The first round of grants has been handed out by The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) on behalf of its Electronic Monitoring and Reporting (EMR) Grant Program, an initiative that aims to enhance the quality, accuracy and timeliness of fishing data via electronic means.
The USD 3 million (EUR 2.7 million) bestowed by the NFWF today will goes toward advancing regional implementation of electronic technologies in both commercial and recreational fisheries across the United States. Molded in the shadow of the NFWF’s Fisheries Innovation Fund, the EMR Grant Program is looking to add more digital dynamism to the industry by incentivizing innovation.
“The Electronic Monitoring and Reporting Grant Program is an exciting new opportunity to build on the success of NFWF’s Fisheries Innovation Fund and allow us to begin applying innovative new tools at scale,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF. “The five grants we announce today will help fishermen and fisheries managers alike gather better, more reliable information, which is needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of U.S. fisheries.”
The five program grantees awarded 1 June include CLS America, the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association, the Nature Conservancy, Midwater Trawlers Cooperative and Sea State, Inc. The grants provided by the NWFW will be matched by more than USD 1.46 million (EUR 1.32 million) in additional funding from the grantees.
“We’re pleased to be collaborating with grantees to promote and support the adoption of new technologies to improve data collection efforts in a manner that can be directly incorporated into the existing management process,” said Eileen Sobeck, Assistant Administrator for Fisheries at NOAA Fisheries. “These projects demonstrate how fishermen, private industry, and NOAA Fisheries are working together to ensure we’re managing our fisheries sustainably.”
The EMR Grant Program exists under the Foundation’s Fisheries Innovation Fund, and “will significantly bolster the previous efforts of the Fisheries Innovation Fund by facilitating large-scale regional implementation of electronic monitoring and reporting technologies,” according to the NWFW.
Find more details on the individual grants and grant recipients in the window below:
