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Rising Tides - Adapting to Coastal Maine's Future
Rising Tides: Adapting to Coastal Maine’s Future captures the voices of people living and working along Maine’s changing coast. Through long-form conversations with oyster farmers and other aquaculturalists, fishermen, scientists, and community leaders, the series explores how environmental, economic, and cultural forces are reshaping the working waterfront.
Maine’s coast sits on the frontlines of global change. Warming waters, shifting fisheries, new industries, and increasing pressure on access and infrastructure are transforming ways of life that have endured for generations. Rather than focusing on headlines or ideology, Rising Tides listens closely to lived experience – how people are adapting, what is being lost, and what might still be preserved.
These are local stories with global relevance, told thoughtfully and without haste, offering insight into the challenges and possibilities facing coastal communities in Maine and beyond.
Rising Tides - Adapting to Coastal Maine's Future
Rising Tides: Oyster Farming in Lobster Country – with Abby Barrows
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Maine’s working waterfronts are evolving, as aquaculture, climate change, and shifting access reshape how coastal communities make a living. In this episode of Rising Tides, Bill Perna speaks with Abby Barrows about her path from environmental science into oyster farming, and what that shift reveals about the future of Maine’s coast.
Abby reflects on why she chose to buy an oyster farm on Deer Isle, what makes that particular stretch of water unique, and the practical challenges of operating an aquaculture business in a region long dominated by lobstering. Their conversation explores how environmental pressures, infrastructure limitations, and waterfront access influence day-to-day decisions on the water.
Grounded in both scientific research and lived experience, this episode considers how aquaculture, diversification, and community collaboration may shape the next chapter of Maine’s working waterfronts.
Perna Content's Rising Tides explores how coastal Maine is adapting to environmental, economic, and cultural change through long-form conversations with people working on and alongside the water. New episodes are released fortnightly.
The podcast accompanies the book Rising Tides: Adapting to Maine’s Coastal Future, available at www.pernacontent.com/publishing