ROCKLAND –– There are a number of burgeoning marine-based industries in Maine, part of the so-called “Blue Economy,” and they need someone to represent them on a statewide level.
That’s the chief recommendation of the state’s Blue Economy Task Force: To create what it is calling the Maine Blue Economy Center.
“The center I think is really important for helping to show and demonstrate state leadership on this issue,” said Nick Battista, chief policy and external affairs officer for the Island Institute in Rockland.
The legislative task force outlined its pitch for the center in a new report released on Dec. 3. Battista, who also co-chaired the task force, said it’s critical for the state to establish a center to identify the needs of the blue economy, and work out a road map to meet those needs so the related industries can grow.
“The center is the right entity I think to pull together those conversations, to pull together and do the work to say, ‘Here’s what we need to do to support the blue economy and advance the blue economy through the State of Maine,’” he said.
The state legislature first created the task force last year to study and define the blue economy. In January of 2025, the task force released an initial report grouping the blue economy into five sectors – aquaculture and marine vegetation, marine biotechnology, ocean data and marine research, resilient coastal infrastructure and sustainable boatbuilding and marine propulsion.
Battista said the task force did not focus on the fishing industry, but only because that industry already has lobbying groups and other organizations doing what he wants to see the center doing for other marine-based industries.
“The blue economy is broader than these five sectors listed here,” he said. “These are just the ones that have had lower levels of attention pointed at them in the last years at the state.”
Willy Leathers, co-owner of Maine Ocean Farms in Freeport, has been farming oysters for the past 10 years, and made headlines over the summer by launching an electric boat for carrying his harvests to market in Portland. He said Wednesday that he was not familiar with the task force’s work, but strongly supported the idea of a center dedicated to the blue economy in Maine.
“Anything that is focused on developing resources and a concerted effort for forward-looking planning and resource management and advocacy and promotion across the state is really important,” he said.
The center, the report’s authors wrote, would work with the various industries, identify what they need to grow, and establish a plan to make the growth happen. That, Battista said, could include everything from data collection to advocacy in Augusta to soliciting investment and fundraising.
Right now, Battista said, there are plenty of institutions, universities and other smaller organizations already doing this, but none of them are taking the holistic approach the blue economy needs.
“It’s not an issue that we can tackle at one institution or another institution,” he said. “It needs to be a statewide approach.”
Battista said he is particularly interested in what the center could learn about the needs of the workforces for boatbuilding and marine propulsion. He also thinks the center should focus on the needs of those working to protect the state’s coastline from storm damage.
“We have no idea what the workforce needs are for those sectors and how to advance them or how to invest in them, and those two sectors I think are going to be critically important to the future of the state,” he said.
Leathers said he thinks the center could also serve to educate the public outside of the blue economy’s sectors.
“The blue economy aspect has a lot more breadth than some people may give it credit for,” he said.
Leathers said he also welcomes a center that could help bring new investments into sectors such as aquaculture.
“Unlocking some of those funding opportunities is the real next step,” he said.
With the task force’s report finished, it’s now up to the legislature to decide whether to establish the center. Ideally, Battista said, it would be created at the state level, funded with up to $1 million annually in state funding and housed at an institution such as the Maine Technology Institute.