A Grateful Salute to Senator Claiborne Pell: Hero to the Sea Grant Universities

February 27, 2009 — Former Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell, instrumental in the creation of the National Sea Grant College Program, passed away on New Year’s Day. But we continue to celebrate his vision, courage, and hard work, which brought the dream of Sea Grant to fruition.

Former Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell.

On May 2, 1966, Senator Pell spoke to his Senate colleagues about the idea of establishing “Sea Grant Colleges” modeled after the successful Land Grant colleges, touting the idea as a way to use ocean resources in a “productive manner, while maintaining principles of conservation.” Senator Pell convened a hearing of the U.S. Senate at the University of Rhode Island on a bill to create Sea Grant, the first time a U.S. Senate hearing took place at a state university. Soon thereafter, President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill creating Sea Grant into law on Oct. 15, 1966. Today, the Sea Grant College Program is a unique federal-state partnership that supports science focused on the needs of coastal communities and stakeholders. Sea Grant funds both basic science and applied research, and related education and outreach to expand public benefit.

Since its inception, for example, Rhode Island Sea Grant has sponsored research and outreach that have saved lives at sea, helped design the state’s coastal management program, responded to an oil spill, and increased public access to the shore. Rhode Island Sea Grant research has also tested fishing gears that dramatically reduced bycatch, identified impacts that global climate change is having on Narragansett Bay, crafted policies to mitigate those impacts, and fostered stewardship of Rhode Island’s salt ponds.

The program has also sent numerous students to Washington, D.C., as part of the Dean John Knauss Sea Grant Fellowship program to work in the federal government and see firsthand how ocean and coastal laws and policies are created and implemented. Many of those students have returned to lead institutes and agencies or work in the private sector on environmental issues.

Sea Grant has grown from the original four pioneering universities — URI, the University of Washington, Oregon State University and Texas A&M University — to become a world-class partnership network of 32 leading marine universities. There is a Sea Grant program in each coastal and Great Lakes state.

Some years back, at Rhode Island Sea Grant’s 30 year anniversary celebration, the Senator beamed with pride on what we had become, but mentioned to me that we still had much to do — the oceans were in deep trouble, and the more profound visions of what Sea Grant could become still had not been realized.

While waiting in line to pay respect to the Senator’s family after his funeral in Newport, R.I., I read for inspiration the Senator’s stirring speech given at the first Sea Grant meeting in Newport in 1965. Senator Pell urged those gathered to “voyage forward” as boldly as another great resident of Newport, Alexander Agassiz, had in 1877 aboard the Blake. That voyage marked the first major U.S. oceanographic explorations, and it originated from a berth close to the hotel where the Senator had spoken.

Thank you, dear Senator, our Sea Grant ocean hero.