The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is soliciting proposals to promote the development and adoption of innovative gear technologies that reduce the risk of lethal or sub-lethal fishing gear entanglement for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW) in fixed gear fisheries throughout New England.
Donor Name: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/22/2023
Size of the Grant: $250,000 and $2,000,000
Grant Duration: 3 years
Details:
The Fisheries Innovation Fund (FIF): New England Gear Innovation Fund program is assessing the funding need of the region and will award grants towards that need, providing up to $18 million in grants through this solicitation, pending availability of funding.
The FIF: New England Gear Innovation Fund program will provide support for New England fisheries such as the lobster, Jonah crab, and other fixed gear fisheries to voluntarily develop and test innovative gear solutions that will allow these fisheries and the NARW to sustainably coexist.
The New England Gear Innovation Fund program is a partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who provided funding through money appropriated by Congress.
Priorities
The New England Gear Innovation Fund program has the following priorities:
- Research to develop, test, or deploy innovative gear technologies that meet fishery participants’ needs in a viable and economically feasible way and that reduce entanglement risk posed by vertical lines on lobster traps and other fixed gear fisheries. Priority issues to address include:
- Developing accurate, open source, interoperable, and cost-efficient real-time geolocation tools for innovative gear, including allowing real time knowledge of gear location by fixed gear fishermen and maritime users. Tools should take into account telecommunication capabilities on a variety of fishing vessels across the geographic range of the fisheries and focus to the extent possible on using hardware already present on, or required to be on, fishing vessels such as navigation systems or vessel monitoring systems.
- Trialing and adoption of innovative gear including geolocation to improve the gear’s usability and safety in real world fishing situations. These trials may seek to match realistic gear densities and address how innovative gears and geolocation of such gears function in a variety of weather conditions, tidal conditions, depths, and evaluate reliability of innovative gear over long term use. As needs may differ between and within different states and segments of fisheries, applicants should consider testing across this diversity spectrum.
- Developing and scaling innovative fishing gear that removes persistent vertical lines from the water column and allows reliable, efficient, and safe retrieval and redeployment of gear in a variety of weather conditions, locations, and boat or crew configurations.
- Conduct outreach with fishermen to encourage participation in the process of developing, testing, and voluntarily adopting innovative gear.
- Conduct outreach on innovative gear developments and lessons learned across the New England region through sharing of best practices, technical documentation, and fishermen targeted materials.
- Convene fisheries participants and stakeholders working on innovative gear, including the grantees of this funding opportunity, or work with participants in some other way, to discuss and share their perceptions of innovative gear technologies and needs from this gear.
- Design or develop curricula or other tools necessary for training the fishery workforce on safe and effective operation of innovative gear under future implementation.
Funding Information
- Grants will likely range between $250,000 and $2,000,000, but applicants seeking grants larger or smaller than that are still encouraged to apply and are eligible. Applicants should design proposals that can be completed in 3 years or less and project periods should start approximately 4 to 6 months after the expected award date in August (early submissions) or November (standard submission deadlines) 2023 to allow for contracting.
Geographic Focus
While projects need not necessarily take place in New England, competitive projects need to demonstrate a substantial likelihood of reducing the risk of fishing gear entanglement and associated lethal and sub-lethal effects on NARW. The distribution of vertical lines, known habitat use of right whales, and record of entanglements shows that among U.S. fisheries, New England fixed gear fisheries pose a significant gear entanglement risk to NARW. Projects will likely be directly tied to New England fixed gear fisheries like lobster and Jonah Crab, or in certain cases mobile gear fisheries that may be impacted by innovative gear like New England groundfish. In cases where engineering, design, or testing of innovative fishing gear is occurring in other regions, those proposals must demonstrate substantial engagement with New England fishing communities.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible and Ineligible Entities
- Eligible applicants include relevant state government agencies, local governments, regional governments, Tribal Governments and Organizations, educational institutions and non-profit 501(c) organizations with expertise in commercial fisheries, gear innovation, and NARW conservation, relevant port authorities, commercial (for-profit) organizations, and individuals including vessels owners and operators or those involved in the maritime industry. Consortiums or partnerships of such groups listed above are also eligible.
- Ineligible applicants include individuals or entities that are not located in the United States. International individuals or entities can be a contributing partner in a consortium but should not be the primary applicant. Federal government entities are also ineligible.
- For-profit applicants: please note that this is a request for grant proposals, not a procurement of goods and services; see the Budget section below for specific cost considerations.
For more information, visit NFWF.
