Science

July 9, 2013 — Scuba divers have discovered a primeval underwater forest off the coast of Alabama.

The Bald Cypress forest was buried under ocean sediments, protected in an oxygen-free environment for more than 50,000 years, but was likely uncovered by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Ben Raines, one of the first divers to explore the underwater forest and the executive director of the nonprofit Weeks Bay Foundation, which researches estuaries.

The forest contains trees so well-preserved that when they are cut, they still smell like fresh Cypress sap, Raines said.

The stumps of the Cypress trees span an area of at least 0.5 square miles (0.8 kilometers), several miles from the coast of Mobile, Ala., and sit about 60 feet (18 meters) below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

Despite its discovery only recently, the underwater landscape has just a few years to be explored, before wood-burrowing marine animals destroy the ancient forest.

Read the full story at the Huffington Post

 

 

July 9, 2013 — A 10-year study of Chesapeake Bay fishes by researchers at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science provides the first quantitative evidence on a bay-wide scale that low-oxygen “dead zones” are impacting the distribution and abundance of “demersal” fishes — those that live and feed near the Bay bottom.

The affected species — which include Atlantic croaker, white perch, spot, striped bass, and summer flounder—are a key part of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and support important commercial and recreational fisheries.

The study, published in a recent issue of Marine Ecology Progress Series, was authored by Andre Buchheister, a Ph.D. student in William & Mary’s School of Marine Science at VIMS, along with VIMS colleagues Chris Bonzek, Jim Gartland, and Dr. Rob Latour.

All four authors are involved in VIMS’ Chesapeake Bay Multi-Species Monitoring and Assessment Program (ChesMMAP), an ongoing effort to track and understand interactions between and among fishes and other marine life within the Bay ecosystem.

Buchheister says “This is the first study to document that chronically low levels of dissolved oxygen in Chesapeake Bay can reduce the number and catch rates of demersal fish species on a large scale.” He notes that other studies have looked at the effects of low oxygen on fishes within the water column and on demersal fishes within individual Bay tributaries.

Low-oxygen conditions—what scientists call “hypoxia”—form when excessive loads of nitrogen from fertilizers, sewage, and other sources feed algal blooms in coastal waters. When these algae die and sink, they provide a rich food source for bacteria, which in the act of decomposition take up dissolved oxygen from nearby waters.

In Chesapeake Bay, low-oxygen conditions are most pronounced in mid-summer, and in the deep waters of the Bay’s middle reaches. “This appears to displace fish biomass toward the northern and southern edges of the bay’s mainstem channel,” says Buchheister.

Read the full story at the Williamsburg Yorktown Daily 

 

July 9, 2013 — Tensions between fishermen and the scientists and managers that oversee their industry are more than just unpleasant. They actually affect the quality of fishery research and management.

There’s a catch phrase that’s adorned the tailgates of pick-up trucks up and down the New England coast for years:

National Marine Fisheries Service: Destroying Fishermen and Their Communities Since 1976.

Joel Hovanesian claims to be the creator of the once-pervasive bumper sticker. He and long-time fishing compatriot Brian Loftes have other ideas for new bumper stickers, each of them more derogatory than the last.

The two say government fishery science is “garbage in, garbage out” and simply doesn’t reflect the abundance of fish they see out on the water.

“We don’t trust NOAA”

Some of Loftes’ and Hovanesian’s complaints focus on specific methods used by government researchers to assess the health of fish populations. Fishery scientists, on the other hand, say there are good reasons for using those methods, and that differences between fishermen’s experiences and scientists’ data are to be expected. After all, fishermen go where the fish are; scientists spread their effort around in hopes of getting the big picture.

But much of Loftes’ and Hovanesian’s disdain for fishery science stems from a deep mistrust of government and what they see as a conflict of interest – the fact that the scientists producing stock assessments are part of the government agency that sets fishing regulations, the same agency that’s been found guilty of abusing the power to enforce those rules.

To be clear, not all fishermen share Loftes’ and Hovanesian’s attitudes. But a vocal subset has been saying things like this for years.

Recently, it’s caught on with politicians, as well. In May, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed a lawsuit against NOAA claiming that recent cuts in cod catch limits are overly harsh and based on “flawed science.” And several Massachusetts lawmakers have called for faster, more accurate stock assessments.

Listen to the audio and read the full story at WCAI

 

July 1, 2013 — Scientists believe they have evidence global warming may hold a clue in the mystery of why, despite 20 years of increasingly harsh fishery regulations, cod hasn't rebounded.

The species of zooplankton that is one of the preferred foods of larval cod simply can't take the heat, according to a recent report by National Marine Fisheries Service scientists at Narragansett Laboratory in Rhode Island and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole and published in the journal Progress in Oceanography.

Less food could mean fewer cod surviving to adulthood when they can be caught by local fishermen.

For decades, the prevailing wisdom in fishery management was that fish stocks such as cod, haddock and flounder would reproduce in numbers sufficient to rebuild decimated populations if fishermen could simply be kept from catching too many.

While that worked well for some species like haddock, others, including cod, lagged. After nearly 20 years of intense fishery management, the Georges Bank cod stock is just 8 percent of what is considered a healthy population size.

In the summer of 2012, coastal waters in the Northeast set a new record for the warmest water temperature in 128 years of recorded data. NMSF scientist Kevin Friedland also noticed that the heat wasn't evenly distributed. Some spots were seeing big increases while others got colder or stayed the same. The variation was likely due to the influence of cold, fresh water from Arctic melt, flowing from the north in what is known as the Labrador Current, he said.

