The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have granted US$3.7 million to help implement electronic technology solutions and modernise data management systems for fisheries in US waters
The grants, which will generate a further US$7.7 million in non-federal contributions, were awarded through the Electronic Monitoring and Reporting Grant Program, a partnership between NFWF, NOAA and the Kingfisher Foundation.
“These grants support innovation in fisheries data collection and in data management by increasing the number of vessels using electronic technologies and by making possible the best use of the data collected, benefiting both fish and commercial fisheries,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and chief executive of NFWF.
The 12 projects supported by the grants will focus on the use of flexible electronic monitoring systems in small-scale fisheries, develop new artificial intelligence tools for data analysis 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, California, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia.
The 2021 grant slate also includes one project focused on right whale conservation, a topic which is causing some conflict at the moment. This project will test the accuracy of an electronic gear-location marking application to help refine buoyless or ropeless gear-marking technology.
