May 3, 2024 — With budget season well underway on Capitol Hill, a coalition of environmental groups renewed calls for lawmakers to commit a significant chunk of funding to federal programs aimed at marine wildlife conservation.
Writing in a letter last week to leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees, the 80 or so conservation advocates led by the Center for Biological Diversity sounded the alarm about the Protected Resources Science and Management Program, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.
The protected resources subprogram, which is responsible for overseeing the welfare of marine mammals such as whales and dolphins as well as sea turtles and other species, has been “underfunded for decades and desperately needs more funding to protect, conserve and recover our nation’s imperiled marine species,” the groups wrote.
In its 2025 budget request, NOAA asked Congress for roughly $266 million for its Protected Resources Science and Management Program, which it said aims to “assess, understand and conserve the health of protected species, the ecosystems that sustain them and the communities that value and depend on them.”
Read the full story at Courthouse News Service