"The temperature record would indicate there were some unusual, uneven patterns of heating and cooling," Friedland said. Coincidental with that, scientists noticed that plankton surveys showed a decline in some key zooplankton species in areas where the water had warmed. That matched up with portions of the ocean where cod, too, were not doing very well.

That opened up the possibility that both Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine cod stocks were suffering from environmental problems Friedland said.

Scientist refer to an area of water with similar temperatures as a thermal habitat. Most cold-blooded fish species prefer a water temperature between 41 and 59 degrees Fahrenheit for growth and activity levels, and will move to more hospitable temperatures if necessary. A 2009 study showed that about half of 36 species studied in the Northwest Atlantic have been shifting to cooler waters.

Friedland and his fellow researchers found the number of thermal habitats with those ideal temperatures declined during the study period from 1982 to 2011. At the same time, the number of warm-water thermal habitats with temperatures between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit increased.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

 

July 1, 2013 — Recently, the New York Times Green Blog described how two major Southern California fisheries (kelp and barred sand bass) had collapsed “right under the noses of management agencies.” The management and oversight of these fish stocks had not changed since 1959. This news is perhaps not surprising as there are more examples of marine species collapses off our coastline than possible to list in this blog post.

Though the media tends to focus on the effects of pollution, climate change, or overfishing, outdated systems of management are actually the main cause of the collapse in many cases.

The ups and downs of abalone stocks off of the coast of Southern California provide an example of how poor fishery management resulted in the collapse of a population. Only a few years after the Palos Verdes Peninsula abalone stocks re-opened for commercial fishing in 1943, the stocks began to decline again, as more than 9.3 million pink abalone were collected during the peak decade of the fishery (Taniguchi 2013).

These waters are home to one of the largest kelp forests in the Pacific, and this giant kelp (Macrocystis Pyrifera) is the main food source for abalone, sea urchins, and many other fish and marine mammals. Because of a spike in population growth after World War II, a greater amount of sewage was discharged into the water, leading to the deterioration of kelp forests. This pollution, combined with a warmer water temperature because of the 1957 El Niño event, rendered the kelp forests practically extinct, which meant to loss of abalones’ main food source.

Therefore, because of a lack of food, the abalone either did not reproduce or had badly weakened shells and stunted growth. Even after the kelp gradually grew back and abalone populations increased because of stricter regulations, poaching became a huge problem. Because abalones are found in predictable, accessible locations, and because they have a high unit value, the value of individual animals outweighed any risks or penalties for poaching. Enforcement of the laws was minimal because of California’s small environmental budget—there were only five wardens responsible for monitoring “hunting, fishing, exotic animals, [and] pollution events” for the entire inland Los Angeles County (Tegner 1993).

Read the full story at Scientific American

 

May 31, 2013 — To understand the ocean we need to first explore it. You can't begin to understand the ocean if you don't even know what's "out there". The issue with the oceans is that they're vast (they cover more than 70 percent of the earth's surface), they're deep (average depth is about 2½ miles), they're dark (sunlight and its warmth only reach skin deep), the pressure is intense (1,500 atmospheres at greatest ocean depth), and for good measure they are incredibly dynamic (waves, swell, currents, etc). Indeed each of these things represents a challenge to exploration, but they are not insurmountable problems.

We have used everything from snorkels and scuba to submarines and sophisticated robots to slowly but steadily reveal the deepest darkest secrets of Neptune's realm. New imaging systems, sensors and powerful data processing and display techniques promise to deliver a view of the world beneath the sea with unprecedented accuracy and clarity. In my opinion, Jim's solo dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in Deep Sea Challenger wasn't a success just because of that one triumphant instance in time. It continues to be a success because it proves that no part of the global ocean is beyond our reach. We are truly at the threshold of an entirely new era of ocean exploration.

To date we've explored less than 5 percent of the world beneath the waves. There are precious few research vessels and funding for ocean exploration and science is becoming increasingly difficult to procure. It's unfortunate because in that 5 percent of the ocean we have explored we find the world's greatest mountain range (the 50,000 mile long Mid-Ocean Ridge), thousands of mountain peaks higher than those of the Alps, thousands of valleys many times deeper, wider, and longer than the Grand Canyon, undersea rivers, undersea lakes, and even undersea waterfalls (the greatest waterfall on earth is at the bottom of the Atlantic between Iceland and Greenland). In some of the most hostile parts of the sea, where we were sure we would find no life at all, we find robust communities of life that in some cases rival the tropical rainforests in diversity and density.

Watch the video and read the full story at the Huffington Post

 

 

June 20, 2013 — Changing ocean water temperatures and circulation patterns have profoundly affected key Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf zooplankton species in recent decades, and may be influencing the recovery of Atlantic cod and other fish stocks in the region.

NOAA researcher Kevin Friedland and colleagues looked at the distribution and abundance of important zooplankton species, sea surface water temperatures, and cod abundance. They found that zooplankton species critical for the survival of Atlantic cod larvae have declined in abundance in the same areas where Atlantic cod stocks have struggled to rebuild after an extended period of overfishing. 

“Temperature is a governing factor in the growth, reproduction and distribution of marine organisms. Shifting temperature distributions, whether triggered by natural or human factors, can cause the redistribution of plankton communities on regional and basin-wide scales,” said Friedland, lead author on the study and a scientist at NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). 

