Working Waterfront

The story of the forgotten sea mink

A group scientists and community members supported by the National Science Foundation are working to understand the role the sea mink played in Maine... SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A card for you

Among our many interesting island traditions is one that’s wonderfully functional. Before one of our favorite institutions, The Paper Store, closed, whenever an islander died, or someone with an island connection—a seasonal resident for example or even the mainland relative of one or the other—a little basket appeared on the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Christmas expectations are child’s play

After three years of missing out on being together for the holidays, I asked our sons and their families if they would like to come home to Islesford for a family celebration. They agreed, as long as they could still be in their own homes for Christmas morning. One family… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The toil and time of breakfast

Somebody recently told me that millennials weren’t eating as much packaged cereal as they used to because pouring milk into it and then cleaning up the bowl afterwards took too much effort. I thought, surely that’s apocryphal. Nope. In 2016, the Washington Post reported that cereal sales were lagging and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Take a break, or it takes you

As I bustled down the school hallway between dropping students off at their elementary classroom and eating a quick lunch before recess duty, something unusual caught my eye. A sea urchin, a resident of the ocean tank outside the kindergarten room, had pinned a piece of rockweed between the aquarium… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Working on the railroad

Back in my weekly newspaper days, I worked with an old-timer who, in those years, was responsible for settling up with the stores that carried our paper. Now that I think about it, he was probably the age I am now, so strike the “old-timer” crack. Bob grew up in… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Education, Native status, domestic violence

High quality education To the editor: I read Kim Hamilton’s “From the Sea Up” column in the October issue, “Rewriting the storyline of island schools” (a great title), with much interest. I wholeheartedly agree with her observation that “Schools play an undeniable role in the ecosystem of a thriving island… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The year of the working waterfront

When Island Institute began publishing this newspaper, The Working Waterfront, 30 years ago, we picked our name with intention. We wanted to cover local, critical, and the sometimes hidden yet prescient stories that spoke to the economy, politics, and culture on Maine’s islands and coasts. No other mental image quite… SEE MORE

Tom Glover’s “Edge of Blue Sea” (2023), oil and acrylic on canvas (27 by 40 inches).

Working Waterfront

Tom Glover’s gear and pier

The paintings on Tom Glover’s website are divided into eight categories. Some are broad, like “Seascapes” and “Abstracts,” others very specific: “Italy” and “Fenway” (he’s a big-time Red Sox fan). And then there is “Docks.” There you’ll find semi-abstract images of wharves bedecked with ropes, lobster traps, buoys—even personal flotation… SEE MORE

Swan's Island summer scene. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

History in the flesh

Reflections is written by Island Institute Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. The steamboat went away during World War II. Randy was five. Now, at 87 years old, he has more… SEE MORE