Coral reefs make up less than 1 percent of the ocean floor, yet they provide shelter for as much as a quarter of sea life. “They’re a huge keystone ecosystem for the ocean,” explains Clair Aldrich, a senior at the University of Maine at Machias. “They’re so important.” So important—especially now that climate change is threatening them—that Aldrich proposed a…

Islanders know first-hand the inherent dangers of living and working around the sea. Many have survived close calls on the water, but have also lost family and friends. So it…

If there were any doubt about the role schools play in island life, they were set to rest by the ceremony marking the reopening of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Elementary…

Every day, seniors call the state’s area agencies on aging in crisis. Some catastrophic situation has happened and they need to move out of their homes immediately. They need a…

For students at Harpswell Coastal Academy, it’s all digital, all the time. From filming interviews with fishermen and their families, to editing and recording soundtracks, students at this public charter…

Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher…

By Heather Deese, Ph. D. This summer I had dozens of conversations about the changing Gulf of Maine and how these changes play out in our local fisheries. Many conversations took…

The Quoddy Tides bills itself as the “Most Easterly Newspaper Published in the United States.” That’s neither an idle boast nor an irrelevant fact. As editor and publisher Edward French…

Much has been written about the way loss resonates in small communities. The way grief echoes in the empty space where a friend once was. How not one person is…

Zone C has shut down its open-entry system into the lobster fishery. The state’s lobster fishery is divided into seven management zones, arrayed in a line along the coast from…