The change in thermal habitats has had biological consequences on multiple levels in the food chain, according to the study in press in the journal Progress in Oceanography (available online).

“The geographic and depth distributions of fish and shellfish populations can also change based on their preferred thermal habitats. Future changes in thermal conditions are expected to lead to further shifts in the distributional ranges of species by, in many cases, the loss and gain of local populations,” said Friedland.

Read the full press release from NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center

June 27, 2013 — NOAA Fisheries’ scientific stock assessments are critical to modern fisheries management. Using data gathered from commercial and recreational fishermen and our own on-the-water scientific observations, a stock assessment describes the past and current status of a fish population or stock, answers questions about the size of the stock, and makes predictions about how a fishery will respond to current and future management measures.

Watch the video, "The ABCs of Stock Assessments," from NOAA

 

June 27, 2013 — Five fisheries scientists based in Woods Hole came to the city Wednesday and spelled out the details of a new yellowtail flounder survey to be performed from commercial fishing vessels in August.

The effort is designed to bring commercial fishermen into the process of conducting surveys, and to give the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's survey ship Bigelow something to compare to.

The NOAA is looking for two boats big enough to berth five scientists and five crew members, who will work 24-hour days in shifts for 12 days. They will survey Closed Area 2 on Georges Bank, just west of the Hague line, where yellowtail populations are typically concentrated.

The need for large boats with so many berths and the capacity to carry enough fuel and provisions may exclude many yellowtail fishermen, who typically operate smaller boats. So NOAA wants to include yellowtail fishermen as part of the scientific team or even as co-captain or first mate on the large boat.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Read NOAA's release and application for participation in the flatfish survey

 

June 27, 2013 — The following funding opportunity was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Federal Agency Name(s): National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce

Funding Opportunity Title: 2014/2015 Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside Program

Announcement Type: Initial

Funding Opportunity Number: NOAA-NMFS-NEFSC-2014-2003767

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 11.454, Unallied Management Projects

Dates: Complete proposals/applications must be received on or before 5 p.m. EDT on

July 22, 2013. Proposals received after the established deadline will be rejected and returned to the sender without consideration. For proposals submitted through Grants.gov, a date and time receipt indication will be the basis of determining timeliness. The proposal must be validated by Grants.gov in order to be considered timely. PLEASE NOTE: It may take Grants.gov up to two (2) business days to validate or reject the application. Please keep this in mind in developing your submission timeline.

For those not having access to the Internet, one signed original and two hard copy applications must be postmarked or received by the established due date for the program at the following address: Cheryl A. Corbett, NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543, ATTN: Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside Program. Use of U.S. mail or another delivery service must be documented with a receipt. (Note that late-arriving hard copy proposals provided to a delivery service on or before 5:00 p.m. on the closing date for applications will be accepted for review if the applicant can document that the proposal was provided to the guaranteed delivery service by the specified closing date and time and if the proposal is received by Northeast Fisheries Science Center no later than 5 p.m., two business days following the closing date.)

No facsimile or electronic mail proposals will be accepted. January 1, 2014 should be used as the proposed start date on proposals, unless otherwise directed by the Program Officer.

Funding Opportunity Description: NMFS, with assistance from the New England Fishery Management Council (Council), is soliciting proposals for 2014 and 2015 that address Atlantic Herring RSA research priorities. Proceeds from the sale of research quota are used to pay for research costs and to compensate fishing vessel owners that harvest RSA quota. No Federal funds are provided for research under this notification. Rather, proceeds generated from the sale of RSA quota will be used to fund research activities and/or harvest set-aside quota.

Projects funded under the Atlantic Herring RSA Program must enhance the knowledge of

Atlantic herring fishery resources or contribute to the body of information on which Council management decisions are made. Priority will be given to proposals that investigate research priorities identified by the Council, which are detailed under the Program Priorities section of this announcement.

FULL ANNOUNCEMENT TEXT

I. Funding Opportunity Description A. Program Objective

The Atlantic Herring RSA Program was created by the Council as a vehicle to fund research projects that address research priorities concerning the Atlantic herring fishery through the sale of research quota. Amendment 1 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan (FMP) established a procedure through which 0 to 3 percent of the TAL for each herring management area (1A, 1B, 2, 3) may be set-aside to fund research. Projects funded through the RSA program must enhance understanding of the herring fishery resource or contribute to the body of information on which management decisions are made.

B. Program Priorities

Priority shall be given to funding research proposals in the following areas identified as research priorities by the Council for the 2014/2015 fishing years. The Council considers the following list to be a two-tier list of priorities, with items 1, and 2representing those which the Council deems the most important at this time. The sequence of priorities within the tiers is not otherwise intended to indicate preference.

2014-2015 Atlantic Herring RSA Program Research Priorities

Top-tier research priorities

1. River Herring Bycatch Avoidance – Develop and/or demonstrate methods that will enable river herring bycatch avoidance in the Atlantic herring fishery.

2. Portside Sampling- Develop and/or demonstrate a portside sampling program that will comprehensively characterize catch landed by Atlantic herring vessels

Other research priorities

1. Explore Net Sensor Technology Through “Study Fleet” – Investigate applications of passive monitoring systems for mid-water trawl, small-mesh bottom trawl, and purse seine vessels in an attempt to identify conditions leading to higher rates of bycatch, improve the quality and timeliness of reporting, and, potentially help measure the extent of slippage.

