If you talk to any fisherman in Maine about the impacts of warming waters, you’re guaranteed to hear about biofouling at some point. To put it bluntly, biofouling mucks up gear. Critters and plants like kelp, sponges, mussels, sea squirts, and algae grow thick on lobster traps and oyster cages, making maintaining gear and harvesting catch more challenging. Every inch of gear that is covered by biofouling organisms is an inch of gear that wild harvesters and sea farmers have to routinely clean...

In this episode of From the Sea Up, we explore how adaptation can take shape not just on the water, but in the way businesses are structured. We hear from Kristin Isfeld, an oyster and kelp farmer in Casco Bay who joined the Maine Family Sea Farm Cooperative to share infrastructure, reduce risk, and keep her operation small and flexible. And further up the coast, we meet Seraphina Erhart, the general manager of Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, an employee-owned company built on slow growth, high q...

Climate change makes the future of high-value species uncertain. As the ocean and its systems change and become more unpredictable, so do the species that follow them in order to survive. For fishermen that rely on these species, this shift in patterns make it difficult to earn a living working on the water and preserve Maine’s traditional blue economy. Some fishermen and seafood dealers are exploring ways to adapt to this unpredictable future by not only diversifying what they catch, but whe...

Maine’s lobster industry is changing. You may have heard about lobster populations moving to northern waters or about fishery regulations that make lobstermen question the future of the lobster industry as the cost of doing business in the working waterfront increases. For lobstermen Krista Tripp and Emma Fernald, those uncertainties have led them to diversify the species harvest, grow, and sell, seeking out and growing alternative species like elvers, oysters, and scallops. Emma and Kr...

In the newest episode of Island Institute’s From the Sea Up podcast, we’re exploring where data meets Maine’s marine economy. Learn how two Maine businesses, Marine Solar Technologies and Ocean Data Network, are driving innovation in the blue economy while filling gaps in marine oceanography.

When we talk about “innovation” a lot of times what we’re talking about is how companies increase profit and efficiency, while also improving the environment and sustainability. We’re going to spend this episode focusing on innovations in the supply chain and, specifically, how one Maine company, Luke’s Lobster, worked with Island Institute to assess the carbon footprint of a single lobster - from bait to plate. We’ll hear how Luke’s Lobster is making changes along that supply chain to lower ...

In this episode, we’re focusing on innovation in workforce training and education. The Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership is just one organization in a growing network of programs that support workforce development for Maine's Blue Economy. In this episode, we'll travel to Hurricane Island and learn how the organization serves students, researchers, fishermen, and ocean harvesters. And then we'll hear from Jaclyn Robidoux, at Maine Sea Grant, about the collaborative Aquacultur...

In this episode, we’ll hear from four entrepreneurs, Patrick and Amber of Marin Skincare, and Inga Potter and Krista Rosen of Cold Current Kelp. These business owners are rethinking the uses for two of Maine’s prominent marine species - lobster and kelp - and, in the process, they’re creating markets that go beyond seafood. We’ll learn how they built these businesses from the ground-up and how they are contributing to innovations in Maine’s Blue Economy.

When Abby Barrows and Ben Jackson of Deer Isle Oyster Company bought their oyster farm, they inherited a lot of gear. And all of that gear was made of plastic. For Abby, a marine researcher focused on microplastics in the world’s oceans, this was a big problem. So, Abby and Ben set out to try to change the amount of plastic on their oyster farm. Along with other innovators like Katie Weiler at Viable Gear in Portland, Maine they’re coming up with plastic-free solutions for fisheries and sea f...

Islesford resembles a lot of Maine’s outer islands. It has a population that fluctuates with the seasons, multi-generational year-round families, and a community of artists and fishermen. But when you arrive on this island, you may notice something different about Islesford’s waterfront. The roof of the lobster co-op, a classic wooden structure on a long wharf, is completely covered in solar panels. In this season of Island Institute’s podcast “From the Sea Up,” we’re talking about innovation...