NOAA recommends millions in grants to study salmon, cod, shrimp, lobster

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced its support for more than USD 11 million (EUR 9.8 million) in recommended grants to study or improve the nation’s fisheries as part of its Saltonstall-Kennedy grant competition.

The grants, which still must be approved by the NOAA Grants Management Division and the Department of Commerce's Financial Assistance Law Division, and are contingent upon adequate funding availability, include projects in seven categories: aquaculture, fishery data collection, bycatch reduction, climate change adaptation, marketing, socio-economic research and territorial science.

All areas of the United States, including overseas territories, have projects that have been recommended.

In Alaska, they include a proposed University of Alaska, Fairbanks study of halibut bycatch management (USD 297,995, EUR 264,877) and an Alaska Department of Fish and Game analysis of pink salmon productivity (USD 249,998, EUR 222,222).

In the Greater Atlantic region, NOAA proposes funding a University of Maine study of the development of the northern shrimp fishery amidst warming waters in the Gulf of Maine (USD 291,419, EUR 259,039), an evaluation by Ward Aquafarms of bay scallop nursery optimization (USD 275,800, EUR 244,915), a study by the state of Massachusetts on climate change’s effect on the American lobster (USD 228,454, EUR 202,876) and a pilot project exploring surf clam aquaculture (USD 105,245, EUR 93,467).

In the Pacific Islands, proposed projects will study the development of economic opportunities for fishers and the enhancement of fisheries data in America Samoa, Hawaii and the Mariana Islands.

Six proposed projects in the American Southeast have been proposed with requested funding topping USD 1.3 million (EUR 1.15 million). They include a project by the Gulf and South Atlantic Fisheries Foundation to enhance data collection efforts in the snapper and grouper fishery (USD 280,820, EUR 249,419) and the development of specialized turtle excluder devices by a group from the University of New Orleans (USD 232,559, EUR 206,551).

On the West Coast, a dozen proposed projects will study Pacific cod and swordfish populations, the use of LED lights as a technique to reduce bycatch in the ocean shrimp trawl fishery and the aging population of professional fishermen.

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