New Wave Media

November 27, 2024

US Funds New Technology for Fisheries Research

Source: NOAA

Source: NOAA

The US government has announced a $147.5 million Inflation Reduction Act investment to strengthen NOAA’s science and management capabilities that support climate-ready fisheries.

NOAA Fisheries will use $107.5 million to enhance science and data collection to account for the effects of climate change and improve fish and marine mammal stock assessments.

The funding will modernize and transform the agency’s technological capabilities and broaden the scope of observations that NOAA collects using innovative methods like uncrewed systems, remote sensing and environmental DNA collection.

Another $40 million will fund the Climate, Ecosystems, and Fisheries Initiative to provide resource managers and fishing communities with the information they need to build resilience and adapt to changing marine ecosystems. This initiative will establish an operational decision-support system to track changes in marine ecosystems, and assess risks to valuable resources and the communities who depend on them. It will also identify options for reducing risks and bolstering resilience in the face of changing climate and ocean conditions.

To implement the initiative, NOAA will allocate $20 million to NOAA Fisheries and $4 million to NOAA’s National Ocean Service to enhance regional capacity to forecast future ecosystem conditions, evaluate risks and provide actionable advice for climate-informed resource management and community adaptation.

To support these efforts, an additional $16 million will go to NOAA Research to develop the long-term projections of ocean and Great Lakes conditions needed to evaluate risks and identify strategies for adaptation and resilience.

“The climate crisis means warming oceans, rising sea levels, diminishing sea ice and increasing acidification — all profoundly impacting coastal ecosystems and every aspect of NOAA's mission,” said Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Janet Coit. “We have an unprecedented opportunity to advance our scientific understanding of our rapidly changing ocean and deliver critical information to communities that depend on healthy marine ecosystems.”

The funding is part of the $3.3 billion in Inflation Reduction Act investments that NOAA first announced in June 2023.

MTR’s 'Hydrographic' edition focuses on the tools and techniques being deployed to extract and use information from the world’s waterways.
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