2. Explore Video Monitoring Through a Pilot Program – Investigate the feasibility of electronic video monitoring in the Atlantic herring fishery as a means to document vessel fishing and catch processing operations.

C. ProgramAuthority

Statutory authority for this program is provided under 303(b)(11), 402(e), and 404(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, 16 U.S.C.1853(b)(11), 16 U.S.C. 1881a(e), and 16 U.S.C. 1881(c), respectively. Statutory authority for entering into cooperative agreements and other financial agreements with non-profit organizations is found at 15 U.S.C. 1540.

II. Award Information
A. FundingAvailability

No Federal funds are provided for research under this notification. Funds generated from RSA landings shall be used to cover the cost of the research activities, including vessel costs, and to compensate vessel owners for expenses incurred during the harvest of the set-aside quota. For example, the funds may be used to pay for gear modifications, monitoring equipment, additional provisions (e.g., fuel, ice, food for scientists), or the salaries of research personnel. The Federal Government is not liable for any costs incurred by the researcher or vessel owner should the sale of RSA quota not fully reimburse the researcher or vessel owner for his/her expenses.

As part of the 2013-2015 Atlantic herring specifications, the Council has recommended the following annual RSA quotas for 2014 and 2015: Area 1A – 936 mt; Area 1B – 138 mt; Area 2 – 900 mt; and Area 3 – 1260 mt. NMFS will consider this recommendation through the specification rulemaking process, which is expected to conclude in the latter part of 2013. If RSA quotas are not implemented, which is unlikely, then RSA quota awards will not be made under this solicitation. This funding opportunity was published prior to the implementation of RSA quotas to ensure sufficient time to conduct this competition before the start of the 2014 fishing year (January 1, 2014) and to avoid lost opportunity to harvest RSA quota and begin research activities.

B. Project/Award Period

The research project may encompass all or part of the 2014 and/or 2015 fishing years. All RSA quota must be caught by the end of the fishing year from which the RSA quota was derived. For example, 2014 RSA quota must be harvested by December 31, 2014. Proposals requesting RSA harvest prior to or after the 2014 and 2015 fishing years will not be considered.

C. Type of Funding Instrument

Proposals selected for funding will be funded through a grant or cooperative agreement depending upon the amount of collaboration, participation, or involvement by NOAA in the conduct of the research project. Examples of substantial involvement may include but are not limited to involvement and/or collaboration between NOAA scientists and a recipient scientist in the conduct of the research project. Funding for contractual arrangements for services or products for delivery to NOAA is not available under this notice.

III. Eligibility Information A. EligibleApplicants

1. Eligible applicants include institutions of higher education, hospitals, other nonprofits, commercial organizations, individuals, and state, local, and Native American tribal governments. Federal agencies and institutions are not eligible to receive Federal assistance under this notice. Additionally, employees of any Federal agency or Regional Fishery Management Council are ineligible to submit an application under this program. However, Council members who are not Federal employees may submit an application.

2. DOC/NOAA supports cultural and gender diversity and encourages women and minority individuals and groups to submit applications to the RSA program. In addition, DOC/NOAA is strongly committed to broadening the participation of historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions, tribal colleges and universities, and institutions that work in underserved areas. DOC/NOAA encourages proposals involving any of the above institutions.

3. DOC/NOAA encourages applications from members of the fishing community and applications that involve fishing community cooperation and participation.

B. Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement None required.

C. Other Criteria that Affect Eligibility

1. Research proposals for the 2014/2015 Atlantic Herring RSA Program must be received within the application submission period to be eligible for consideration.

2. Proposals for different and distinct projects must be submitted separately in accordance with the format requirements in Section IV.B. Multiple stand-alone projects in the same proposal are not acceptable.

IV. Application and Submission Information
A. Address to Request Application Package

Application information is available at http://www.grants.gov. Electronic copies of the Standard Forms for submission of research proposals may be found on the Internet in a PDF (Portable Document Format) version at http://www.ago.noaa.gov/acquisition/standard.html. Applicants without Internet access can contact Cheryl A. Corbett, NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543, or by phone at 508-495-2070, or fax at 508-495-2004, or via e-mail at cheryl.corbett@noaa.gov. To apply for this NOAA federal funding opportunity, please go to http://www.grants.gov, and use the

following funding opportunity number: NMFS-NEFSC-2013-2003767. B. Content and Form of Application

Should an applicant wish to include a coversheet with his/her proposal, the coversheet should summarize key information already contained with the proposal which includes the program name, date, applicant name, project title, project duration, principal investigator(s), program priorities addressed, , and funds requested broken down by research, compensation, and total value.

Applicants must adhere to the provisions under "Applications" and the six requirements under "Required Elements" by the application deadline. Failure to follow these provisions will result in proposals being returned to the applicant without review.

