Maine Receives $2 Million to Develop Marine Economy Roadmap

On April 8, the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced a $2 million Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) award to the state of Maine to help it develop an industry-led roadmap and action plan for economic growth and greater resiliency in its marine economy.

The award provides funding to support Maine’s Marine Economy initiative, a three-year project that expected to provide strategies to match Maine’s marine-related products with global markets and develop strategies to attract investment in new markets.

It will identify new opportunities and barriers to value-added production and will seek ways to maximize efficiencies and returns across the seafood value-chain.

The project will also address current and future workforce challenges in Maine’s marine resource economy.

The industry-led initiative will be overseen by co-applicants Maine Technology Institute (MTI) and FocusMaine.

The effort will be co-chaired by Bill Mook of Mook Sea Farms of Walpole and Curt Brown, a marine biologist with Ready Seafood in Portland.

Maine’s Congressional delegation helped guide the proposal to fruition.

The University of Maine, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center and other partners within the marine industry will play a pivotal role in its implementation.

“This funding targets critical areas of need in Maine’s marine economy,” Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said in a press release. “Workforce and market development are key for the stability and growth of our state’s fishing and aquaculture industries. Improvement in supply chain efficiencies are also vital for efforts to innovate and add value.”

The Gulf of Maine covers more than 5,000 miles of coastline, including islands. While lobster remains Maine’s predominant export, Maine’s marine economy also includes fishing, aquaculture, life sciences and value-added processing. Critical supply chain elements like shipping and logistics support the economy.

“MTI is keenly aware of the dire economic and environmental pressures facing the marine sector in Maine,” said Brian Whitney, MTI’s president.

The project will focus on four primary areas: asset mapping and resource assessment, emerging opportunities to diversify and sustain the marine economy, capital attraction and market growth, and workforce development.

The marine sector in Maine employed 15,583 workers in 2016. Most of the positions include fishermen and related shoreside workers followed by occupations within the supply chain such as processing, transportation, etc. The proposed project will identify industry workforce needs and skills gaps, build workforce curriculum and training modules, and attract new talent and young talent to the sector. This includes job-driven skills development, expansion of apprenticeships and work-and-learn training models, as well as collaborating with workforce development organizations like community and technical colleges

“This award complements FocusMaine’s strategy to grow good jobs in Maine’s aquaculture industry,” said Kimberly Hamilton, president of FocusMaine.

MTI is a publicly financed, private, nonprofit organization created by the Legislature in 1999 to stimulate research and development activity leading to the commercialization of new products, processes, and services in the state’s seven targeted technology sectors. MTI programs are either loans equity investments, or grants designed to enhance the competitive position of those sectors and increase the likelihood that one or more of these sectors will support clusters of industrial activity and create quality jobs across Maine. FocusMaine’s mission is to strengthen and revitalize opportunity in Maine by accelerating the creation of jobs in select industries. FocusMaine was founded by private-sector Maine leaders, and in partnership with industry-specific subject matter experts, advisers, and partnering organizations, is using a fact-based, disciplined approach to sector and industry development.