March 20, 2025 — Dr. Duffy Anderson at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, dissected the 2024 warming report, updating Mainers on the conditions across our almost 3500 miles of coastline. The report reviews 2024 as the 12th warmest year for the Gulf of Maine.
The body of water is positioned at the intersection of two major currents—the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Labrador Current. This productive body of water has continued to evolve since warming began in 2012.
March 18, 2025 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) annual meeting took place at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum and was anything but routine this year.
As industry leaders gathered to discuss the latest challenges and victories in the state’s lobster industry, they also took a moment to recognize the end of an era—Kristan Porter, the longtime MLA board president and Cutler fisherman, announced his retirement from the role, along with board vice president Craig Stewart from Long Island, and Laurin Brooks who fishes out from Kennebunk.
Lawsuits, Offshore Wind, Industry Resilience
Among the key updates shared, the MLA’s acting COO, Patrice McCarron, reaffirmed their stance against offshore wind development, highlighting progress in its legal battle with Monterey Bay Aquarium, and urged lobstermen to stay engaged in policy discussions, especially regarding the controversial gauge increase.
“You may have also heard the good news: the Monterey Bay Aquarium lawsuit will get the green light to go forward,” McCarron said. “We haven’t won the case, but we do now have the green light so that we would be expecting discovery and possibly going to trial in the near future.”
The lawsuit, a defamation case launched by the MLA and the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association (MCFA), challenges the Aquarium’s controversial decision to red-list Maine lobster over concerns about North Atlantic right whale entanglements. The case moving forward signals a significant step in the industry’s ongoing fight for fair representation.
The MLA also addressed other regulatory battles, including a pushback on federal electronic tracking mandates. “We certainly know where people are; we no longer have to guess, but they should not be running 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” McCarron stated. “You guys should not be tracked when using your vessels for personal reasons.”
The Maine lobster fishery continues to grapple with bait shortages and federal policy shifts, but as the meeting made clear, the industry is far from standing still.
March 13, 2025 — Thanks to the partnership between Hannaford Supermarkets and the nonprofit Full Plates Full Potential, an effort is being made to get more students in Maine healthier, locally sourced meals at school. The initiative aims to replace heavily processed foods with fresh food while helping schools meet new federal nutrition guidelines designed to improve student health.
At Saccarappa Elementary School in Westbrook, which has already adopted these practices, lunchtime looks slightly different. On the menu: Gulf of Maine fish sticks with pineapple salsa—made from scratch.
Mary Emerson, nutrition director for Westbrook Public Schools, says the shift toward fresh food is a priority.
“We want high-quality, good food that kids enjoy eating that’s nourishing for them,” Emerson said. “Kids have to be well fed in order to learn. So, that’s our commitment to our students.”
Full Plates Full Potential is helping schools transition away from processed meals by incorporating more fresh, locally sourced ingredients into their lunch programs. The effort is an alternative way to comply with new federal nutrition standards that limit salt and added sugar in school meals.
March 10, 2025 — Business grew quickly after Dan Devereaux and Doug Niven started their oyster farm in Brunswick a decade ago.
They sold 10,000 oysters in their first season. Three years later, they were growing 25,000 a year to sell at the local farmers market, with so much demand they aimed to grow them by the millions in the coming years.
Today, Mere Point Oyster Co. employs 10 people year-round and 10 more in the summer, shipping its products to high-end, award-winning restaurants.
The farm has become a shining example of what Maine’s aquaculture industry says it can do for the state. With approval from state regulators, the family-run business has expanded and provided new economic opportunities, demonstrating what it says is a responsible alternative way to sustainably raise food on Maine’s coast.
March 6, 2025 — The Maine Sea Grant program, which saw its funding pulled by the U.S. federal government, has regained its funding after an outcry from the industry and the state’s congressional delegation.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump killed the funding for Maine Sea Grant – a partnership between the federal government and the U.S. state of Maine overseen by the University of Maine system – on 28 February. According to the university, in 2023, the program converted USD 1.5 million (EUR 1.4 million) in federal funding into USD 23.5 million (EUR 21.7 million) in economic benefits for the state.
March 6, 2025 — Previous attempts to extend Maine’s jurisdiction over coastal waters faced legal hurdles, but one lawmaker is trying again.
