University of Maine receives restored Sea Grant funding
After an abrupt cancellation, funding for the Maine Sea Grant has been restored.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration notified the University of Maine this week that it was awarding three more years of funding for the Maine Sea Grant, according to a news release from the university Friday. The money for the upcoming year was made available immediately, while the remaining two years of funding will be contingent on future appropriations from Congress.
'This vital funding for Maine Sea Grant is not a cost,' said lobsterman and marine biologist Curt Brown, in the release. 'It is an investment in the future of Maine's coastal industries and communities, an investment that has paid dividends for decades and will continue to support these iconic industries for generations to come.'
Maine's Sea Grant program is one of 34 across coastal and Great Lakes states throughout the country. It has helped finance statewide research, strengthened coastal communities and supported thousands of jobs over more than five decades.
The restoration of funding comes after the university received a letter in late February stating that NOAA was immediately discontinuing funding for the $4.5 million Maine Sea Grant because the grant's work was 'no longer relevant to the focus of the Administration's priorities and program objectives.'
Maine's program seems to have been the only one in the country affected. The decision came about a week after President Donald Trump threatened Gov. Janet Mills during a heated exchange over the state not complying with an executive order barring transgender students from competing in women's athletics.
Multiple members of Maine's congressional delegation pushed back on the decision, calling for its reversal. For example, independent Sen. Angus King and Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree wrote a letter to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick demanding he immediately reverse the 'reckless decision' to terminate the federal grant that boosts research and economic development for coastal communities.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins also spoke with Lutnick about how Maine's coastal communities could be hurt by ending that funding. Following that conversation, Vice Admiral Nancy Hann issued a memo that the department would renegotiate the Maine Sea Grant, according to a news release from Collins' office.
'The groundswell of support for Maine Sea Grant and the stories that have surfaced about its incredible impact on our state's working waterfronts have been extraordinary and effective,' said UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy.
In line with the original four-year agreement, the award from the U.S. Department of Commerce this week was just shy of $1.5 million, the release said. That money will be matched by nearly $810,000 from non-federal sources, including industry and state research funding, as is required by the program.
If Congress continues to fund the National Sea Grant College Program, it will provide $3 million in additional funding to the Maine Sea Grant through Jan. 31, 2028. That would be matched by another $1.6 million, the release added.
That money will allow the Maine Sea Grant to continue fostering coastal workforce development, hands-on marine science education for students of all grade levels, research to inform lobster and other fisheries management, as well as storm preparedness for working waterfronts.
Every federal dollar spent to support those activities resulted in $15 of economic activity in the state, amounting to a total annual impact of $23.5 million in 2023, the release said.
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