Oregon Sea Grant FY ’25 Funding all but Restored

By Brian Bahouth

Karina Nielsen is the director of Oregon Sea Grant. In early September of this year she attended a roundtable in Newport with Oregon’s senior U.S. senator, Ron Wyden to communicate a time-sensitive budget concern. 

Oregon Sea Grant is one of 34 Sea Grant programs nationwide. Of the 34, two had not received their base funding for fiscal year 2025, and Oregon was one of the two. 

Until Friday, September 26, the program had received 59 percent of its annual funding, which would have left the organization with a $1.2 million shortfall for this year, according to Nielsen. The federal fiscal year ends on September 30. Roughly 35 jobs were due to be cut.

“On Friday evening, we received the official notice and good news that NOAA had provided an additional FY25 funding increment of $985,734 to OSU for Oregon Sea Grant,” Nielsen wrote via email. “This additional amount brings us up to 94 percent of the approved annual award for Oregon Sea Grant in FY25. 

“We are very grateful for the support of Senators Merkley and Wyden, as well as the efforts of NOAA, the National Sea Grant College Program, and our community supporters, in delivering this outcome for Oregon and the Sea Grant Network.”

Sea Grant is deeply and widely enmeshed in the fabric of coastal communities, in Oregon and every coastal state. In an effort to illustrate support for Sea Grant programs, Sea Grant MIT and the National Sea Grant College Program plotted 18,398 Sea Grant supporters on a national map. 

See the map, with comments, here.