1. Applications

a. Applications submitted under the 2014/2015 Atlantic Herring RSA Program must include a Standard Form 424 (Application for Federal Assistance), including a detailed budget using Standard Form 424A, (Budget Information–Non-Construction Programs), Standard Form 424B (Assurances–Non-Construction Programs), and Commerce Department Form CD-511 (Certification Regarding Lobbying Activities). These forms are available at http://www.ago.noaa.gov/acquisition/standard.html. They should be submitted through the www.grants.gov website. Applicants submitting hard copies must include one signed original and two signed unbound copies of the application (including supporting information).

b. The Standard Form SF424 must include the estimated monetary value of the entire project, including the cost of compensation fishing and research project costs. This value must be recorded under item 18. Estimated Funding (e)"Other" on the SF424.

c. The Standard Form SF424A must report the total value under "Non- Federal."

d. Applicants must identify the specific research priority or priorities to which they are responding. If the proposal addresses more than one priority, it should list the priority that most closely reflects the objectives of the proposal first. Each application must address only one research investigation. If an application does not fulfill a priority category, it must be clearly stated in the application. Applicants should not assume prior knowledge on the part of NMFS as to the relative merits of the project described in the application.

2. Required Elements

Proposals should be limited to 10 pages, excluding item "e" below. The format may vary, but must include:

a. A narrative project description to include project goals and objectives.

Funding objectives should be simple and understandable, as specific and quantitative as possible, addressing the locations and sample procedures as well as quantitative methods with justifications, and attainable within the time, funding, and resources available.

Proposals should be accomplishment-oriented and identify specific performance measures and how investigators anticipate research results being used in the management arena to enhance the understanding of the fishery resource being studied or contributing to the body of information on which management decisions are made (see Section I. B.). The main body of the narrative should be a clear statement of the work to be undertaken and include: (1) Project design and management, including who is responsible for business and financial management, field work, analysis of data, and reporting, expected products, and participants other than applicant; (2) project duration (starting on the first day of the month and ending on the last day of the month); (3) names and affiliations of the principal investigator(s) (PI); (4) contribution and relevance of the proposed work; and (5) a summary of the existing state of knowledge related to the project;

b. A detailed budget based solely on monetary needs, which includes funds necessary to execute the research plan and funds necessary to compensate vessel owners harvesting set-aside quota. Upon project selection, NMFS will negotiate with successful applicants on the specific RSA quota award. Priority will be given primarily to the higher technically ranked proposal, although additional factors such as individual project needs and cost effectiveness may be considered during negotiations. NMFS will establish a common Atlantic herring price estimate, based on the best and most recent data available, to determine the amount of set-aside necessary to cover research and compensation fishing expenses. The budget must include a breakdown of research costs including labor, vessel contracts, permits, equipment, supplies, and overhead, as applicable. The proposal must state how the proceeds from the sale of compensation fishing activities, including those derived from incidental catch, will be divided between the vessel and the applicant.
Proposals must provide a description of the safeguards that will be used to ensure that the set-aside quota award will not be exceeded;

In addition to requesting set-aside quota to generate funds, applicants should request set-aside quota for research purposes where applicable. For example, if a research plan entails landing fish for research purposes; such fish should be included in the overall set-aside request. If an applicant chooses to request set-aside quota strictly for research purposes it should be clearly stated in the application.

c. A list of any Federal regulations that the applicant needs to have waived and a brief justification for such a waiver. Under previous Atlantic Herring RSA programs, and consistent with the Scallop, Monkfish, and Mid-Atlantic RSA programs, grant recipients requested and received exemptions from Federal quota closures and possession limits to facilitate compensation fishing. However, applicants should be aware that such requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and are not guaranteed to be approved;

d. Each proposal must identify the activities for the vessels participating in the project, including research and compensation fishing activities. All vessel(s) selected by the applicant to participate in the study should be listed in the proposal, if possible;

e. Supporting documents, including resumes, letters of intent for vessels to participate in research activities, coordination with state fisheries agencies, and any relevant contracts;

f. As part of this application process, questions from The Environmental Compliance Questionnaire for NOAA Federal Financial Assistance Applicants, OMB Approval Number 0648-0538, must be answered and submitted with the application. These questions include: A1-A3, A11, A12, B1, C1, D1-D3, E1, E4, F1-3, F10-F13, H1-H24, H26, H27-31. This form is located at http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/grants.html. Failure to complete all of the indicated questions will result in the application being considered incomplete.

C. Submission Dates and Times

Complete proposals/applications must be received on or before 5 p.m. EDT on July 22, 2013. Proposals received after the established deadline will be rejected and returned to the sender without consideration. For proposals submitted through Grants.gov, a date and time receipt indication will be the basis of determining timeliness. The proposal must be validated by Grants.gov in order to be considered timely. PLEASE NOTE: It may take Grants.gov up to two (2) business days to validate or reject the application. Please keep this in mind in developing your submission timeline.

For those not having access to the Internet, one signed original and two hard copy applications must be postmarked or received by the established due date for the program at the following address: Cheryl A. Corbett, NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543, ATTN: Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside Program. Use of U.S. mail or another delivery service must be documented with a receipt. (Note that late-arriving hard copy proposals provided to a delivery service on or before 5:00 p.m. on the closing date for applications will be accepted for review if the applicant can document that the proposal was provided to the guaranteed delivery service by the specified closing date and time and if the proposal is received by Northeast Fisheries Science Center no later than 5 p.m., two business days following the closing date.)

No facsimile or electronic mail proposals will be accepted. D. Intergovernmental Review

Applicants will need to determine if their state participates in the intergovernmental review process. This information can be found at the following website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants_spoc. This information will assist applicants in providing either a Yes or No response to Item 16 of the Application Form, SF-424, entitled. "Application for Federal Assistance."

