Four images by renowned photographer Kosti Ruohomaa, shooting for the Maine Sardine Council. PHOTOS: PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

From weir to can

In 1951, the Maine Sardine Council hired Finnish American Kosti Ruohomaa to document the sardine industry. The Maine Legislature created the council that year to promote high standards for the sardine industry and made it responsible for grading and inspections as well. The sardine industry was complex; one photo could… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

When settling in, home comes in small moments

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. After three days of orientation as a new Island Institute Fellow, I hit the streets—the main street of Blue… SEE MORE

Passengers board a Casco Bay Lines ferry in Portland. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

From here to there: why transportation matters

The people who live on Maine’s 15 unbridged, year-round islands are inspiring and a model of resilience. Despite the many logistical and resource-based challenges they experience from living separated from the mainland, they find solutions through cooperation and pure genius. Perhaps no other topic highlights this better than island transportation.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

When Vinalhaven had (lots of) fish

When the Island Had Fish: The Remarkable Story of a Maine Fishing Community By Janna Malamud Smith (DownEast Books, 2023) I’ve been talking about When the Island Had Fish: The Remarkable Story of a Maine Fishing Community on Vinalhaven with everyone I know. Even at a recent funeral. The story… SEE MORE

A pavilion at one of the parks that is part of Cobscook Shores. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

More land conserved Downeast

Cobscook Shores, a nonprofit organization run by a millionaire philanthropist from New York, has purchased another piece of coastal property in Washington County, the latest in a series of parcels in the area bought by the group over the past eight years. Cobscook Shores purchased the former Leighton farm, consisting… SEE MORE

Caitlin and Ethan Spaulding and their son Forrest pose on the shore of their Islesboro farm. PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Crab to bird—invasive species becomes chicken feed

Two years ago, Ethan Spaulding, 30, his wife Caitlin, 26, and their son Forrest, 6, left the rich soils of Indiana to start a farm on a rocky island off the Maine coast. They knew logic wasn’t on their side, but they believe their God is. “We knew nobody out… SEE MORE

“Island Girl (Sofie Lilian Nathan Dowling),” by Janet Badger; linocut, 2009.

Working Waterfront

A ‘Great’ island portrait project

While artists-in-residence at the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation on Great Cranberry Island in 2009, photojournalist Rebecca Buyers and artist Janet Best Badger teamed up to chronicle the lives and visages of a group of islanders. While Badger drew their portraits, Buyers interviewed them. Their project gained attention and admirers through exhibitions at… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Creativity thrives in salty, island environments

The sun is sinking and fills the kitchen with an orange glow, signaling the end of a long week. Lobster traps hauled and stacked, gear shifted from one spot in the ocean to another. Lunches made in the dark and fishing boots brought in to dry. Nights of nodding off… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Saco Bay conference addressed timely concerns

More than 100 people attended the second annual SOS Saco Bay Coastal Conference on Sept. 27. The full day conference featured classroom sessions, a trade show, and outdoor field stations on the beach. Save Our Shores Saco Bay, a non-profit advocacy group committed to the restoration and preservation of its… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Port Clyde’s loss is seared in pain

We can watch live satellite images of a typhoon on the other side of the planet. We can record thousands of photographs in a device not much bigger than a deck of playing cards. We can inject a genetic replica of a virus to boost immunity. But something as elemental… SEE MORE