Dear Editor:

The Sea Grant program was founded in 1966. For just shy of 60 years it has brought together researchers, fisherfolk, and others to sustain healthy coastal environments and fisheries. My own peripheral involvement with it was a couple of decades ago when helping to write a national standard for lightning protection systems on recreational and small commercial boats. Much of the core data came from the Florida Sea Grant program. 

Since 1971 Maine’s Sea Grant program has provided ongoing support to our fisheries, including essential research, new catch strategies, aquaculture development, and workforce training. In 2023 a Federal investment of $1.5 million was estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to have contributed $23.5 million in economic benefits to the State of Maine. 

Trump/Musk have pulled the plug on Maine’s Sea Grant program. Of the 34 Sea Grant programs nationwide, Maine’s is the only one to be canceled. It occurred after Governor Janet Mills was in an altercation with President Trump. It is hard not to see this as an act of spiteful retaliation.  

Regardless, the impacts of this funding loss will be felt well beyond our fishing industry. Businesses, municipalities, and residents across the state will suffer from the ripple effects.  

This is the thin end of a massive wedge that Trump/Musk are driving into core programs that all of us depend on for our health and wellbeing. And for what? A stated objective is tax breaks for the predominantly wealthy. 

Americans, including those who voted for President Trump, did not vote for this. We certainly did not vote for Elon Musk. We all of us need to insist that our Congressional representatives stand up to the Trump/Musk wrecking ball before irreparable harm is done from which it will take us long years and much hardship to recover. 

Nigel Calder 

Newcastle