Maine’s marine economy accounts for about 36,000 jobs and more than $500 million in annual economic activity. The Maine brand is synonymous with our rugged coast, our fishing families, and the results of thousands of lives spent on and by the sea.

Through the centuries, artists have come to Maine to capture our maritime life. From Winslow Homer to Andrew Wyeth, Maine’s coast and the people who make their living from the sea have come to symbolize our state.

And yet Maine’s marine economy is constantly under duress. Nearly every day there is a story about a new challenge facing Maine’s fishing families: Shrimp season canceled; scallops season shortened; tempers flaring over limited elver licenses; Canadian processors blocking the border to keep our lobster out; cod stocks limited; urchins overfished; lobster shell disease and warming waters threatening; spiny dogfish populations booming and no one wanting them; and, now we have the green crab threatening fried clam dinners and causing conflicts on the mudflats between wormers and clammers.

To be clear, not all the news is bad. Maine leads the nation with its emerging marine aquaculture industry. We have diversified our wild fisheries and protected our fish stock by embracing new technologies.

We have some of the first pioneers who began the Community Supported Fisheries movement and promoted an ecosystem approach to fishery management. Ocean Approved harvests seaweed for markets all around the world; Ducktrap processes and smokes salmon that is widely recognized as world-class; Brown Trading is a seafood conduit to the finest restaurants in New York and the world; oysters from the Damariscotta river are served at raw bars everywhere; and, new products and strategies are being developed in the labs on Beals Island, Bigelow Labs, the Darling Center, the University of New England, and up and down the Maine coast.

The success of Maine’s marine economy depends on adding value to our wild fish stock, supporting our marine aquaculture industry and providing new markets for seafood and marine products. We can do this, and indeed, we must.

We cannot surrender Maine’s marine economy. If we do, we surrender Maine’s brand, the essence of Maine, the very thing that makes us so special.

Here’s the vision: instead of harvesting elvers and selling them to China — where they put them in aquaculture tanks and ponds to grow to maturity, and then sell them to Japan for processing, and then send them back to the United States and Europe to be sold in sushi restaurants and elsewhere — we should do all of that here in Maine.

This is only one example, but the lesson is clear: we need to localize the seafood value chain as much as possible. We need to vertically integrate our marine economy so that we are not only growing and harvesting the best seafood and marine products, but we are also processing and adding value.

What we could do with elvers we could also do for halibut, mussels, seaweeds and new products, such as spiny dogfish.

There is a powerful vision that Maine’s wild fisheries, aquaculture technologies and people can work together as communities of practice to harness the power of not only our emerging aquaculture industry, but also how that industry can enhance the sustainability of capture fisheries.

Here’s a success story: in Cobscook Bay at the Learning Center, premier Maine chefs like Sam Hayward, food processors like David Barber, and educators like Alan Furth, have come together to build seafood pies. Now, not only do we fish for lobsters then process them here, we add value by making delicious seafood pies.

That is the seafood value chain in action. Employment comes not only from the harvests, but from product development, identification of new markets and global sales.

A pending bond to support Maine’s marine economy would be matched by a minimum 1-to-1 funding from private sources. The bond is designed to forge collaboration between Maine’s premier research institutions, fishing and aquaculture families, existing marine businesses, processors, and the entire seafood supply chain.

This is a true port-to-plate strategy.

So, while our wild fisheries are facing mounting challenges, our opportunity lies in changing our collaborative, respectful approaches to the marine economy by embracing fisheries and allied aquacultures, new product developments, vertically integration of processing and value-added products and, most importantly, providing real-time hands-on support for those working on the Maine coast.

The prosperity of our marine economy underpins the future success of Maine.

Barry A. Costa-Pierce is the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Professor and chair of Marine Sciences and the director of the Marine Science Center at the University of New England. Craig Pendleton is the executive director of the Biddeford Saco Chamber of Commerce and a founding member of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance.