeon

Giants in our midst
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 rocks like sardines, or the…
BY CATHERINE SCHMITT
March 25

A rich tale of bird migration

Heron and osprey team up in story for young readers
Fly For Your Life: A Hawk and Heron Risk Everything for Each Other By Eugene Pool (Ghost Car Press, 2025) From the windswept shores of Maine to warm skies over…
REVIEW BY KATE HOTCHKISS
March 25

A small-scale farming pioneer reassesses ‘organic’

Eliot Coleman argues the term doesn’t always apply now
The Self-Fed Farm and Garden: A Return to the Roots of the Organic Method By Eliot Coleman (2025, Chelsea Green Publishing) Eliot Coleman may be familiar to you because you’ve…
REVIEW BY TINA COHEN

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

 

SIGN UP FOR OUR
E-WEEKLY

Get the latest articles from the Working Waterfront delivered to your inbox every week.

SIGN UP NOW

THE WORKING WATERFRONT
LATEST ISSUE

A nonprofit publication of the Island Institute which has been published for over 20 years.

LEARN MORE