E. Funding Restrictions

1. DOC Pre-Award Notification Requirements for Grants and Cooperative Agreement are set forth in the Federal Register notice of December 17, 2012 (77 FR 74634) and are applicable to this solicitation. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR- 2012-12-17/pdf/2012-30228.pdf

2. The RSA harvest time frame must fall within the year in which the set aside was allocated, meaning 2014RSA quota must be harvested by December 31, 2014, and 2015 RSA quota must be harvested by December 31, 2015. There may be times when compensation (in terms of the timing of RSA harvest) is not concurrent with the timing of the research.

3. No more than 50 percent of the requested RSA quota may be harvested prior to the onset of the study.

4. Projects may not have more than 50 vessels authorized to conduct compensation fishing at any given time, unless sufficient rationale can demonstrate that more than 50 vessels are needed. All RSA quota that is landed for sale or research must be reported to NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) per the Interactive Voice Response system instructions provided by NMFS. In addition, principal investigators and project coordinators should be aware that it may take NMFS up to 4 weeks to process requests to revise the list of vessels that are authorized to conduct compensation fishing.

5. The Federal Government shall not be liable for any costs incurred in the conduct of the project. Any additional funds, generated through the sale of the fish harvested under the research quota, above the cost of the research activities, shall be retained by the vessel owner as compensation for use of his/her vessel.

F. Other Submission Requirements

1. NOAA employees (whether full-time, part-time, or intermittent) are not permitted to assist in the preparation of an application, except that staff may provide information on program goals, funding priorities, application procedures, and completion of application forms. Since this is a competitive program, NMFS and NOAA employees will not provide assistance in conceptualizing, developing, or structuring proposals, or write letters of support for an application. However, the Council or NMFS contact person may provide assistance to researchers who are seeking vessels to participate in the collection of set-aside species or directly in research projects. NMFS, in consultation with the Council, may decide to hold a meeting with the public to discuss general topics concerning past RSA program accomplishments and ways to enhance communications on funding priorities and associated potential study methods. Such meetings will be publicized by NMFS through a Federal Register notice, and through the public mailing list maintained by the Council office, and through NOAA Cooperative Research website: http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/coopresearch/.

2. The Council staff will bear the primary responsibility for the evaluation of impacts associated with the compensation fishing proposed. However, applications that propose research and/or compensation fishing activities exceeding the scope of analysis provided by the Council staff in the Council's specification packages may require the applicant to submit all information necessary to ensure compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act.

3. PermitsandApprovals

a. Vessels participating in the Atlantic Herring RSA Program must obtain the appropriate vessel documentation consistent with experimental fishing regulations at 50 CFR 600.745 and 50 CFR 648.12. Vessels conducting certain types of research activities that require relief from fishery regulations may be required to obtain an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) or other permit. EFP application guidance is available from the Sustainable Fisheries Division, Northeast Regional Office.

Under previous Atlantic Herring RSA programs, and consistent with the Scallop, Monkfish, and Mid-Atlantic RSA programs, grant recipients requested and received exemptions from Federal quota closures and possession limits to facilitate compensation fishing. However, applicants should be aware that such requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and are not guaranteed to be approved. If an exemption from Federal regulations is proposed, a list of the specific regulations to be exempted and a brief justification for each regulation to be exempted must be included. Should an applicant submit a request for an EFP to NMFS, the completed application should be received by NMFS at least 60 days before the requested start date of the proposed research.

Grant recipients must obtain compensation fishing permits from NMFS prior to initiating compensation fishing if compensation fishing activities will conflict with Federal regulations.

d. Projects may not have more than 50 vessels authorized to conduct compensation fishing at any given time, unless sufficient rationale can demonstrate that more than 50 vessels are needed. All RSA quota that is landed for sale or research must be reported to NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) per the Interactive Voice Response system instructions provided by NMFS. In addition, principal investigators and project coordinators should be aware that it may take NMFS up to 4 weeks to process requests to revise the list of vessels that are authorized to conduct compensation fishing.

e. Proposals must include written acknowledgements of coordination with all cooperators or partners identified in the proposal. Cooperators include fisheries agencies of those states where RSA quota may be landed, or in whose waters the project is expected to conduct operations.

f. It is the responsibility of applicants to obtain any required state authorizations. NOAA cannot guarantee that state agencies will accede to any particular request. Contact information for state fishery management agencies is available from NMFS.

g. Successful projects that are designed to generate data that will ultimately be merged with other governmental databases will be required to submit the data in electronic form in accordance with protocols of the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program (ACCSP) and/or other database formats as may be required by NMFS.

To apply for this NOAA Federal Funding Opportunity, please submit applications through http://www.grants.gov and use the following funding opportunity number NOAA-NMFS-NEFSC-2013-2003767. Applicants who do not have Internet access may submit their application to Cheryl A. Corbett, NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543.

