Sea Grant’s 2024-2027 Strategic Plan addresses the following four focus areas:

• Sea Grant’s work in sustainable fisheries and aquaculture includes advancing aquaculture through research and informing regulation, sustaining wild fisheries through research to test new catch strategies, training young fishermen and aquaculture professionals, and listening and responding to the needs of fishing communities.

• Sea Grant’s work in healthy coastal ecosystems includes research to understand ecosystem change and test new recovery techniques, identifying and testing new methods to mitigate water pollution sources, guidance and expertise on planning and management, and habitat monitoring and restoration efforts.

• Sea Grant’s work in resilient communities and economies includes long-term community planning, physical and ecological research, social science research to engage more effectively, increasing access to existing tools, disaster recovery, and working with communities on needs and solutions.

• Sea Grant’s work to advance environmental literacy and workforce development includes fellowship opportunities, on-the-job training, support for undergraduate and graduate research, experiential education programs, educational tourism programs, and teacher training workshops.

BY THE NUMBERS*

Maine Sea Grant’s mission is to support the responsible use and conservation of coastal resources to sustain diverse, thriving coastal communities and ecosystems.

Learn more about Maine Sea Grant’s work at seagrant.umaine.edu

20 Sea Grant staff hosted and jointly supported by the University of Maine live and work along Maine’s 3,500-mile coastline, providing a valuable local resource for sharing information and solving problems.

More than 700 established partnerships with businesses, researchers, community organizations, and municipal, state, regional, federal, and tribal partners help to leverage resources and expertise, increasing the impacts of investments in the Maine Sea Grant Program.

In 2023, our documented impacts include:

332 businesses created or supported, and 565 jobs created or supported

52 educational and scientific publications, including 10 peer-reviewed journal articles

45 graduate students, and 86 undergraduate students supported for academic scholarships, internships, fellowships, and professional training opportunities, with 17 supported graduates hired into their professional field of interest

682 seafood industry personnel adopted responsible fishery practices based on knowledge gained from Maine Sea Grant

78 resource managers used ecosystem-based approaches to management as a result of Sea Grant’s work

300 acres of habitat restored or protected

12 research, program development, and industry innovation grants competitively awarded with Maine Sea Grant research funding to advance our understanding of marine and coastal issues, address critical challenges, and foster more resilient Maine communities and economies.

22 communities implemented sustainable economic and environmental development practices

538 K-12 educators, 16,708 K-12 students, and 6,764 community members engaged in Maine Sea Grant-supported education programs**

*Metrics are direct results of Maine Sea Grant work between Feb 1, 2023, and Jan 31, 2024, as reported by Maine Sea Grant staff in Summer 2024.

** “Education programs” refers to informal education, K-12 and secondary education programs

Released October 2024