Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. Monica Cease, a fish technician with Island Aquaculture on Swans Island, oversees the transfer of salmon smolts to a barge that will take them to pens outside the islands. It's hard to imagine a place further removed from the computer revolution than this island six miles off the Blue Hill peninsula. Here, loons glide in pairs through blue-green water.
Mountains stand framed by the sea, sky and granite shore.
A seagull's scream and the clang of a buoy's bell pierce the silence. The network could become an electronic bridge, they say, to the outside world. And many island communities need the help. However, some islanders also fear that computer technology poses a threat to their way of life. The Swans Island Lighthouse in the background overlooks the buildings of a working fishing community, one of many on the island.