V. Application Review Information A. Evaluation Criteria

The technical reviewers identified by NMFS to evaluate proposals submitted in response to this Federal Funding Opportunity (see Section V.B.) will evaluate proposals by assigning scores up to the maximum indicated for each of the following criteria:

1. Importance and/or relevance and applicability of the proposed project: This criterion ascertains whether there is intrinsic value in the proposed work and/or relevance to NOAA, Federal, regional, state, or local activities. For the 2014/2015 RSA program, provide a clear definition of the problem, need, issue, or hypothesis to be addressed. The proposal should describe its relevance to RSA program priorities and detail how the data gathered from the research will be used to enhance the understanding of the fishery resource or contribute to the body of information on which management decisions are made. If not directly related to priorities listed in this solicitation, provide justification why the proposed project should be considered. (25 points)

2. Technical/scientific merit: This criterion assesses whether the approach is technically sound and/or innovative, if the methods are appropriate, and whether there are clear project goals and objectives. Special emphasis shall be given to proposals that foster and improve cooperative interactions with NMFS. A clear definition of the approach to be used including description of field work, theoretical studies, and laboratory analysis to support the proposed research is important. Activities that take place over a wider versus narrower geographical range, where appropriate, are preferred. (25 points)

3. Overall qualifications of the project: This criterion assesses whether the applicant, and team members, possess the necessary education, experience, training, facilities, and administrative resources to accomplish the project. This includes demonstration of support, cooperation and/or collaboration with the fishing industry, and qualifications/experience of project participants. Where appropriate, unified versus separate stand-alone proposals on related projects involving multiple principal investigators are preferred. For proposals involving multiple vessels harvesting RSA, special attention will be given to specification of safeguards to ensure that the authorized RSA allocation will not be exceeded. (15 points)

4. Project costs: This criterion evaluates the budget to determine if it is realistic and commensurate with the project needs and time frame. Cost-effectiveness of the project is considered. . Economic and budget projections should be quantified, to the extent possible. Where appropriate, use of existing equipment (fishing gear) is preferred versus acquisition of new equipment. (25 points)

5. Outreach and education: This criterion assesses whether the project involves a focused and effective education and outreach strategy regarding NOAA's mission to protect the Nation's natural resources. This includes identification of anticipated benefits, potential users, likelihood of success, and methods of disseminating results. Where appropriate, data generated from the research must be formatted in a manner consistent with NMFS and the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program (ACCSP) databases. A copy of this format is available from NMFS. (10 points)

B. Review and Selection Process

NMFS will solicit written technical evaluations from three or more appropriate private and public sector experts (e.g., industry, academia, or governmental experts) to determine the technical merit of the proposal and to provide a rank score of the project based on the criteria described in the Evaluation Criteria section of this document. Following completion of the technical evaluation, NMFS will convene a management panel including members of the New England Council, management, and/or other technical experts to review and individually critique the scored proposals to enhance NOAA's understanding of the proposals. Initial successful applicants may be required, in consultation with NMFS, to further refine/modify the study methodology as a condition of project approval. No consensus recommendations will be made by the management panel members or technical reviewers.

C. Selection Factors

The merit review ratings shall provide a rank order to the Selecting Official for final funding recommendations. The program officer may first make recommendations to the Selecting Official applying the selection factors below. The Selecting Official shall award in the rank order unless the proposal is justified to be selected out of rank order based upon one or more of the following factors:

1. Availability of funding.

2. Balance/distribution of funds: a. Geographically
b. By type of institutions
c. By type of partners

d. By research areas

e. By project types

3. Whether this project duplicates other projects funded or considered for funding by NOAA or other Federal agencies.

4. Program priorities and policy factors.

5. Applicant's prior award performance.

6. Partnerships and/or participation of targeted groups.

7. Adequacy of information necessary to conduct a National Environmental Policy Act analysis and determination.

Key program policy factors (see 4 above) to be considered by the Selecting Official are: (1) The time of year the research activities are to be conducted; (2) the ability of the proposal to meet the experimental fishery requirements discussed under the Permits and Approvals section of this document; (3) redundancy of research projects; and (4) logistical concerns. Therefore, the highest scoring projects may not necessarily be selected for an award. All approved research must be conducted in accordance with provisions approved by NOAA.

D. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates

Technical and management review of the proposals will occur during the 3 months following the deadline for this announcement. Initiation of approved RSA project activities should begin early in the 2014 or 2015 calendar years, as determined by the proposed statement of work January 1, 2014 should be used as the proposed start date on proposals for 2014 and January 1, 2015 should be used as the proposed start date on proposals for 2015, unless otherwise directed by the Program Officer.

VI. Award Administration Information A. Award Notices

Successful applicants will receive notification that their application has been recommended for selection to the NOAA Grants Management Division. This notification is not an authorization to begin project operations. Official notification of selection, signed by the NOAA Grants Officer, is the authorizing document that allows a project to begin. Notifications will be issued to the Authorizing Official and

the Principal Investigator of the project. Successful and unsuccessful applicants may be notified either electronically or in writing.

To enable the use of a universal identifier and to enhance the quality of information available to the public as required by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, to the extent applicable, any proposal awarded in response to this announcement will be required to use the Central Contractor Registration and Dun and Bradstreet Universal Numbering System and be subject to reporting requirements, as identified in OMB guidance published at 2 CFR Parts 25, 170 (2010).

B. Administrative and National Policy Requirements

The Department of Commerce Pre-Award Notification Requirements

Administrative and national policy requirements for all Department of Commerce awards are contained in the Department of Commerce Pre-Award Notification Requirements for Grants and Cooperative Agreements published in the Federal Register on December 17, 2012 (77 FR 74634). You may obtain a copy of this notice by contacting the agency contact, or by going to the website at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/.

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

If recommended for funding, applicants whose proposed projects may have an environmental impact will be asked to furnish sufficient information to assist NOAA in assessing the potential environmental consequences of supporting the project.

