Grant spawns proposals to aid state fishery> Local board to decide on use of $500,000

ROCKLAND — A half-million-dollar grant program that combines federal money with local decision making has spawned more than $1.2 million in ideas to help Maine fishermen, their families and communities through these tough times of declining stocks and increasing economic uncertainty.

The Maine Fishing Industry Development Center has received 37 proposals seeking a total of $1,243,084. The proposals must be pared down to the $500,000 made available for the project by the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

“The response has been outstanding, the number and scope of the proposals clearly demonstrate how deep the concern is about the future of our fishing industry and our fishing communities,” Bill Brennan, director of the center and a former state commissioner of marine resources, said Tuesday. “The difficult part now will be to fit as many of these proposals as we can into the money we have available.”

The Portland-based center is a private, nonprofit corporation formed early last year with assistance from the Maine Department of Marine Resources to distribute the federal funds. It is governed by a board of fishermen, processors and distributors. The center began soliciting proposals in November and expects to announce its awards in April.

Unlike previous grant programs in which funding decisions have been made by federal agencies, Brennan said this assistance project is “distinguished by the fact that these proposals will be reviewed and evaluated by people who know the Maine fishing industry because they’re part of it. We all know we cannot maintain the status quo, we all know we have to adapt to these difficult circumstances and look for new ways to thrive.”

The grant proposals, Brennan said, “cover virtually every fishing sector, every commercial species, every part of the coast, from Portland to Lubec. Expanding markets and improving processing techniques for established fisheries, like lobster, groundfish, urchins, scallops, are included, as are emerging species, like sea cucumbers and aquaculture. The proposals range from scientific research into habitat and spawning grounds to educational projects for schools to nuts-and-bolts stuff like freezer plants.”

Brennan said a few of the more intriguing proposals include developing a new source of lobster bait from unused fish byproducts, a scientific evaluation of the medicinal uses of sea cucumbers “and even one to help displaced commercial fishermen use their boats and expertise in the growing recreational striped bass fishery. The scope is incredibly broad, which means we should be able to distribute the benefits broadly.”

Although the funding requests far outstrip the money available, Brennan said he will, at the board’s direction, “negotiate with the applicants to fine-tune, to consolidate and combine similar proposals, to accomplish as much as we can. There’s too much at stake, there’s too many opportunities out there to do any less.”