Chris Payne of Cumberland is a graduate student at the University of New England.

Commercial fishing in Maine is breaking the people who sustain it.

Four out of five fishermen report overuse injuries — torn shoulders, damaged knees, chronic back pain — from work that hasn’t fundamentally changed in generations. Most don’t retire from the job. Their bodies give out first.

We know how to reduce that damage. What’s missing is consistent federal support. This isn’t an abstract policy debate — it’s being decided right now in the federal budget process.

Maine already has organizations doing the work. Groups like the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association and Fishing Partnership Support Services provide injury prevention training, early access to physical therapy and practical equipment changes that reduce strain before injuries become permanent. They also address mental health and addiction — a critical need in a profession where chronic pain often leads to self-medication.

These programs are not theoretical. They are working. But they operate in a funding gap that federal policy has long promised to close and repeatedly failed to.

The urgency is growing. The administration’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget would eliminate Maine Sea Grant and cut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by roughly one-third. That comes just months after the administration abruptly terminated Maine’s Sea Grant program in January 2025 — later partially reversed after intense pushback — following a political dispute that had nothing to do with fisheries, safety or workforce development.

Programs like Sea Grant do more than fund research. They support the training, safety systems and local partnerships that keep fishermen on the water longer and in better health. In 2023, Maine Sea Grant generated roughly $15 in economic activity for every federal dollar invested. Eliminating it is not cost savings. It is economic contraction.

Congress already has tools to address this. The FISH Wellness Act would expand existing fishing safety grants, add behavioral health support and remove cost-match requirements that currently exclude many small operators. These are practical, bipartisan solutions built on programs that already exist.

What they lack is stable funding and sustained attention.

That instability has real consequences. Without consistent investment in training and safety, fishermen enter one of the most physically demanding jobs in America without the support systems common in other industries. Injuries accumulate. Careers shorten. Knowledge leaves the water faster than it can be replaced.

This is not a niche issue. Commercial fishing is a cornerstone of Maine’s coastal economy and identity. The people doing that work are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for the same basic infrastructure other industries expect as standard: training, health support and a viable path into the profession that does not depend on physical sacrifice.

Maine’s congressional delegation has shown it can fight when funding is threatened. It helped restore Sea Grant once. But reacting after the fact is not enough.

In the months ahead, Congress will decide whether programs like Sea Grant survive and whether legislation like the FISH Wellness Act moves forward. Those decisions will determine whether fishermen get the training, health support and safety infrastructure that other industries expect as standard — or continue working until their bodies give out.

That makes this a test of priorities. Will Maine’s delegation push for sustained funding for fishing safety and workforce development before more cuts take hold? And will candidates seeking to represent Maine commit to making that funding permanent, not discretionary?

Fishing communities cannot rebuild their workforce or protect their health one budget fight at a time. If Maine wants a future on the water, Congress needs to fund it — deliberately and as policy.

PORTLAND (WGME) — If the polls are any indication, Graham Platner is the toughest challenger Senator Susan Collins has faced in the 30 years she’s held her Senate seat.

“I know now for certain, or pretty much for certain, who my opponent will be,” Collins said.

Collins toured York County’s new regional training center Friday, which she helped secure the funding to build.

As the first chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee from Maine in nearly 100 years, she says she’s been able to bring $1.5 billion to Maine for more than 650 projects across the state.

It’s federal funding, she says, that paid to replace or renovate 45 Maine fire stations, support childcare centers and help rural hospitals stay open.

“I think every day about how we can make life more comfortable for people in Maine,” Platner said.

Platner blames billionaires, big corporations, President Donald Trump, Collins and Republicans in Congress for the ongoing struggles facing working families and small businesses in Maine.

“We need to beat Susan Collins,” Platner said.

CBS13 asked Collins if she felt Trump’s performance will cost her votes in November. She did not answer that directly but did say she’s not running on Trump’s record, but her own.

“I’m proud of my record and the accomplishments of what I’ve been able to do for Maine and for our country,” Collins said.

Collins says the Social Security Fairness Act she helped pass allows retired teachers and first responders to now get the Social Security they earned working in the private sector, along with their pensions.

“I can’t tell you how many retired employees have come up to me and said that it’s made the difference between a comfortable retirement and barely getting by,” Collins said.

They are two polar opposites in many ways, vying for a Senate seat where the stakes couldn’t be higher.

“I look forward to what I hope will be a civil discussion of the important issues facing our country and the State of Maine,” Collins said.

The remote Washington County town of Topsfield voted Thursday to close its five-student school, opting to send a shrinking student population elsewhere.

Residents voted 42 to 18 to shutter the East Range II School after high costs began to drive students from out of town elsewhere, bringing the number of students down from 25 in 2023 to the small total it has today. Turnout was robust in a town with only about 175 residents and 130 registered voters.

School district officials projected that the school, which had once served pre-K through eighth grade but would have been left only with pre-K through early elementary school students, would teach no more than seven students at a time over the next five school years. They also expected it would cost nearly $500,000 per year to keep the school open.

“I had no idea how the vote was going to go,” Eastern Maine Area School System superintendent Amanda Belanger said Friday. “I’m glad that a decision has been made and that we can move forward.”

The school board will finalize the closure plan and weigh what to do about the staff at East Range, at a meeting on May 7. The school would have likely had only one full-time teacher working there next year. That teacher, Paula Johnson, said she wasn’t sure what she would do if the school closed. She has worked there for 11 years.

Students will now likely be bused from Topsfield to schools in Princeton or Baileyville, about 30 minutes south. East Range will close at the end of this school year. After that, the town will take over the property.

It’s not clear what will become of the building. At an April meeting to discuss the future of the school, some residents were already speculating about whether it could turn into a senior center or similar community facility.

The result of Thursday’s vote was not unexpected. Many residents at the April meeting said they could not afford the taxes required to keep the school open. They will still have to pay for maintenance of the building but that cost is expected to be much lower than the cost of maintaining the school.

Taxpayers will also have to continue to pay for students, but the cost of busing kids out of town is also expected to be much lower than maintaining the local school.