“Healthy oceans are everyone’s business,” began Dr. Jane Lubchenco, National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration administrator. “Healthy oceans support healthy seafood and food security, while supplying jobs and strengthening the economy.”
One billion people worldwide depend on seafood for a primary source of protein, and Americans consume about five billion pounds of seafood annually, according to federal statistics cited by Lubchenco. U.S. commercial fisheries alone provide 1.9 million jobs in the U.S.
“These 1.9 million jobs make our waterfronts working waterfronts,” said Lubchenco in her opening remarks at Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW), a three-day annual conference held in Washington in early June.
With an audience of legislative staffers and advocacy groups including the Environmental Defense Fund and the Ocean Foundation, the event drew many legislators with an interest in ocean issues. Speakers varied from academics and scientists to government officials and lawmakers, all addressing the importance of oceans and the threats to their sustainability.
The event was sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, a non profit conservation organization. Panelists included Jennifer Litteral of the Island Institute, who talked about the importance of working waterfronts and efforts to protect coastal communities in Maine. In 2003, the Island Institute (which publishes this newspaper) helped to form the Working Waterfront Coalition, which has had success in securing funding for working-waterfront preservation across Maine, making it an example for other states to follow.
The U.S. is entering into a “new era in ocean governance,” Dr. Lubchenco told her audience in June, emphasizing the importance of meetings like the one in Washington. The ultimate goal is to produce “governance informed by good science,” she explained. But even as new scientific findings inform policy, economic interests of coastal communities must also be considered.
In Litteral’s presentation, she stressed the historical and cultural importance that working-waterfront communities have along Maine’s coastline, which stretches for over 5,000 miles. Those communities, although threatened by change, also are an economic driver in the state, providing over 39,000 jobs and generating nearly $800 million in revenue. However, half of the property used by these businesses in Maine is privately owned and, Litteral says, is in danger of being converted for use as second homes or other non-waterfront businesses.
“Coasts across the country face declining access to working waterfront,” says Natalie Springuel, Marine Extension agent at Maine Sea Grant, an organization that has been working with Litteral and the Island Institute to form a national network for preserving access to working waterfronts. Maine has been a leader in this movement, and one needs only to look to look at Maine’s delegation in Washington to see this.
For U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, this is an issue close to heart. “I live on an island” says Rep. Pingree, “and I know how important working waterfronts are to coastal communities. Even though it’s getting harder and harder for fishermen, lobstermen and boat builders to get access to waterfront, Maine is leading the nation on protecting this access. I’m taking the work that is being done here in Maine to protect working waterfronts to Washington.”
Rep. Pingree sponsored two bills last year related to working waterfront. The first, known as the Coastal Jobs Creation Act, would fund research and support for public working-waterfront infrastructure, such as repairs for publicly owned wharves. The second bill, Keep America’s Waterfronts Working, takes Maine’s Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program and expands it nationally, keeping the definition of a working waterfront flexible to accommodate different states’ needs.
Both bills will be re-introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives again this summer.
Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe have also recently been involved with efforts in Washington to support working waterfronts. Sen. Collins has introduced a bill into the Senate, similar to Pingree’s, but with a more traditional definition of a working waterfront.
Just last month Sen. Snowe issued a request for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to reconsider stricter regulations on Maine fishermen. NMFS wants to regulate gear used by lobstermen, making it safer for whales. Snowe argues that the economic cost for fishermen is too high, and the increased safety for the whales is minimal. “Regulatory efforts must focus on positive outcomes without placing unnecessary restrictions on Maine’s $300 million lobster fishery,” said Snowe in a statement earlier this month. “I urge the agency to fully analyze the range of options, and avoid a one-size-fits-all regulatory approach.”
NMFS is holding series of public hearings this month across the state of Maine, seeking input from local fishermen on ways to keep endangered whales from becoming trapped in fishing gear.
While the Pine Tree State has become a national leader in protecting its coastline and the industries and people that use it, funding for these groundbreaking programs is becoming scare. Over the past seven years, the Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program has been funded by voter-approved state-issued bonds. In the current administration however, state-issued bonds may be in short supply. Coastal advocates are concerned that the LePage administration may not support additional preservation bond issues.
This makes finding national funding, such as that proposed in Rep. Pingree’s bill, a top priority for working waterfront advocates.
The next step is forming a national coalition, as was discussed at the National Working Waterfront Symposium held in Portland last September, organized by Maine National Sea Grants, Coastal Enterprises and the Island Institute.
“It was a great opportunity to showcase Maine leadership,” says Natalie Springuel, adding that she and her colleagues were in the “early stages of pulling things together.”
And it still remains unclear whether this idea of a national network will evolve into a full-fledged organization or a more loosely defined network of state agencies and non-profits. But Springuel hopes that this “national entity” will help in identifying trends among the varied state waterfronts, be an outlet for sharing such research, and help provide a unified approach to preserving it.
Springuel and coastal advocates from other states will be meeting again in Boston this summer to begin building their network, from the shoreline, up.
Anna Maine is a resident of Chebeague and a participant in The Working Waterfront’s Student Journalism Program.