ASMFC Seeks Proposals for Passive Acoustic Monitoring for North Atlantic Right Whales: Proposals Due November 15

October 18, 2024 — The following was released by Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is releasing a request for proposals (RFP) with the intent to fund projects that will explore the use of bottom-mounted archival passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) to better understand North Atlantic right whale spatiotemporal distribution. Specifically, the RFP seeks to identify a qualified vendor to purchase, assemble, deploy, maintain, process and share the resulting data, and communicate the information from six bottom-mounted archival PAM devices off the coasts of New York and New Jersey. This funding is for a one-year study period. The Commission may extend and/or add funding to the solicitation if further Congressional appropriations become available.

The purpose of this project is to generate data on the North Atlantic right whale vocal behavior and spatiotemporal distribution to inform future management actions. This project is part of a larger effort by the states and federal government to improve data inputs and reduce uncertainty in the existing right whale decision support tool. With a better understanding of risk along the East Coast, future fisheries management actions, aimed to reduce entanglements and minimize regulatory impacts to pot/trap fisheries, may be possible.

Researchers at US academic institutions, research laboratories, for-profit companies/firms, nonprofits, and state agencies are all eligible. Proposals involving multiple investigators are welcome. Proposals from foreign entities or US federal government agencies, including Regional Fishery Management Councils, are not eligible to receive funding through this solicitation. Federal staff may be collaborators on proposed projects, as long as they are not compensated for their contribution to the project.

Applicants must submit proposals via email to Alexander Law, Legislative Program Coordinator, atalaw@asmfc.org by 11:59 PM EST on November 15, 2024. Proposal PDFs should be searchable and should be created by direct conversion and should not be scanned. For identification purposes, all electronic files must be named using the proposer/entity name in the title of the document. The proposal should include all information listed in the Required Elements section. Any incomplete proposal may be subject to disqualification from consideration. Proposal format must be in a format with at least 12-point font, single spaced with 1-inch page margins. Submissions should be brief as this will assist reviewers and program staff in dealing effectively with proposals. The RFP is available athttps://asmfc.org/files/RFPs/PassiveAcousticMonitoringRFP1_Oct2024.pdf.

For more information, please contact Alexander Law, Legislative Program Coordinator, at alaw@asmfc.org.