WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King announced that the Maine Sea Grant Program at the University of Maine will receive $519,000 in grant funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to support its research, education, and outreach efforts done on behalf of Maine’s coastal communities.

“NOAA’s continued investment in the Maine Sea Grant Program is so important for the coastal communities here in our state,” Senators Collins and King said in a joint statement. “The National Sea Grant program has had an enormous impact on our coastal economy, funding research that has benefitted our fishermen, lobstermen, and all manner of ocean-based industries along Maine’s coast.”

This grant, funded through the fiscal year 2017 budget, comes after Senators Collins and King joined with Senate colleagues in June to urge the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies to maintain current funding for the National Sea Grant College Program for fiscal year 2018. In April, Senator King joined his colleagues to write to the President urging him to reconsider his proposal to eliminate the program.

Designated as a Sea Grant College, the University of Maine is one of 33 NOAA Sea Grant Programs throughout the coastal and Great Lakes states.

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