On the right, the recently repaired bulkhead connects a shared boatyard in Yarmouth to the Cousins River. Sea Meadow Marine Foundation won a federal grant to stabilize the bulkhead, part of the infrastructure that allows harvesters and researchers access to the water. Nick Ressel / For The Forecaster

In the face of a rapidly changing climate, working waterfronts are shrinking – threatening coastal environments and livelihoods. On the edge of the Cousins River, slightly tucked inland from Casco Bay, Sea Meadow Marine Foundation envisions a different future for the Maine working waterfront. In their shared, working boatyard, the nonprofit offers a space where harvesters, educators and marine-based businesses can both make a living and collaborate on regenerative strategies to address emerging coastal challenges.

At the core of Sea Meadow’s waterfront lies its bulkhead, a seawall that acts as the critical gateway for harvesters and boaters to gain consistent access to the water. This past summer, the organization hired contractors to restore the majority of the bulkhead, increasing the structure’s durability against stronger storm and water pressure.

“What we are trying to accomplish is creating better access for people to use the waterfront,” said Chad Strater, president of Sea Meadow’s board.

Without a stable bulkhead, that access disappears – halting aquaculture production and ongoing marine research projects. To finance the restoration, Sea Meadow worked with Maine congressional offices and were awarded $790,000 in Community Project Funding, according to details in a press release from Rep. Chellie Pingree’s office. Along with completing the bulkhead restoration, the organization plans to install water and sewer lines that will grant a full range of utility services for the tenants working out of the boatyard.

In addition to supporting aquaculture production, Sea Meadow partners with local schools, universities and marine research centers to develop educational programs. Rebecca Rundquist, a Sea Meadow board member, described a recent collaboration among the Harrison Middle School in Yarmouth, the University of New Hampshire and the Marine Microverse Institute in creating a microplastics curriculum. Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic that can be suspended in ocean waters, embedded in sediment and ingested by marine animals.

In the study, students design projects to monitor microplastics concentrations in the marine environment, critical information that can then be handed off to the collaborating organizations.

“We are creating a multi-layered element to the working waterfront,” Rundquist explained about the collaborative research projects. Sea Meadow also partners with organizations such as the Gulf of Marine Research Institute and Maine Family Sea Farm, a cooperative of oyster, scallop and kelp harvesters in Casco Bay.

Sea Meadow is an entirely volunteer-based organization, which raises challenges, such as the need for consistent fundraising and communication channels to the public. Their work faces additional strain as working waterfronts experience converging pressures from waterfront property acquisitions and increasingly stronger storms that strip the areas down beyond repair.

“These are vital spaces to municipalities, but no one has invested in protecting them,” Rundquist said.

Strong dedication to a sustainable, regenerative working waterfront propels the foundation through financial and personnel hoops, she said. Despite mounting environmental and social challenges, Sea Meadow offers a necessary vision for what a working waterfront can be: a cooperative community space where the work of aquaculture harvesters, citizen scientists and marine craftspeople blend together to inform, protect and inspire the future of coastal habitats and livelihoods.