Fishermen's Safety First and Foremost

By Liz Michaud, Green and White Hope Founder/President

Green and White Hope Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization founded in 2025, working to prevent fatalities among commercial fishermen through safety programs and technology advancement, while also advancing recovery capabilities among Maine communities that rely on the sea. This mission was inspired by the loss of my 18-year-old nephew while he was lobster fishing off the coast of Steuben on July 21, 2023.

Liz Michaud, founder of Green and White Hope. GWH photo.

In 2025, we launched the first consolidated website for Maine commercial fishing safety education (https://www.greenwhitehope.org), supported LD 1708 to create a Maine Commercial Fishing Safety Fund, achieved declaration of July 21, 2025 as Maine Commercial Fishing Remembrance Day, hosted a recognition ceremony attended by hundreds, co-sponsored the 1st Downeast Fishing Families Forum, and produced The Community Orchestration Guide, Best Practice Preparation for a Commercial Fishing Incident … and we are far from done.

Our success is due to collaboration with numerous organizations across Maine and beyond. Notable partners include Fishing Partnership Support Services, Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, Maine Coast Fisherman’s Association, Maine Commercial Fishing Safety Council, Maine Department of Marine Resources, McMillan Offshore Survival Training, Maine Lobstermen’s Association, Maine Lobster Community Alliance, New England Fishing Stewardship Association, Northeast Center for Occupational Health & Safety, REDDE Marine Safety, and Sunrise County Economic Council, etc. A complete list of partners can be found on our website.

In October 2025, I presented a brief overview of the pending release of the Community Orchestration Guide at the first Downeast Fishing Families forum in Ellsworth.  Michael Morris, president and cofounder of Durabrite, was there as an attendee and vendor.  He shared with me how much he learned during the session; he felt there were important messages that needed to be heard at a broader scale and offered the company’s technology platform for us to deliver a webinar.

It was great timing since we were planning how best to launch and promote the guide. I thought we could expand into an educational series, however, because there are other important topics that colleagues could provide insight on.  He enthusiastically agreed. If “Beyond the Catch” sessions this winter go well, we could expand the series further.  We really want to get the content out to fishermen and their families in the easiest way for them to receive the information.

In 2026 we are maintaining our website providing information on all available commercial fishing safety training across Maine.  We just received a grant from Maine Sea Grant to support two Maine harbors in building a tailored emergency response plan for their specific location, the first step toward getting all Maine’s 68 harbors to adopt their own plans.  

I will be presenting the concepts of the guide at the Maine Harbor Masters Conference, as well as at the Fishermen’s Forum in Rockland in early March.  I am also working with Rep. Will Tuell to have the Maine Legislature pass a law that will make Maine Commercial Fishing Remembrance Day honored annually. Lastly, I am drafting a grant application now to provide personal locator beacons to apprentice fishermen which we will hear about later this fall.

New Guide Helps Communities Think About the Unthinkable

Green and White Hope created the Community Orchestration Guide to offer best practices that enable every Maine harbor to create a detailed emergency response plan for a commercial fishing incident. This plan complements — not replaces — existing protocols from the U.S. Coast Guard, Maine Marine Patrol, and other federal, state, and local agencies. The goal is to ensure communities can safely and meaningfully support official response efforts without interfering with investigations or endangering themselves or others.

The Community Orchestration Guide outlines how a community’s response is critical to the probability of a victim’s survival. It provides a framework of how to create a detailed community emergency response plan specifically for a commercial fishing incident.  The best way to use the guide is before an incident occurs, as a proactive tool for planning and prevention. 

The guide is free and may be downloaded at https://www.greenwhitehope.org/services-7. Those interested are welcome to contact Green and White Hope at admin@greenwhitehope.org with any questions or help needed.