Mayday! Mayday!

No, I’m not talking about the one coming up in several weeks where we dance around a pole with colorful ribbons. This is what the Coast Guard and other mariners will be hearing from our country’s commercial fishing fleet in the coming years if support for the industry gets gutted on multiple fronts.

We all love our seafood, especially those Maine lobsters, as is evident by the business our market fishmongers do each week. But like many programs designed to solve problems and innovate in the commercial seafood industry, the Maine Sea Grant Program was axed by DOGE as wasteful despite yielding over $23 million in revenue with only a $1.5 million investment.

Similar to the land grant universities’ cooperative extensions that provide agricultural education and services to farmers who grow food, the Maine Sea Grant Program (MSGP) delivers an assortment of benefits for watermen such as Fishermen Feeding Mainers which pays fishermen for excess and unsold catches that are used in vulnerable communities who struggle with food security. MSGP also works with fishermen and processors to create locally branded value-added products such as smoked products, stews, soups, and chowders. It’s not much different than our fruit and vegetable vendors who turn their goods into salsas, sauces, ciders, and canned goods.

Like farming, commercial seafood harvesters work long hours with grueling schedules. It’s not in their wheelhouse to keep up with the latest policies in Washington DC that have real impacts on their livelihoods so they rely on organizations like MSGP to be their voice to their legislators. One of the most important issues they assist with are working waterfronts. Everyone loves the waterfronts, but the gentrification of historic seaports have transitioned harbors full of fleets, chandleries, dry-dock mechanics, and processors into restaurants, trinket shops, and businesses catering to tourists. No one wants to smell bait.

It's not only the loss of funding for organizations that puts our fisheries at risk but scaling back the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with mass layoffs and firings along threats of privatization. I cannot begin to stress how critical the services of NOAA are to anyone who works on the water—not just fishermen, although they stand to lose much.

According to the former head of the agency, there are over 2.3 million jobs associated with NOAA’s management of the commercial fishing industry that brings in over $320 billion annually. NOAA provides more than buoy reports and weather conditions, also playing a crucial role in fisheries management. They are the ones studying scientific models of individual fisheries determining seasonal catch quotas and closures to fisheries in collapse due to overharvesting.

NOAA is also responsible for opening the fisheries. Right now up and down the eastern seaboard in commercial harbors watermen are gearing up for May 1st when they will head out for groundfish including haddock, hake, pollock, cod, sole, halibut, and turbot. But due to extra regulations to combat overfishing that have decimated populations combined with climate change, key regulations must be revised each year based upon scientific data.

And guess who got laid off; the people who make the decision to open the fishery. They were given an hour to clean out their desks and leave behind the detailed work which much of our seafood harvests depend upon. There has been zero communication from the administration regarding if the fisheries will open. Or maybe it will be a wide open season which led to the near collapse of many fisheries in the first place. By the way, thanks to NOAA, fisheries that have been historically devastated have made comebacks due to regulated seasons, licensure, and quotas, but many are only a whisp of what they once were.

Old school watermen have always had a love/hate relationship with government regulations. As fiercely independent as farmers, they don’t want to be overregulated, but the latest generation of commercial fishermen don’t want the way they make their living to disappear due to overharvesting.

Fisheries that don’t open due to the shuttering of NOAA department will create huge ripples throughout not only the food supply, but the economy. Bait shops, ice houses, and gear manufacturers who supply the fishermen will lose money. Processors and transportation will lose money.

But most importantly, restaurants and markets will not have access to fresh product which means you, dear customers, will lose your ability to purchase fresh fish caught in American waters by American fishermen reducing your fishmongers ability to stay in business. If you’re like me, giving up fresh seafood is not something you want to do.