From the Sea Up

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 to keep gear functional.

In this episode we’ll meet sea farmers who are tackling the issue of biofouling in unique and practical ways. On Great Cranberry island: an oyster farmer has found a better way for her team to flip oyster cages, a process necessary to stave off biofouling, and she’s even experimenting with introducing some predators onto the farm. And in southern Maine: a company that developed a plastic-free alternative to oyster bags is testing that product as a promising solution to biofouling on scallop lanterns nets. 

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 quality seaweed products, and long-term relationships with wild harvesters.

Together, these stories show how cooperative and employee-owned models can help coastal businesses respond to environmental and economic change — by spreading risk, sharing resources, and building resilience without pushing ecosystems or communities beyond their limits.

Please note: When this interview with Kristin Isfeld was conducted she was still living and working in Maine and part of the Maine Family Sea Farms Cooperative. Though she is no longer oyster farming on Maine’s waterfront, she offers valuable insight into the inner workings of this unique economic model.

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 where and how they market and sell their product.

In 2021, Libby Davis of Portland started Ladyshuckers, a catering and event company that’s helped put Maine oysters on the map and redefined how customers interact with these idiosyncratic bivalves. And, in Belfast, Sadie Samuels shifted her lobstering business to focus on direct marketing her catch - she opened a food truck, then a brick-and-mortar restaurant, and sells right off the boat. By direct marketing products and connecting directly with the public, these industry innovators and others all along the Maine coast have created more resilient business models.

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 Krista are strengthening their livelihood in the working waterfront by diversifying their work, building businesses in both wild harvest and aquaculture fisheries and exploring the potential of new species and seafood products. Through programs like Fishing Plus, Island Institute is supporting new entrepreneurial ventures on the working waterfront.

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 the carbon footprint of the lobster they process, pack, ship, and serve.

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 Aquaculture in Shared Waters program and how it is adapting to offer targeted training to better support women and non-binary folks in aquaculture. 

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 farms.

In this episode, we’re hearing stories about innovation in materials on Maine’s coast. We’ll learn how Deer Isle Oyster Company and Viable Gear are forging ahead with research and development to try to reduce plastic in the ocean. These individuals and businesses demonstrate how much effort goes into innovation, and how even the smallest change can have a huge impact on the sustainability of our fisheries. 

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 - and bringing you stories about the communities and businesses who are boldly pursuing climate solutions to support the future of Maine's marine economy.

This episode looks at how Maine communities and working waterfronts are transitioning away from fossil fuels towards energy solutions that are better for the environment and more cost-effective. From electric boats to solar energy, these transitions will make Maine’s coastal towns and islands more resilient - but access to these kinds of energy solutions is still limited. There are hurdles that the state, utility companies, and individual communities need to overcome - and the problems require flexible, collaborative solutions.