The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have announced $3.7 million in grants to support data modernisation and electronic data collection in US fisheries.
Awarded through the Electronic Monitoring and Reporting Grant Program (EMR Grant Program), a partnership between NFWF and NOAA, with additional support provided this year from Shell USA, these grants are predicted to generate $6.7 million in matching contributions for a total conservation impact of $10.4 million.
‘The grants announced today represent continued progress in our efforts to help recreational and commercial fishing communities tackle important conservation challenges,’ said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF.
‘By supporting collection of high-quality data, these grants will help to advance sustainable fisheries management and drive technology innovation in fisheries around the US.’
The twelve projects announced will expand proven electronic technologies to new fisheries, deploy artificial intelligence on board vessels to make electronic data collection more efficient, and enhance data collection in some of the nation’s largest fisheries. Projects will support sustainable management efforts in federal and state fisheries in Alaska, Alabama, Florida, Hawai‘i, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
‘We are proud to partner with NFWF to invest in innovative technologies that empower fishermen to more actively engage in the collection of high-quality fisheries data,’ said Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, and acting assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and deputy NOAA administrator.
‘These advancements in electronic monitoring and reporting will improve our science-based sustainable fisheries management efforts in the face of our changing climate.’
This year’s grants include multiple projects to encourage recreational fishermen to make better use of electronic data collection tools, contributing important data on this sector. In addition, projects will build systems to collect efficient and high quality data from fisheries around the US to allow for even more timely management and conservation decision making.