Two bills from Sen. Joseph Martin (R-Oxford) that seek to assert state sovereignty and ownership up to 12 and 24 nautical miles off the state’s coast are scheduled to have a public hearing Thursday before the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee.
Just two years ago, similar legislation was brought forward and failed. At the time, both the Maine Department of Marine Resources and the Maine Lobstermen’s Association raised concern that such a change is legally fraught and wouldn’t result in the desired outcome of protecting lobster fisheries, leading both entities to oppose the bill.
The new proposal to extend state sovereignty to 12 nautical miles off the coast, LD 553, includes an emergency preamble that would allow the legislation to take effect immediately upon passage, rather than waiting the typical 90 days after adjournment.
March 5, 2025 — Over 2,000 people from across New England convened at the annual Maine Fishermen’s Forum over the weekend to talk all things fish.
But this year, between gear expos, panels, and buddies catching up, there was an undercurrent of uncertainty after news broke of hundreds of NOAA layoffs in the weather and fish management divisions.
At a panel on managing fish in Gulf of Maine waters, one NOAA speaker was absent, and the other declined to answer questions about how changes at the federal agency might impact local fishing.
Eric Hesse fishes for tuna far off the coast of Cape Cod. He drove up for a panel on the Gulf of Maine Bottom Longline Survey, which he participates in.
“We’re worried about the impact of it. We engage with NOAA on various levels, whether it’s reporting, observer coverage,” he said. “All these things are part of our daily life, on the water, and to suddenly lose part of that could really disrupt our fisheries.”
March 5, 2025 — Maine’s outgoing commissioner of marine resources is warning about the dire impacts of newly imposed tariffs on Canadian imports.
Maine sends about $200 million worth of lobster each year to Canada, where it’s processed and sent back to the U.S. or to third markets.
Marine Resources Commission Pat Keliher said the tariffs could trigger major cuts in what Maine lobstermen are paid for their catch that could “cripple” the state’s iconic fishery.
March 4, 2025 — Maine appears to be the only state whose federal grant boosting research and economic development for coastal communities was terminated.
The University of Maine said it was notified late Friday that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was immediately discontinuing funding for the $4.5 million Maine Sea Grant, said university spokesperson Samantha Warren.
The grant has helped finance statewide research, strengthened coastal communities, and supported thousands of jobs over more than five decades. However, the letter from NOAA said the grant’s work is “no longer relevant to the focus of the Administration’s priorities and program objectives.”
Maine’s Sea Grant program is one of 34 across coastal and Great Lakes states throughout the country. As of mid-Monday, the New Hampshire Sea Grant had not received a similar notice, said Director Erik Chapman. Similarly, Fiscal Officer Caroline Johnston was not aware of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sea Grant receiving a notification about funding cuts.
Both Chapman and Warren said they were unaware of any program’s termination beyond Maine.
Pointing out that there is little information about the reasoning behind the cut, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree argued in a statement that the decision shows President Donald Trump has a “personal vendetta against our state.” The funding cut came about a week after Trump threatened Gov. Janet Mills after a heated exchange over the state not complying with an executive order barring transgender students from competing in women’s athletics.
March 4, 2025 — Over the weekend, the Trump administration told the University of Maine that it is discontinuing a $4.5 million award to the Maine Sea Grant Program.
There are 33 other similar Sea Grant programs in coastal and Great Lakes states around the country. Yet only Maine appears to have had its funding revoked. And the announcement came one week after Gov. Janet Mills sparred publicly with President Donald Trump at the White House about his executive order on transgender athletes.
The four-year federal award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration went into effect last February and would have awarded Maine Sea Grant roughly $4.5 million through January 2028, including about $1.5 million this year.
“It has been determined that the program activities proposed to be carried out in year 2 of the Maine Sea Grant Omnibus Award are no longer relevant to the focus of the administration’s priorities and program objectives,” NOAA wrote in a letter to the University of Maine.
The program now appears to be in jeopardy, though both the UMaine system and its partners were still determining the specific impacts on Monday.
Federal and matching funds support the salaries of 20 people at the university and around the state. A spokesperson said Monday that the University of Maine system is still assessing how the funding cuts will directly impact staff and research projects underway.