“We spent the first three years of boat ownership in the tropics in bikinis and sunscreen. A Maine winter is a whole new ball of wax,” said Leah Kruger.

“I just want to take some of the stress out of living on an island,” says Kevin Wentworth.

Maine’s 3,500-mile coastline is being buffeted by higher seas, bigger tidal surges and storms, all the result of climate change.

Preparing for these impacts was the theme of a conference co-hosted by the pro-planning group GrowSmart Maine and the Island Institute

Daniel Vogel of Piseco, N.Y., is the newest member of the Maine Marine Patrol. He will be serving in the Stonington area.

The sea urchin harvest season began Oct. 1 and continues through March 3.

The shift to seaweed along the bottom of the Gulf of Maine is good for both lobster and crabs.

“The merchant marines is more about asking than telling,” says Capt. Mike Flanagan.

Ship calls to Portland’s International Marine Terminal have steadily increased, more and more Maine officials, economic developers and business people have made the trek to Reykjavik to meet the neighbors, and more Maine goods are outbound along Eimskip’s “Green Line” route to Europe.

In the Arctic, islanders are being forced to abandon the land where they’ve lived for generations, because eroding coastlines and rising sea levels have made their homes uninhabitable. As permafrost melts and the ice retreats, they are losing the fishing and hunting on which their livelihood depends.