Saving Seafood

NOAA Calls for fish grant proposals

June 1, 2018 — NOAA has opened the annual Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant competition to interested applicants despite having no idea yet how much money it will have for projects designed to help fishing communities, sustain the nation’s fisheries and expand the viability of its working waterfronts.

“We don’t know what the amount is (for distribution) because we don’t have the fiscal year 2019 budget yet,” said Susan Olsen, the Saltonstall-Kennedy manager at NOAA’s Gloucester-based Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. “We’re moving forward as if we already have funding.”

Olsen said she didn’t have any real sense of whether this year’s funding pool will be greater or less than the $10 million the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration distributed last year.

“I’m hoping it will be level-funded,” Olsen said.

The Saltonstall-Kennedy program administrators said they are seeking applications that relate to one of three priorities: promotion, development and marketing; marine aquaculture; and support for science that maximizes fishing opportunities and employment while also sustaining marine resources.

“We encourage applicants from the fishing community and applications that involve fishing community cooperation and participation,” NOAA said in its online primer on the grants program. “We will consider the extent of fishing community involvement when evaluating the potential benefit of funding a proposal.”

Applicants may request a minimum of $25,000 for their projects, but no more than $300,000.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Fisheries grant program to top $10 million

July 28, 2016 — NOAA Fisheries estimates it will provide $10 million in funding for the 2017 Saltonstall-Kennedy grant program for projects concentrating on sustainable fisheries and coastal fishing communities, the federal fisheries regulator announced.

The $10 million is based on initial estimates of seafood import tariff revenues and could fluctuate higher or lower, according to Susan Olsen, who coordinates the Saltonstall-Kennedy program within NOAA’s Gloucester-based Greater Atlantic Region.

“It has the opportunity to grow or shrink, but based on our estimates, the $10 million figure was reasonable,” Olsen said.

In 2016, NOAA Fisheries recommended $11 million in funding for 50 projects nationally, which was about $1 million more than the agency initially said it expected to distribute as part of the grants program. Neither of the two applicants from Cape Ann — Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute and the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund — made the final cut for funding in 2016.

This year’s application process includes changes from years past that NOAA Fisheries said “will help applicants sharpen their submissions for greater success.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times