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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: Turning Waste into Value on the Maine Coast – with Liam Fisher
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Maine's working waterfront generates enormous amounts of waste — fish heads, viscera, eel trim — material that processors pay to get rid of. Liam Fisher thinks that's an opportunity hiding in plain sight.
In this episode of Rising Tides, Bill Perna speaks with Liam about the unlikely path that brought him from mechanical engineering in Worcester to hand-cutting eels on the Maine coast, and how a bucket of smelts from a roommate set him on the road to building Maine's first waste-stream fish sauce.
Trained in the fermentation traditions of fine dining and shaped by years working in aquaculture and seafood processing, Liam has developed a garum — an ancient fermented fish sauce — made entirely from byproducts that would otherwise be discarded. The product launched quietly in July and sold out its first case in a single day. Since launch, the product has found its way into restaurants and retail shops across the Maine coast, with demand already outpacing what he can currently produce.
Their conversation covers the science of fermentation, the economics of waste utilization, and what it takes to turn a passion project into a sustainable business on the Maine coast.
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
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SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01All right. I'm gonna make an introduction to you digitally with Evan as well.
SPEAKER_00Please do. Yeah, I I would love to talk to them. I I anybody who's messing around with green crabs, I'm always interested because they're my type of people. They're looking for something that's a problem and an opportunity.
SPEAKER_01Liam, enjoy the evening and have a great weekend.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely, Bill. You enjoy your weekend too. It's nice talking to you.
SPEAKER_01Likewise. Talk soon.
SPEAKER_00Bye.
SPEAKER_01Bye.
SPEAKER_02If you're enjoying these stories, visit pernacontent.com or Maine Oysterbook.com, where you can pre-order our new book, Rising Tides, Adapting to Coastal Maine's Future. And while you're there, you can grab a copy of Maine Oysters, stories of resilience and innovation as well. You can also find these books on Amazon, if that's easier, or at most of Maine's independent bookstores. Both books are filled with insights from some very smart folks and some beautiful photography of Maine. They make great gifts for people who love things Maine. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time. Oh, and if you've got something that you want to share with our listeners, just drop me a line at pernacontent.com. Thanks again.