The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Wednesday, 14 September the recipients of the awards from its Electronic Monitoring and Reporting (EMR) Grant Program. The program, created in 2015, is meant to encourage the implementation of electronic technologies in fisheries in the United States to improve the quality, accuracy and timeliness of fisheries data, the foundation said in a release.
The 10 winning grants include projects in Alaska, California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Texas and Washington. The projects will be given a combined USD 3.35 million (EUR 3 million), matched by an additional USD 3.23 million (EUR 2.9 million) in additional funds from supporting partners.
Funded grant projects include the expansion and implementation of electronic monitoring strategies in the Gulf of Mexico’s for-hire fleet and the outfitting of New England fishermen with equipment necessary to advance electronic monitoring in the groundfish fishery there, NFWF said.
“Working with fishermen across the country, the grants we announce today will continue to promote the adoption of effective electronic technologies that will improve data collection and help to support sustainable fisheries nationwide,” NFWF executive director and CEO Jeff Trandahl said in a press release.
NFWF’s EMR Grant Program is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
“We’ve seen increasing demand for more data to support sustainable fisheries,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “Implementing projects with camera systems and other monitoring and reporting technology can supplement human observers and help us build efficiencies while meeting our information needs.”
A complete list of the 2016 EMR Grant Program grants, by region, can be found here.
This is the second of two announcements for the Fisheries Innovation Fund; separate awards under the Fisheries Innovation Fund were announced in July and can be viewed here.
