Fresh Catch
Rosalyn Trowbridge
2025
Ink and nib
Rosalyn Trowbridge is an animation student at Maine College of Art and Design with a passion for storytelling and illustrating nature and animals. Growing up in the woods of Vermont, Trowbridge remembers picking wild plants and catching fish and frogs during the summers.
This piece explores the effects of pollution and climate change on marine life in Casco Bay. Rising global temperatures have led to earlier phytoplankton blooms, which disrupt fish spawning cycles and impact seasonal catches. Microplastics harm fish health and reproduction, posing risks to the species and to the people who eat them. Meanwhile, inland dams block migratory fish from reaching safe spawning grounds. Combined, these pressures have led to long-term population declines, placing species like Atlantic salmon and sturgeon on endangered lists.
I chose to represent Atlantic salmon and sturgeon because they remain on the endangered species list in the wild. American shad once showed signs of recovery, but today their numbers in the harbor are uncertain. So before you visit the fish market for salmon or cod, ask yourself, “What was that fish exposed to before it landed on your plate?”
Twenty young artists created art centered on the challenges, hopes, and fears for Casco Bay’s past, present, and future.
What happens when a group of young artists turn their talents toward protecting Casco Bay? A new collaboration with MECA&D brought powerful, creative answers.
