PRESS RELEASE | 14 November 2011 Sea Grant outreach award presented to Maine-based working waterfront partnership

PRESS RELEASE | 14 November 2011 Sea Grant outreach award presented to Maine-based working waterfront partnership

Newport, RI - A partnership effort to advance working waterfront awareness and protection in the United States today received the Outstanding Group Outreach Award from the Northeast Sea Grant Consortium.

Steve Adams of New Hampshire Sea Grant presented the award to Natalie Springuel, Kristen Grant, and Dana Morse of Maine Sea Grant; Stephanie Showalter-Ott of the National Sea Grant Law Center; Tom Murray of Virginia Sea Grant; Jim Connors, who retired from the Maine Coastal Program last year; Hugh Cowperthwaite of Coastal Enterprises, Inc.; Rita Heimes of the Center for Law and Innovation at University of Maine School of Law; and Jennifer Litteral of the Island Institute. The awards recognize outstanding achievement in outreach related to marine and coastal issues.

For the last decade, this dedicated team has worked to address coastal access and working waterfront issues in Maine and the United States, culminating with several major milestones in 2010, including hosting the second Working Waterfronts and Waterways National Symposium on Water Access in Portland, Maine.

By consensus, symposium participants agreed that efforts to address mounting issues on working waterfronts could be directed more effectively through a national-level working waterfront council. Maine Sea Grant is helping to design a national strategy for working waterfront issues through research, education, outreach and policy. The council is expected to play a major role in moving the access issue forward at the national level.

“This is a well-deserved recognition not only for Sea Grant, but also for the important partners who make this kind of program so vital to our coastal communities,” said Paul Anderson, Director of the Maine Sea Grant College Program at the University of Maine.

In Maine, working waterfront and coastal access outreach has helped ensure the protection of 17 working waterfront properties that support 830 fishing industry jobs. Additional sites have been protected to secure access to the water for Maine residents and visitors. These efforts have positioned Maine as a national leader in working waterfront and coastal access issues.

For more information, please visit http://www.seagrant.umaine.edu/extension/coastal-access-and-working-waterfronts