Blindly pressing for a foothold is exactly what Brian Benedict and I are doing on this foggy afternoon, 42 kilometers off the coast of Maine. Benedict is the deputy director of the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, 52 islands scattered across the blue-black frigid waters of the northern Gulf of Maine. On a map of the gulf, which extends from the crooked arm of Cape Cod to the outstretched hand of Nova Scotia's Cape Sable, the islands look like skipped stones that somehow came to rest atop the waves.
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