- Division of Marine Fisheries
This past January, DMF announced a $500,000 grant program to develop, utilize, or promote technologies that enhance the resiliency of the Massachusetts commercial fishing and aquaculture industries to climate change and enhance the environmental monitoring capacity of Massachusetts coastal waters. Funding for the grant program was provided by the Massachusetts Legislature in the FY2019 Supplemental Budget. Of $1.5 million to support the Commonwealth’s agricultural, cranberry growing, and commercial fishing industries (one third each), DMF was identified as the entity to distribute the funds for commercial fisheries in grants of up to $100,000 per recipient, with projects due to be completed before the end of June. These seven exciting projects will have long lasting impacts that enhance Massachusetts’ climate change resiliency into the future. The following applicants received grants:
$15,900 – University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth: Investigating The Effects Of Climate On Fishery Catch Rates Of New England Groundfish
UMass Dartmouth will collaborate with fishermen to develop standardized indices of abundance that account for environmental effects on New England groundfish catch rates and contribute to improved stock assessment, fishery management, and climate resilience.
$16,139 - Massachusetts Shellfish Officers Association, Inc.: The Development of a Remote Rain Gauge Network for Improved State and Municipal Shellfish Management Following Storm and Coastal Flooding Events
With this new network, MSOA will reduce adverse economic impacts to the Commonwealth’s recreational and commercial shellfishing and aquaculture sectors associated with mesoscale rain events.
$85,047 - Center for Coastal Studies, Inc.: Developing capacity to monitor coastal acidification in Massachusetts waters
CCS will build and expand the environmental monitoring capacity of their laboratory to analyze samples for parameters related to coastal acidification. These results will be widely shared with harvesters, aquaculturists, researchers, and the public.
$88,616 - Salem State University: Environmental Monitoring of Massachusetts Coastal Waters
SSU will expand their current year-round sampling program that consists of basic oceanographic measurements and plankton sampling by establishing a series of sampling stations from Rockport out 8 miles to the NEMAC Mussel Farm site. The expanded sampling will provide a profile of environmental conditions in the waters off the Massachusetts coastline.
$95,763 - Barnstable County Cape Cod Cooperative Extension Marine Program: Evaluating the Potential Impacts of Coastal Ocean Acidification and Changing Water Quality on Commercially Important Shellfish Production Areas
Barnstable County CCCEMP plans to establish in situ ocean environmental monitoring stations at 5 locations in around Cape Cod (Wellfleet, Barnstable Harbor, Duxbury Bay, Cotuit Bay, and Pleasant Bay).
$99,050 - Lobster Foundation of Massachusetts: Study Fleet-Monitor-Dissolved Oxygen-Water Quality in Cape Cod Bay
This funding will allow the Lobster Foundation of Massachusetts to establish a water quality monitoring study fleet in Cape Cod Bay. The project will be conducted in collaboration with the commercial lobster industry and will utilize high tech dissolved oxygen monitors and Bluetooth technology.
$99,485 - Fishing Partnership Support Services: Using Broadband VMS+ IoT@Sea to Enhance MA Commercial Fishermen’s Climate Change Resilience, Vessel Performance, and Eco-Responsiveness
Fishing Partnership Support Services will evaluate a new type of NOAA approved broadband vessel monitoring system, VMS+, on five federally permitted, mixed fishery vessels in Massachusetts to evaluate it as a tool for mitigating the impacts of climate change.
By Stephanie Cunningham, Federal Grants Coordinator
