NOAA Fisheries plans to provide funding for inshore trawl surveys under the Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program.
WASHINGTON — June 12, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA:
Starting in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015, NOAA Fisheries plans to provide funding for inshore trawl surveys under the Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (NEAMAP)*. These inshore surveys sample juvenile and adult fishes from Maine to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and provide data critical for the region's stock assessments.
These surveys conducted in collaboration with industry, states, and universities complement data collected by NOAA and together provide full inshore/offshore sampling coast-wide. A reliable funding source will ensure a long time series of data which is essential for robust stock assessments.
The NEAMAP is a combination of three inshore trawl surveys:
– Maine-New Hampshire inshore survey
– Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries inshore survey
– Southern-New England Mid-Atlantic inshore survey conducted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Fisheries.
This new funding model will cover the Southern-New England Mid-Atlantic portion of the survey which is currently funded from the Mid-Atlantic Research Set Aside (RSA) and the Maine-New Hampshire inshore bottom trawl survey which is currently partially funded through the cooperative research funding line.
This new funding model will free up Research Set-Aside and cooperative research funding for other priority projects in the region.
*Note: Funding decisions ultimately depend on the outcome of final FY15 Congressional Appropriations.