NOAA must analyze the potential environmental impacts, as required by NEPA, for applicant projects or proposals which are seeking NOAA federal funding opportunities. Detailed information on NOAA compliance with NEPA can be found at the following NOAA NEPA Web site: http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/, including our NOAA Administrative Order 216-6 for NEPA, http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/NAO216_6.pdf, NEPA Questionnaire, http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/questionnaire.pdf, and the Council on Environmental Quality implementation regulations, http://ceq.hss.doe.gov/nepa/regs/ceq/toc_ceq.htm. Consequently, as part of an applicant's package, and under their description of their program activities, applicants are required to provide detailed information on the activities to be conducted, locations, sites, species and habitat to be affected, possible construction activities, and any environmental concerns that may exist (e.g., the use and disposal of hazardous or toxic chemicals, introduction of non-indigenous species, impacts to endangered and threatened species, aquaculture projects, and impacts to coral reef systems). NEPA analysis for RSA project compensation fishing activities is normally conducted by the Council through the Council's annual fishery management specifications process for RSA species. If the Council's NEPA analysis is not adequate, applicants may be required to provide additional specific information that will serve as the basis for any required impact analyses.

In addition, applicants may also be requested to assist NOAA in drafting of an environmental assessment, if NOAA determines an assessment is required. Applicants will also be required to cooperate with NOAA in identifying feasible measures to reduce or avoid any identified adverse environmental impacts of their proposal. The failure to do so shall be grounds for not selecting an application. In some cases if additional information is required after an application is selected, funds can be withheld by the Grants Officer under a special award condition requiring the recipient to submit additional environmental compliance information sufficient to enable NOAA to make an assessment on any impacts that a project may have on the environment.

C. Reporting

1. Recipients will be required to submit the following financial and performance (technical) reports. These reports are to be submitted electronically unless the recipient does not have internet access, in which case, hard copy submissions will be accepted. A final Federal Financial Report (SF-425) is required to be submitted to the Grants Officer.

a. The SF425 must report $0.00 on every line item and the comment section should state:

This is an RSA grant award which has no federal dollars associated with it. The final accounting information has been submitted with the final report.

2. Performance or progress reports are required to be submitted to the NOAA Program Officer semi-annually. These reports will be due no later than 30 days following the end of each 6-month period from the start date of an award. The progress reports must include, in addition to an update on the status of the research, documentation of all fish caught by vessels participating in the project, including catch by vessels operating under a Letter of Acknowledgment. The final report is due no later than 90 days after the award expiration. The format of the final report may vary, but the report must contain:

a. A brief summary of the completion report (200-word or less abstract); b. A description of the issue/problem that was addressed;
c. A detailed description of methods of data collection and analyses;

d. A discussion of results and any relevant conclusions presented in a format that is understandable to a non-technical audience. This should include benefits and/or contributions to management decision-making;

e. A list of entities, firms, or organizations that actually performed the work, and a description of how the work was accomplished;

f. A detailed final accounting of all the fish landed, fish sold, and if applicable, the disbursement of any additional funds generated through the sale of set-aside landings above the cost of the research activities; and

g. Data from research projects must be submitted in electronic format with appropriate documentation to NMFS as requested. All raw data collected under grants issued as a result of this solicitation belongs to and shall remain the property of the Federal Government. Grantees will be required to collect, assimilate, maintain and transmit any and all raw data in a format and timeframe that may be specified by NMFS. Partial submissions of the final report will not be accepted. If any of the required elements of the final report are omitted in the original submission, the Federal Program Officer (FPO) shall reject the final report until all requirements have been satisfied.

h. An electronic version of the final report must be submitted in a format suitable for posting on the web, including all tables, figures and maps. Currently the preferred format is PDF (Portable Document Format), although an alternative format may be specified by NMFS or the MAFMC webmaster.

i. Principal Investigators must anticipate being requested to provide an oral presentation to the New England Fishery Management Council on the results of their research.

3. All RSA compensation fishing activities and potentially some research activities must be reported to NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) per the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System instructions provided by NMFS.

VII. Agency Contacts

Questions about the Council and the development of the Atlantic Herring RSA program, should be directed to Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director, New England Fishery Management Council, by phone at 978-465-0492, or fax at 978-465-3116. For grant related questions or questions about RSA program administration contact Cheryl A. Corbett, NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543, or by phone at 508-495-2070, or fax at 508-495-2004, or via e-mail at cheryl.corbett@noaa.gov. Compensation fishing, research permitting, and regulation questions should be directed to Ryan Silva, Cooperative Research Liaison, NMFS, Northeast Regional Office by phone 978-281-9326, or via e-mail at ryan.silva@noaa.gov.

VIII. Other Information

In no event will NOAA or the DOC be responsible for proposal preparation costs if these programs are cancelled because of other agency priorities or if RSA quota is not implemented. Publication of this announcement does not obligate NOAA to award any specific project or to provide special fishing privileges.

E. Freedom of Information Act

DOC regulations implementing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) are found at 15 C.F.R. Part 4, "Public Information," which sets forth rules for DOC to make requested materials, information, and records publically available under the Act. Applications submitted in response to this Federal Funding Opportunity may be subject to requests for release under FOIA. In the event that an application contains information or data that the applicant deems to be confidential commercial information which is exempt from disclosure under FOIA, the applicant should identify and bracket such information or data, marking it as "Privileged, Confidential, Commercial or Financial Information-Limited Use." Based on these markings, the confidentiality of the contents of those pages will be protected to the extent permitted by law.