The announcement of more than $3.59 million in grants in early January came from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Kingfisher Foundation. Those grants generated $3.15 million in matching contribution, for a total conservation impact of more than $6.75 million.
Among the projects receiving funding one supports electronic monitoring pre-implementation in the Alaskan pot cod fishery by increasing the number of vessels carrying electronic monitoring devises. Under that $891,734 grant, Saltwater will install electronic monitoring units on up to 15 additional vessels. The project will test an alternative service delivery model focused on building cost effective data collection infrastructure, data review and management processes to provide timely data to fisheries managers and facilitate electronic monitoring data integration.
A $1,177,959 grant to the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (AFLA) will allow ALFA to improve the electronic monitoring program for vessels participating in sablefish, halibut and Pacific cod fixed gear fisheries by providing electronic monitoring hardware, field service support for vessels and support for stakeholder engagement. The project will provide electronic monitoring of up to 120 hook and line vessels that will reduce bycatch and improve the utility of electronic monitoring data for harvesters and fishery managers.
Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife will use a $608,593 grant to deploy an electronic reporting and monitoring software system for non-tribal commercial harvesters and tribal fisheries in Puget Sound and coastal waters off Washington.
Details on all 12 grants are online at http://www.nfwf.org/fisheriesfund/Documents/emr-2017grantslate.pdf