This regional, collaborative project will provide young fishermen in new england with an opportunity to receive critical vocational training as they enter the industry, develop into competent…

This Cooperative Agreement award from the Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Sea Grant Support program (CFDA 11.417) will provide $500,000 from August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2025 to The Fishing Partnership Health Plan Corporation. The project will establish a regional, collaborative training framework to provide young fishermen in New England with vocational training as they enter the fishing industry, develop into competent deckhands, and transition to become captains. The interdisciplinary team and industry collaboration will create an adaptive, scalable, and transferrable training model that can be replicated across the region. This builds on the organization's prior experience developing successful but limited training programs in individual states, which will now be expanded through this cooperative effort across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

Activities

Over the last few years, each project partner developed a successful, but relatively new, training program that trains a young fisherman through one of their early career stages. Partners in rhode island are training new entrants, partners in massachusetts are training under-skilled deckhands, and partners in new hampshire are training new captains. Through this project, these partners will collaborate to expand their training programs so that fishermen in each state have access to each stage of training.

Expected outcomes

The interdisciplinary team and collaborative efforts with the fishing industry are critical for developing an adaptive, scalable, and transferrable framework model that can be replic