2 min read

Rhiannon Hampson serves on the Maine Blue Economy Week Planning Committee and is vice president for economic development at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

Long before we ever knew it as Maine, people lived and worked along the more than 3,500 miles of coastline we call home. For thousands of years, the Gulf of Maine has sustained our communities — we have harvested these waters, building our lives around its tides and seasons.

Our relationship with the sea has never been static. The movement of people and industry, changes in fish populations and the shifting demands of trade have continually pushed Maine’s coastal communities to reinvent themselves, to innovate and adapt.

That instinct to adapt is one of Maine’s oldest strengths. We see it in the fishing boats steaming out at dawn — evolving from small wooden dories to the fast boats that thrill kids and adults at summertime races, and now moving toward electrification. It shows up in the aquaculture farms growing food for their neighbors, and it drives the innovation of researchers and entrepreneurs who are creating solutions to the challenges those fishermen and farmers face.

The numbers set the stage but do not tell the whole story. The almost $6.8 billion in economic activity and 90,000 jobs supported by Maine’s ocean-related businesses are not legacy numbers. They are dynamic and reflect an economy that is still changing. The legislatively established Blue Economy Task Force 2.0 identified five sectors of opportunity for growth here in Maine: aquaculture and marine vegetation, marine biotechnology, ocean data and research, resilient coastal infrastructure and sustainable boatbuilding and marine propulsion.

This growth is not guaranteed, but the challenges we face can define our opportunity to support it. Climate change is not only rapidly warming the Gulf of Maine and reshaping the species available to our fishermen, but it is also pressuring our roads and working waterfronts — critical infrastructure for a thriving economy.

Few places in the country are as well positioned as Maine to turn those challenges into new solutions given the expertise we have developed here through investment in our colleges, scientific institutions and coastal industries. That expertise and experience in responding to these pressures and shifts are why our researchers, engineers, educators and community development organizations are in demand nationally as other states seek to solve these challenges.

This is why we are convening Maine’s first Blue Economy Week (Sept. 29-Oct. 2), because the time is now. It is a way to have scientists, investors, students, fishermen and educators come together to chart our course. It is an opportunity to collectively ask: How do we keep and build upon what Maine already does well while continuing to innovate to meet this moment?

We have never been a state that waits for the future to arrive, an identity demonstrated by our motto, Dirigo: “I lead.”

The blue economy is not a departure from our story; it is just the next chapter. We hope you will join us in writing it.